We need help

Have you tried switching dog food brands? Or giving a Vitamin B complex capsule (use a people product)?

A long time ago, when I was feeding kibble (I've been homecooking for several years now) this same neurotic behavior to sounds, thunder, sudden movements, began happening "all of a sudden". Whether my dog had a mineral imbalance, lack of nutrients from the kibble, or something else, I don't know. What I do know is that when I changed her kibble brand, she acted normal again.   And later, when I began homecooking (at the time, she was on a very limited "elimination diet" for several months) and I had switched supplements for a change, she also began the crazy behavior. I added in a B Complex (25 mg, 2 x's per day, she weighs 14.5 lb), and she was fine again. Once I got her back on her original supplements, she was also fine.

After the elimination diet, she was on a normal homecooked diet which has lots of variety, and we've not had any more "jumpy" issues. I still give her extra B Complex now and then, however. And I up the dose to 50 mg, 2 x's per day, if she's going to be in a very stressful situation (bad bad lightening and thunder, etc). 

I really think that in my dog's case, the jumpiness had to do with some sort of nutritional imbalance. Once corrected, she was fine.

I hope this works for your pup!

just wanted to say that I feel your pain, and oh does it bring back memories.  I rescued a old Golden Retriever that the owners were going to PTS because he was a storm dog and he was getting worse.  So I took him.  At the time I worked at a place that I could take him with me if I had to.  At first it wasn't bad, but than again it was early in the season.  I never before realized how a storm dog could run every second of your life.  Don't get me wrong, I loved Taz and was extremely grateful that he was a part of our lives.  (It was the noise that would get him, and he went nuts).  He got through things ok if he had a small dark area to hide in and someone had to be with him.  I'll never forget during the height of storm season here, checking the forecast before I went to the grocery  store.  A trip to the post office wasn't always easy either.  Crates did not work for him.  He chewed his way out and destroyed his face and mouth in a metal crate (which was reccomended to us after he ate the other crate).  Several hundred dollars later, many many sutures and some teeth removed, he tore out his sutures in another panic attack.  Meds weren't working.  In one instance he ate through the bathroom door, ripped out the plumbing trying to squeeze behind the toilet, when that didn't work he tried to get into the metal utility closet and only managed to bend the doors and frames so much that it couldn't be used.  He tore out a drop ceiling, ripped up carpet, bent my bed frame;  we were hurrying home and he was alone for maybe 10 minutes of the storm (we had been at a funeral).  It just got to the point that he was always with us, we never went anywhere.  Trips to the store was planned and one of us went while the other stayed with the dog.  Good thing we loved him, LOL!  We got through the summer, and at the time we didn't have a fenced yard so he was walked outside on a leash.  One day during hunting season (never thought of this prior to it happening) some one in the distance fired a gun, he took off so fast ripped the leash out of my hand and I couldn't catch him.  I was in an absolute panic because he wasn't paying attention to a darn thing and I was afraid he'd run into the road!  He ended up 6 miles away in like an hour before someone caught him and called us.  The following summer we ended up having to put him down before storm season hit due to renal failure (not related to anything going on - he was fairly old), we enjoyed Taz to no end.  He was an awesome dog, and we are glad that he got an extra year out of life with us.  He taught us alot, I just wanted to let you know that I understand just how frustrating it can be trying to help your dog.  There are storm dogs and than there are STORM dogs.  Best of luck to you 

This is just a suggestion you might want to try play music my dogs love music (no rock and roll) (country,easy listening. I have a five year old boxer that is deathly afraid of storms so I play something calming  loud enough that they don't focus on the storm and at the same time reassure them that they're OK  good luck     

Well folks, here's an update:

We've been giving her the new meds for about a week, so far we haven't seen any bad reactions, but we haven't really had a chance to see if it's helping much.

Unfortunately, it seems that Lady's fears have now turned into full-blown separation anxiety. Now apparently it doesn't matter to her whether or not there's a storm; she flips out and digs up all the carpeting around the downstairs patio door and the woodwork around it whenever we leave her to go to work now. This is very frustrating because she was fine being alone...until thunderstorm season came back this year, now it's like she lives in constant fear of being left alone during a storm.

Since we are afraid to leave her alone, we've been leaving her with relatives, or our vet, during the day. When she is around people, AND the weather is OK, she is totally fine. I am in the process of getting a behaviorist to our home to help us work through her many issues, because obviously this is no way for her (or us) to live indefinitely. We know the basics of working with an SA/phobic dog (gradual desensitization, not making a big deal of your comings and goings, etc), but because we aren't experts I want one to help us out. (Also, a lot of the stuff you are supposed to do with SA dogs we already do -- we don't freak out when we come home or leave, etc.) She is mentally stimulated and she always gets long walks in the morning and the night. She was always *fine* being alone during the day...until the storms came back this year.

*sigh*...It's an uphill battle with this dog, but we aren't giving up.

Your doggie is lucky to have such caring, devoted parents. I hope things improve for you guys!

ORIGINAL: Cita

Your doggie is lucky to have such caring, devoted parents. I hope things improve for you guys!

Thanks -- it is really frustrating that things have turned this way recently...I always used to brag about how great she was during the day while we were gone (except during storms), so now we're just so sad that it's turned into this.

It's terrible because we absolutely cannot/refuse to give her away, but we now know this is why people gave up this sweet dog in the past. I am *furious* that her previous owners (or the shelter, not sure which,) completely omitted all of her phobia and anxiety issues from her information. It's not that we wouldn't have taken her, but maybe we could have been better prepared/talked to a behaviorist sooner. It's also frightening, because, really --if we can't get her behavior adjusted, I have no idea what we are going to do. It is not even the fact that she destroys the floor/patio door when we are gone -- it's that it is unsafe for *her* to be home alone right now. The carpet has big metal staples in it, for goodness sake. She chews on the woodwork until she bleeds. And if we can't leave her home alone, ever, we will be in a seriously tight bind. Even if we got her in doggy daycare during the work week (which would be very costly, but doable,) a lot of those places are not open on weekends -- and what, we're supposed to drop her off there anytime we have to leave to run an errand?? Even if it's half an hour?

....I know, I'm getting ahead of myself. We haven't spent enough time yet with the trainers and behavior modification, and I am optimistic that things will work...Lady is a fast learner....but I am just very scared. I really love this dog, and the whole thing is so heartbreaking. []

So, it's the behaviorist next then. I will also look into maybe changing her diet a bit as others have suggested.

What about a veterinary office? We've boarded pets at clinics before for similar reasons. It might be a bit more expensive, but maybe they could work something out with you, and many vets are available on weekends.

Is there a friend or neighbor you could enlist to help you out? Just like finding a babysitter for your kids, try to find a trustworthy teen that might be willing to keep the pup company for 2 bucks and hour while you and the SO have an evening out....

So, an update. Things are...gosh, I don't know. The thing that I am completely confused about in all of this is that we've had storm-free weather for 2 weeks now. And now, instead of being scared of only storms, Lady is generally unable to be alone, period, as I mentioned earlier. This is a dog that 6 weeks ago could have not cared less about our comings and goings and was frequently in a dead sleep when I returned home from work. Nothing about her diet, or our routine, or our living situation, has changed in the last month. Same house, same family, same food. She has no apparent physical problems, as confirmed by both us and her vet.
 
Last week during the day we either left her with family or the vet's office so that she wouldn't damage anything or hurt herself. When she stays at these places during the day, she is fine. We get no feedback about her being neurotic or anxious...yesterday she was at my parents' house and she spent most of the day sleeping. So on Friday we had our dog trainer come to the house and discuss Lady's issues. She gave us a lot of good ideas, but obviously we know nothing is just going to happen overnight.
 
So starting Saturday during the day we'd go out for 5, 10, 30 minutes. She didn't do any damage. Saturday evening we went to the hardware store (which is about 2 blocks from our house,) and were gone for about an hour, maybe a bit less. We came back and Lady was fine -- no damage, no soiling. She was a little anxious when we walked in, but we followed our instructions from the vet/trainer and ignored her for about 15-30 minutes until she calmed down. She was doing pretty well and so the next day we felt pretty confident about leaving her for a similar amount of time (about 1.5/2 hours). This time she dug up the carpeting again. []
 
Has anyone ever heard of anything like this -- full-on separation anxiety coming out of basically nowhere? We have never left her home alone for more than a work day (which given that we leave at different times comes to about 7 hours max alone time.) She gets a long walk before we leave every morning...plus she's an older dog and usually her favorite thing in the world is sleeping. I used to laugh because on days when I'd stay home from work, she'd look at me like, "Um, can you please leave? This is the time of day when you guys leave me alone to nap!"
 
I just wish I could get inside this dog's head -- the only thing that changed even a little in the last few weeks is that the storms came back. Is she afraid a storm is going to hit when she's alone? Is she suddenly, inexplicably, super-attached to us after almost a full year of living with us? Why would she go from being fine by herself on non-storm days to going completely crazy whenever we leave? She gets exercise, we don't smother her with attention, we have never made a big production of coming or going...
 
I know we've still got a lot of behavior shaping to do, and we'll be working on it. I just wish I knew why this came up in the first place...