This mild thunderstorm got me to thinking about all you folks who have pets (mostly dogs) with storm anxiety. This is a REAL problem, as some dogs become so anxious before and during a thunderstorm, that they are destructive to the house and sometimes a danger to themselves. Some dogs have been known to shred couches, chew door facings off, and jump through plate glass windows because of storm anxiety, not only injuring themselves, but causing costly repairs ... again and again and again. Dogs FEEL approaching storms differently than we humans do. I imagine that the approaching static electricity in the air affects their hair the same way it does ours like when you rub a balloon on your head and your hair stands up. Since they are covered with hair, they would obviously feel static electricity more than we do. A wonderful product called the Thundershirt is helpful for this problem as it is woven with a special fiber that neutralizes static electricity to some degree. It does seem to help a lot of dogs. Another way to address storm anxiety is to try a technique called desensitization. Purchase a thunderstorm cd and play it very softly for about an hour on sunny days ... when theres no static electricity in the air. The dog will hear the thunder, but without the accompanying uncomfortable creepy crawly feeling on the skin, the dog will ... hopefully... become desensitized to the sound of thunder, which is often a trigger for the anxiety, and so the anxiety lessens over time ... which is the goal. Hope this was helpful. Margo Watkins Pet Behavior Counselor
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 22:01:57 +0000
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