Thunderstorms

[ragingbull83]

Ive got a 4 year old male Great Pyr been working in the Southwest Mo area im staying in my RV last night we had some strong storms come threw and he jumped on me and stuck his head under my arm when it was thundering.

He was a field dog before i got him hearded sheep for three years and i was wondering if you guys Pyrs do the same thing or maybe mine had a bad experience with a storm living outside all those years ? :confused: Now hes an inside dog since i got him.

Any advice?


Thanks Kenny,

[risestar]

Some dogs are noise shy, while others are not. A lot of times, you can improve it by re-socializing in noisy areas where there is a lot of different noises, or you can take the dog out for a walk when theres a storm and it will get the idea that theres not so much to be concerned about

[Kate53]

I've heard that most dogs develop issues with noise after the age of 3. Some get nervous about t-storms at that age...I know that is what happened to my neighbors dog just after he turned 3 years old and she was told that it is not uncommon. She was also told not to "comfort" the dog during a storm because she would unintentionally reinforce his fear behavior. We have some pretty severe t-storms here in Fla this time of year. Queenie doesn't appear to be too upset over it unless there happens to be one or two big claps of thunder. She'll move to the same room with me in that case and I just go about business as usual, acting like it's no big deal. I also had a female German Shepard that would pant excessively and glue herself to me during a storm. I would just try not to acknowledge her fearful behavior (even though I wanted to because she seemed so upset). It is hard to watch your companion be afraid of something without wanting to comfort them but some say that just trains the dog's fear into them even tighter. Good luck.

[vin63]

Our female still gets scared and anxious around unseen loud rumbling noises, such as thunderstorms or fireworks...which why I think we came to adopt her - she ended up at the local Pyrenees rescue as a stray the day after 4th of July a few years ago. She's getting better, but it's slow going - we just kind of ignore her when she paces around, and praise her when she lays down with the other two dogs. Our Newfie was always scared of thunderstorms until he went deaf. Our other Pyr sleeps through every loud noise you can think of, but if a dog barks in Australia, he'll hear it and reply. :p

[ragingbull83]

Thanks for the advice guys the only think i see wrong with getting my dog to the point were he ignores the storms is that could be something bad wrong that he knows about and i dont so cant get to upset when he wakes me up. We get bad storms here right now im working in Lebanon mo get some wicked storms threw the area the week before last had two tornados when i was working on site had my Pyr with me and he started pacing back and forth barking and got to a place where there was a basement thats when it I was out of danger could have been really bad.
I was just curious if anyone elses Pyr did the same thing. O he opened the door in the Rv the other day have to lock the deadbolt now or take him with me LOL

[John W. JOHNSON]

We had a huge crack of thunder the other evening and it startled Axel but I talked to him as usual about the "new" thing and he was ok with it, it was only one cell and as it moved away there were two more rumbles and he was good. I have had dogs that were really bad in storms but both were outside in the kennel when we were at work so that is understandable. It was Canada Day yesterday and the late evening fire works got both dogs attention but no real barking, Axel will take the lead of our small dog when she barks at the neighbour's dogs.
John