Puzzled on Pets?

Article Tools

• Email
• Print
• Share

By STEVE DALE

Q: My 2-year old Yorkie is petrified of thunderstorms and firecrackers. She shakes, pants, and paces for hours. Is there anything I can do to help her?

A: Depending on your dog’s fear factor – an anti-anxiety drug may be your best bet. If your dog is able to find a comfortable place (such as a bathtub or corner in the closet) to deal with her fear, you can consider leaving well enough alone. Other ideas include, the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association just published report on the potential calming affects of lavender. Or the Dog Appeasing Pheromone (marketed as D.A.P.) is an diffuser which wafts a calming pheromone into the air (available on the Internet and at pet stores). Some pet owners have found success with an item called the Calming Cap (available on the Internet).

I really appreciate your note and I have so much empathy for these dogs. Imagine being terrified and not understanding why. Desensitization and counter conditioning programs do work for some dogs. But the challenge is that even if you can (through playing cd’s and dvd’s of storms starting off on a very low volume level) desensitize the pup to the sounds of storms, they usually don’t watch the dvd’s (so getting them desensitized to the sight of the storms is a challenge). Even more challenging is acclimating terrified dogs to the smell of storms. Many of these thunderstorm anxious dogs sense an impending storm far more efficiently than the weather service.

If the dog is very anxious, ignoring problem (by assuming your dog will, over time, figure out that nothing bad will happen when it storms) only makes matters worse. And while certainly you do want to comfort your dog during a the thunder bumper – it turns out too much comforting can also make matters worse, communicating to the dog that she has a reason to be frightened.

Your best bet may indeed be anti anxiety medication, such as Xanax (prescribed by your veterinarian).

© 2007 Gadzoo.com