My dog and her neuroses... · 3:25am Aug 28th, 2014
My dog has an unreasonable fear of storms.
I don't say "irrational" because most dogs are at least somewhat afraid of storms, and dogs aren't capable of what we would call rational thought, so they can't be "irrational" anyway.
But she takes this to an extreme.
Normally, we bring her in at night because it's warmer and drier, and she has fewer things to bark at or whine about.
Unless there's a thunderstorm.
After spending a solid half hour in the basement—despite extra food, treats, playtime, or just sitting in the room with her—performing the dog equivalent of shrieking in abject terror, I had to just take her outside and tie her up out there so anyone else in the house might have some chance at sleeping tonight.
You'd think she'd recognize this sequence of events after the first few times it happened.
My dog has the same issues with thunder or planes, and just as a word of advice, exposing your dog to such prolonged states of anxiety and fear may be potentially very harmful.
I know where you're coming from and that being woken up in the middle of the night by whimpering and a massive lump of fur muscling itself into your bed ain't nice, but it's better than having her heart give out or further the trauma to the point she'll become agressive.
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It's not whimpering, and she stays in the basement so she can't get to the bed. It's barking, howling, and yelping while running around the room downstairs and jumping on everything. She's easily loud enough to keep everyone in the entire house awake.
Thing is, once I put her outside, she's quiet. She'll just lie there and stare at the door or start digging up anything within reach.
I know a veterinarian and asked her about this for you. She said there are ways to train away your dog's fear of storms and short-term measures to ease their anxiety during the training.
She recommended this website. http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/features/dog-storm-phobia Yes, the side ads are annoying. And the way it is broken into three pages is stupid. But she says that the advice itself is sound. I hope this helps!