Milly was never afraid of thunderstorms, in fact, she was usually the one comforting me, because I have a totally irrational fear of thunder (yes, I know it should be the lightning I'm afraid of, but it's not).

I have noticed in the past she is afraid of cannons and guns (learned this when she could hear a civil war reenactment that was taking place down the street. But, that wasn't an excessive fear.

Two or three years ago she was in the back yard, and I went to the front porch to let a friend in the house. Meanwhile, some neighbors set off bottle rockets in the middle of the road, and Milly managed to escape through the fence (thank God she wasn't injured squeezing through a heavy metal gate that she physically cannot fit through) and raced up to my terrified. I never would have had her outside, had I known people were setting off bottle rockets. I immediately brought her in the house. Well, since then she has had two other run-ins with fireworks. Both times she was inside, with the TV blaring and lots of yummy chews like kongs and bullysticks. The first time with the windows closed and all the distractions and some rescue remedy, she was okay. The second time was on my recent trip to Vermont, and she was not okay. I did my best to keep her in the quietest part of the house, comfort her, and give her distractions - both noise and toys. She was terrified.

I noticed just before this last fireworks encounter (mind you, the fireworks were happening miles away) that she was showing signs of anxiety during bad thunder storms, but thought maybe it was just the pressure change. Well, I've realized over the past few months that she has developed a thunderstorm phobia. I think it is relatively mild, she just shakes and tries to hide, and wants me to go under the bed with her. A childhood mutt of mine would destroy the house during storms, so this is much better than that. But, I hate seeing her so miserable.

I have started giving her dried chamomile mixed with pumpkin if I know a storm is coming, and that does seem to relax her about the rain and weather change, but the thunder is really starting to freak her out. It's weird how the older she gets the worse this fear is getting.

I've been thinking about talking to my vet about options, and have heard people say they've had good results with valium, but I don't really want to go that strong of a route unless I absolutely need to to keep her comfortable. What are some other alternatives. I've even put my horse ear plugs in her ears, and that did little to help. Does anyone know if those thunder vests actually work? This crazy seeming lady at Petsmart suggested putting her in the bathtub, but that makes no sense to me.

I want to create a thunderstorm/gun/cannon/firework preparation kit so I can easily do whatever I need to the next time this becomes an issue, preferably a little while before the issue arises.

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Not with thunderstorms, but I've gone through the same thing with my dogs and fireworks. They never showed any fear of them until this past New Years Eve, when all of a sudden they both were terrified. Now anytime there are fireworks or even just loud noises outside (cars backfiring, etc) they both are extremely afraid. The other day a traffic cop was directing traffic outside my house with a loud whistle... and granted, he was blowing it almost non-stop (there was a huge sandcastle tournament event with almost 350,000 people crammed into my little beach town with my main cross street being the only road out).. and both dogs were seriously anxious about all that noise.

I think before NYE this year, I will discuss options with my vet, or atleast pick up some Rescue Remedy and try that... I don't want to go through another night of fireworks with these two being so visibly distressed. And I feel like their fear was building off eachother's... not fun.

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Rescue Remedy makes a mixture for pets. The only place that I know you can get it from is online http://www.rescueremedy.com/pets/ Dont ever use the other types because it has alcohol and the pastilles is sugar free that is toxic to dogs. It helps to calm the dog without doping him/her up. Some people use melatonin with good results. I would try these things before trying anything stronger like valium.

Mine have gotten worse over the years and I think they have picked up on it from each other. So far I have been able to talk with them and try to turn up the tv loud with music. But we dont go out now on holidays like NYE or 4th of July at night because of the fireworks. Thunder isnt so bad unless it is really loud and often.

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The Rescue Remedy I have been using is the for pets kind. Do you know how much Melatonin to use?

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How much Melatonin can you give a dog? And, is the human kind safe? I have a bottle of CVS brand Melatonin, and a severe thunderstorm is starting.

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Just when you think you don't have a thunder phobic dog! Merlin is similar. Never had any issues until we had an almost direct hit on the house (or it may have actually hit the house as it flipped breakers, and fried some electronics). It scared me too and I'm sure he fed on my reaction. It's not bad unless the thunder is close by and then he's shadowing me and panting.

What's bothering him now is all the hickory nuts that the squirrels are throwing ( ) at our roof....especially when they hit the chimney. It's freaking him out. Every morning and early evening they are up there (the tree towers over our home). I'm thinking about using rescue remedy, but tomorrow I'm going to try and make a treat game out of it and see if that helps him. He's never been scared of anything like this before and it bugs me that he is now. I want to fix it!! I hate to see him so anxious.

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I agree with Carol, I do think it's infectious. My longest resident dog has always been fireworks and thunder phobic. When my two senior goldens were adopted last year they had no problems with noise phobias, but over time Buddy has "caught" the problem.

I've always hated drugging the dogs and Rescue Remedy just hasn't quite done the job. So this last 4th I went the t-shirt route. It really did help a lot. We are only a few blocks from a major fireworks display and the two phobic ones were not exactly relaxed, but they weren't terrified and they weren't quivering and they weren't trying to dig their way into a corner. I also like the fact that the t-shirts can be donned without a lot of advance notice.

Bonnie and Clyde, now 9, have also gotten worse with age. Calvin and Hobbes (14 Months), and Cooper (15 Months) could have cared less. But since the 4th of July, Calvin is now a basket case, last night Bonnie, Clyde and Calvin were a basket case quivering with fear until 2AM, while Cooper and Hobbes snored the night away. Bonnie and Clyde have gotten so sensitive, they seem to panic before the storm starts. I wish I knew exactly what would relieve their anxiety.

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A Golden at the end of the day, makes the stress go away!

The average age of thunderphobia onset is 7 years. (This can include also fear of fireworks, guns, etc...) It sometimes coincides with a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, whetherthe two are linked or not is unsubstantiated.

That's really interesting. So far no hypothyroidism diagnosis.

I tried the t-shirt thing, and it really seemed to work, or maybe that was the melatonin - I did them both at the same time, and she was considerably more relaxed. Poor woofy-dog doesn't like thunder one bit.

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