Imagine yourself as a dog, completely unaware of what is happening in the sky above you. You may or may not be scared by any number of other things, but when the sky lights up and thunder crashes against the windows, you're going to tremble a bit.
A dog has no idea why a storm occurs, and almost any dog will whimper or whine at night when lightning strikes close to your house or the wind starts busting against you shutters. The real question here is what you can do about it. What can you do to offer comfort to your dog.
Knowing When It's the Storm
It's important to know when you can accurately peg the source of your dog's anxiety on a storm. The last thing you want to do is to create a storm anxiety by trying to comfort them when a storm rolls through, if they were whining about something else entirely.
To do this, make sure the storm is actually in full effect when your dog acts odd. This might be shown in the form of whimpering or shaking. They might try to climb into your bed or ignore your commands, no matter how well they are behaved.
A dog that is terrified of the weather will react according to how they feel, and in many cases that means barking, whining, biting, chewing up your furniture, peeing on the floor, and much more.
Dealing with Storm Related Fear
Many people just let their dogs continue to react negatively to the storm. They turn away and let their dogs bark and whine, feeling bad for them. Other people will offer comfort to them during these episodes, thinking it will help calm them.
To effectively help your dog cope with a storm, without creating a problem atmosphere that will create damage around your home, you need to step back and try to be comforting without encouraging the behaviour.
To do this, talk to your dog in a calm, relaxing tone of voice, while also brooking no allowance for destructive behaviours. The best way to do this is to combine happy
tones that will reassure your dog with distractions like playing or treats.
If you can get them to focus on you instead of the weather, the results will often be positive. Another good thing to do here is to give your dog a good place to hide
out during the storm.
Avoid leaving a dog outside in a storm or putting them in a crate. A dog that feels trapped is almost as problematic as a dog that has a route to escape through. In both cases, your dog may end up getting hurt.
Having a special place for them that they feel comfortable and safe will allow them to control their circumstances to remove from the danger they feel and become more comfortable. You should also try to drown out as much of the noise as possible with television or music.
A dog can still feel the storm outside - they are much more attuned to these things than we are - but distracting them in anyways possible will always help.
Extreme Cases
Of course, the advice above is only for mild cases that can be dealt with through a calming voice and a loving family. As we learn with people alike, some phobias are not rational and cannot be controlled easily.
Only if the case is severe enough that your dog tries to hurt itself or becomes too destructive to control, should you contact a vet. However, you can get sedatives and anxiety reducing drugs if it is absolutely necessary during severe storms.
Above all else, remember the health and well-being of your animal. Put that first and your dog will feel your love, hopefully relaxing during this trying experience.
I'm not sure if you've seen this yet but before I go, I thought I'd let you know about a new dog training guide that I recently discovered. It's called "The Dog Training Tutor".
Inside, it contains a cutting-edge training method for putting a stop to all major dog behavioral problems.
First of all you should know that it is NOT about:
1. Hitting, scolding or yelling at your dog
2. Punishing your dog at all
What it IS about is this:
1. Communicating with your dog by understanding and playing on his natural canine instincts so that he WANTS to obey you and enjoys learning new things
2. Having FUN with your dog!