Happy she is doing so much better with the two solutions.

What Laura said about the thunder phobia connection to hypothyroid is interesting. Gunner is hypothyroid (doing well on meds) but has alot of anxiety including fear aggression. That has improved greatly with more positive training but I think they are all related to the low thyroid.

__________________

Sasha, Gunner,
& Angel Selka in Heaven

Love You Always
Max, Sophie and Shammy

Tufts University conducted a study on the Anxiety Wraps. The results will come out this fall according to the website: http://vet.tufts.edu/behavior/case_current.shtml#1
I'm curious about this. We used a T-shirt on Barkley during his chemotherapy to keep him from scratching and we noticed he wasn't as afraid during storms. He was also going deaf so maybe he just stopped hearing them. In previous years we tried the Downy dryer sheet remedy (trying to remove the static charge). That did not work for us and I was doubtful an anxiety wrap would work either.

I have a book by Dr. Dodman at Tufts. I need to pull it out because I thought he mentioned in one of their studies that many dogs with storm anxieties are rescue/shelter dogs. He also mentioned the average age of developing phobias as 7. Two of our rescue dogs developed these phobias at age 7 like clockwork. Both had low thyroid btw.

__________________

I pulled out my book by Nicholas Dodman, copyrighted 1999 (so the info may be dated) titled Dogs Behaving Badly. I was not exactly right about the connection of shelter pups to thunderphobias. Actually, the connection is between shelter/rescue pups and separation anxiety. There is also a connection between separation anxiety and thunderstorm anxiety.

On p. 70 he lists several techniques he's tried (again, may be dated), including:
1. Static spray sheets
2. Misting (with water from a spray bottle)
3. Arranging for the dog to be a conducting surface such as tile or linoleum
4. Spraying the dog's feet with antistatic spray
5. Having the owner put the dog inside a car during the storm (and driving around in a storm...hmmm).

__________________

my GR has been afraid of thunderstorms her whole life.

Tia is terrified of thunder, which we very seldom had in California. But now we're in New Mexico, which gets some hellacious afternoon/evening thunderstorms during the summer. Melatonin helps a little, and she seeks refuge under my desk, which is enclosed on 3 sides. Gage was terrified of thunder and loud noises when we got him (he was relocated from Memphis to California due to the terrible thunder there). I tried an Anxiety Wrap on him and didn't find it helpful, but will try a T-shirt on Tia next time we get a storm. Even the sound of a heavy rain makes her nervous. She was a mess on July 4, when the fools across the road set off huge fireworks all evening. I can hardly wait for New Year's Eve.

__________________

We are going through the same thing with our Jake. He was never afraid of fireworks, loud noises, or thunderstorms. Now at 13 he is so afraid that the minute he hears anything loud he goes upstairs and hides somewhere. He is very hard of hearing, but apparently has not lost all of it, thank God. I cringe everytime I hear that we have a chance of a storm. I did try the dryer sheet thing, but it did nothing. My heart breaks for him when he gets so scared, because he is just quivering all over, and they say the more you try and comfort them, the worse it gets. I can't help it though, at 13 you want him to know you are there for him and maybe that would be some comfort. Well Fall is fast approaching, so the storms should be few and far between.