fear of thunder

[Linda and Mario LaGrotte]

Our Doodle is now 8 years old.  He is terrified of thunder and fireworks.  He tries to climb to the top of the highest table, shakes, and cannot calm down.  We have a thunder jacket for him.  It doesn't work.  We try to give him a melatonim -- no luck.  Does anybody have any ideas?

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This has just started with Guinness....he's four and this is the first year that he's ever been so frightened that he hides under the bed and shakes.  I try not to "console" him too much because I know that just feeds his fear.  Tonight I tried something different in the middle of a major storm.  He loves to chase a "squeaky toy" and I started throwing one around the room.  His "brother" was fetching and I was making a real big deal out of it.  He came out and seemed to forget about being frightened as long as I was throwing the toy and making a big deal out of the game.....so now I'm thinking distraction may be the answer.  The jury's out...but it worked tonight.

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

That is an awesome idea Jane! I wish I had thought of that on the 4th. This was Daphne's first one because last year we were banned from fireworks due to dry conditions. For the most part I managed not to console her. I know that is the wrong thing to do. The hardest part was keeping my 20 year old daughter from trying to hold her and coddle her. We had a Golden Retriever who was terrified and was also afraid of the many thunderstorms we have here in Florida. We had to get drugs from the vet for her. She was tough and could fight off the effects of the drug. They did help though.