Well it is 3:20am Monday morning and I am up…and no Charley has nothing to do with it. I am sitting here right now, with one big 85 lb lab panting over my left shoulder and another 65 lb chocolate lab laying against my left side and panting. See a big line of thunderstorms decided to roll our way tonight and for some reason, 2 of our dogs are insanely afraid of thunder. They weren’t always afraid, but now they are and it is getting out of control.
Jimmy and I both would have never even known it rained, let alone thundered, if it wasn’t for the dogs jumping in our bed and trying to lay on top of us. So being the great wife that I am, I am downstairs with the dogs until the storm is over. (Jimmy has to work tomorrow, I don’t). So here I am getting drooled all over and trying to calm the dogs. I think the storm is about over…thank goodness, so I can go get back into bed. These dogs are lucky I love them lots! Has anyone out there ever had to deal with this? What did you do?
I asked the vet about it and they wanted to give me major sedatives for them. I am not big on that, because of all of the stairs we have in the house, I don’t want one of them getting hurt, plus they can take up to an hour to work, and with the short lived storms we have, that would be pointless. I have read online, that you are not supposed to coddle them, but then not punish them…so what do you do!? I try to just sit here and let them sit near me, but then I find myself talking nicely to them to make them feel comforted, so who knows. I just hope there aren’t many more storms in our near future…heck it could be worse, they could have some kind of destructive behavior that happens during storms. So maybe we are lucky.
Ok…the thunder seems to have lessened a lot, hopefully I can go back to bed…
I hope you all are getting a good nights sleep!!
10 hours ago
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5 comments:
Poor pups!! You are so sweet to sit with them during the storm. Maddie gets a little nervous during REALLY big loud bursts of thunder, but overall she's ok with it. Whew. Hopefully everyone is well rested today and no more t-storms are on the horizon!
Awww your mothering instincts kick into gear with the doggies! I have no idea if my dogs would freak over that since we don't really get thunder storms.
Thunderstorms are not fun when you have a dog that doesn't like them. My Aussie is super afraid too. A friend recommended Rescue Remedy - I've found it at natural food stores. It is for people but you can use it for pets too. The good thing is that because it is all natural you can give another dose. For my dog it always seems to take the edge off. Sometimes I would have to give two doses - but she would at least settle down a bit. Give it a try. My friends husband uses it before any fishing tournament to take the edge off of his anxiety. Check out their site... www.rescueremedy.com
Our Anna is insanely afraid of Thunderstorms, not to mention Fireworks... Summer is just one big Fright-Fest for her.
What do we do? Well, if we're going to be away we lock her in the task room in the basement. What has she done? Tried to squeeze her body into the tightest space possible, one of which being the wee area between the wall and the heating unit where she got stuck... Fun Times! Another time we left her out while we were away and she tore a 6 foot strip of carpet right out of the family room floor... Good times! Did I mention she drools like Niagra Falls? Recently we've taken to covering our walk-in closet floor with heavy blankets, turn the light on and shut the door. That seems to work out well, as long as we remove the drool soaked blankets before trying to access our clothes.
Should we lose power, well let's just say you don't want to be anywhere near the tri-state area because the freak-out is intense!
Sedatives don't work because by the time they take effect the storm has passed. One thing we've done is turn on the radio and she'll snuggle up next to it to try to get away from the horrors of the booms... If she can SEE the lightning that doesn't work very well.
We haven't tried this yet, but heard if you put something heavy like a shoe in the dryer and turn it on while closing the dog in the laundry room that it might also work.
So from one insane lab owner to another... Good Luck and watch out for your carpet!
You poor thing. My dogs don't even flinch when it thunders. I think my kids are too loud for them to notice the extra noise.
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