Hey everybody,

Last night when the storm came -- you were home with him right? Could be... COULD be... that maybe your absence played a part in his behavior? Often dogs that become stressed during storms are ok when their humans are around, but freak out and can do bodily harm if their humans are not around. You would know the answer to this better than me, of course... especially if you've had him since March. I had a german shepherd years ago who... while we were gone to a basketball game... went through the front glass door during a storm. Took LOTS of stitches to sew him up. That was the worst case I've seen where a dog gets stressed out due to storms. A friend of mine had a dog who broke several teeth gnawing on the wires of his crate during a storm.. trying to get out.

So... you would be the best person to determine if this is, in fact, true separation anxiety... or stress induced by the storm... two very different situations and should be dealt with differently. If you were not home... you may not be able to know. But you leave him every day and there are no issues, right? So... because there WAS a storm that day and the behavior surfaced that day, let's assume it was storm induced.

There is a supplement called "Rescue Remedy" that you may want to consider purchasing from a health food store to keep on hand. I have known this to work to some degree (not totally though) with some dogs... to help calm them down.

As with anything, there are varying degrees of stress... ranging from mild stress to a true phobia. Phobias generally become worse, not better, with repeated exposures. Dogs with mild noise phobia may look anxious during thunderstorms, tremble, hide under the bed or in the bathtub, and be afraid to go outdoors for hours after the storm has passed. If Mickey suffers mildly, the best you can do is train him to go to a certain place in the house where he feels comfortable; some dogs like to go into an open crate, some like the bathtub or shower. If your dog heads to a certain spot and seems calmer, reward him. Severely affected dogs may soil in the house or crate, destroy furniture, attempt to break through walls or crash through windows, often hurting themselves in frantic efforts to flee the source of their fear.

This is a complex subject... a complex behavior which varies in degrees and situations, so it's hard to truly "capture" what is triggering the behavior adn to what extent. Two basic techniques of behavior modification are usually tried in treating dogs with noise phobia are desensitization and counter-conditioning.

Desensitization is the process by which an anxiety producing stimulus, (in your case... a thunder storm), is presented so subtly as to not produce a fearful response. Very gradually the intensity of the stimulus, or volume of the thunder, is increased, always keeping it below the fear producing threshold. You can purchase CDs with these sounds on them.

Counter conditioning is the conditioning of an individual to respond to the feared stimulus with a reaction incompatible with the undesirable response. For example, the dog is encouraged to enjoy delicious food treats... given by you...as the thunder volume increases. The idea is for Mickey to learn to associate storms with positive feelings (love & treats) instead of anxiety.

If you have to be gone from Mickey during the storms... do you have someone who can sit with him? Or... someone you can take him to?

Another option might be... since you have other dogs...is to keep them together in the same room until the storm passes. Dogs are very comforting to each other and the presence of other dogs may help to keep Mickey calm.

There is no "tried and true" method to fix this behavior, Sue... unfortunately. You'll just have to try different things to see what works. Maybe something I've said will help - I hope so! Sorry Mickey is going through this.

BTW, Rescue Remedy works on humans with mild anxiety too.    Or so I've heard. 

Well, Nora, he is now exhibiting this behavior constantly when I'm not home. I went home today during lunch to check in on him (which is a 20 minute drive for me) and he was STILL barking from this morning. I pulled up to the house to listen and he was the ONLY dog barking like mad. I went into the house, went up to Mickey and he had already urinated in his crate and ripped apart the pillow I put in there for him. I do keep him in the room with all my other crated dogs, so he's not alone, but that doesn't seem to matter. His anxiety went from like a 10 to 200 in about 3 days and I am at a loss as to what to do!!

Poor Mickey.    I don't know what to tell you.  

 Max has separation anxiety and hates storms ( Shakes, pants - not much comforting)   Max has to have a constant human companion.  He can only be left for short periods ( max is 1 hr probably)  if he knows where you are and then he still can have a panic attack ( like in the car when we're shopping).

Hi Nora,

Good news!   I'll keep my fingers crossed

I'm sorry poor Mickey is going through this . I once had a GSD that had Separation anxiety so bad that he would literally pull blinds off of windows  He ate the plastic bars off both sides of his crate and would scream the whole time I was gone .    It's weird how Mickey's anxiety just came on all of a sudden.  I hope it all works out for you both

The meds seem to work well for him. Apparently, he has had anxiety issues in the past, but I was never told. (Mickey was an owner surrender). The only records I got were the most recent, and I noticed that Mickey was given the same meds that my vet prescribed, and when I asked the owner about this, he told me they weren't for Mickey - but he took the pills HIMSELF!! We just got a full set of Mickey's records and apparently Mickey's had issues throughout the years, but the owner never told me. I'm not sure if he thought we wouldn't take him or whatever... but geez!!

I'm so glad to hear he's doing better and that the meds are working- for both of you.  I was so worried about this little guy.  I'd seen his pic and bio on  the RBR site (before your post here)  and thought he looked like such a sweetie, but also very scared that I just wanted to hug and hold him.  Take care!! 

OMG poor little boy. Poor Momma too. Gosh I'm sure you were worried sick. Glad to hear that the meds work though.

Posted By malta blue on 06/18/2008 7:48 PM
I am so glad to see that Mickey is responding well to the medication..


Sue - I am still in limbo with my Luna dog (we now have a confirmed cancer diagnosis, but she is still tough and fighting). I would love to adopt Mickey if he is still available when the time comes.

I saw that Luna crossed the bridge.  I am so very sorry for your loss.

Mickey has 1 more issue that we're waiting results from before we put him back up on the website. Once that's taken care of, he will make him available again, and I will let you know.

That's not necessarily a good thing!  What's going to happen once he gets to his forever home?  That's what I'm concerned about!