Rain, Rain go away....

Posted Thursday, April 3, 2008, at 1:39 PM

This is Hartley, he knows what he did...

Don't get me wrong, I usually really like dreary rainy spring days - I think I was meant to live in the UK, or at least in the Pacific Northwest...but lately the rain we've been having, along with the thunder have been getting on my nerves. It's not so much the rain and the thunder, so much as it's Hartley and his reaction to thunder. See, we have two dogs, Hartley and Miss Josephine - Josie is newer (but old as she's 4), we got her from animal control and she rarely barks...Hartley on the other hand is INSANE when it comes to thunder (or fireworks). He runs around the house barking, wagging his tail, knocking over his food and water dishes (or at least he used to, I take them away now once I know it's going to thunder)...this goes on the ENTIRE time that it's raining.

Last summer it lasted for 6 hours straight - my mom was visiting then and I thought she was going to kill him. It didn't bother me so much that time because it was during the day. It tends to bother me more when it's going on for hours at a time in the middle of the night.

I thought about choking him on Monday night, but then I remembered that I prefer him to a lot of people I know - so I held back. So yeah, the rain should go away. I'm sure I can't be the only one who has a dog that enjoys barking at the thunder.

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ohhh, he needs some doggie Valium. We used to have a blue heeler, Twister, who was like that. I'd pop him a little blue wonder about 15 -20 minutes before a big storm and NightyNight!!

Lilly is not so bad...I give her a MellowMut treat and she gets calm enough, but she still gets up under me when it thunders. I get MellowMut at Wild Oats.

-- Posted by Jacks4me on Thu, Apr 3, 2008, at 1:47 PM

I thought about asking the vet for some advice - but, of course, never think of it when we're there. I heard benedryl works good, too - but I'm afraid to give him meds without the vet's advice.

I think a trip to Wild Oats might be in order for this weekend.

-- Posted by cfrich on Thu, Apr 3, 2008, at 2:26 PM

~Chantal: I have two that are horrified during thunderstorms. My vet gives out a first aid sheet to all patients. It lists benedryl to help calm in instances of thunderstorms or loud activities. I can't remember the exact dosage to weight righ now, but I'll be sure to get it to you. It's just enought that it calms without making them sleep. I also have some homeopathic calming drops that work really well too.

-- Posted by cherylrichardson on Thu, Apr 3, 2008, at 2:32 PM

Sleeping would be OK too! One of ours was dropped in the spring when there were a lot of storms. She has ALWAYS gone frantic when thunder comes. Strangely, she leaves the warm, dry attached greenhouse and goes OUTSIDE!

The result is that we feel sorry for her and bring her in to the kitchen. Our other dog has caught on and acts the same now. When it thunders at 2:00 a.m. the result is a lost night of sleep.

BUT, we still need the rain so I have to cheer the rain on and lose sleep.

-- Posted by stevemills on Thu, Apr 3, 2008, at 2:47 PM

Thank you Cheryl - that would be a big help. We tried a muzzle on him, but since he's 5 and it was the first time he ever had one on, it wasn't pretty. And he figured out how to get it off.

Steve - I think the newer dog we have was an outdoor only dog until she came with us. The thunder scares her, but instead of barking she jumps on me whilst shaking...not ideal since she's over 50 pounds, but it's still better than barking all night.

-- Posted by cfrich on Thu, Apr 3, 2008, at 2:53 PM

My grandmother had a dog that when it thundered only wanted to get inside and under the bed. Only problem was you better not be in the way or you would get plowed. The best one though was the dog we had that reacted to fireworks. Not in fear - she actually attacked them. Don't know how many times she came away with no whiskers. We finally had to put her up or quit the fireworks.

-- Posted by devan on Thu, Apr 3, 2008, at 3:50 PM

We think cats are heavy at night, but a 50 pound dog?

That fireworks biting dog is one tough cookie. What breed?

-- Posted by stevemills on Thu, Apr 3, 2008, at 3:54 PM

My Shih Tzu is afraid of the rain and she don't even have to be outside to be afraid. If it starts to rain hard enough to hear it inside she wants in my lap and refuses to get down.

-- Posted by Dianatn on Thu, Apr 3, 2008, at 6:22 PM

She appeared to be mostly German Shepard but much smaller. She was a real blessing to our family. Someone dropped two pups off near our house and one of them got killed by a car. We found the other one off the shoulder of the road sitting by the dead sibling. She wouldn't leave. My youngest daughter wanted to take her in but we tried to discourage her. The dog was so awful looking and smelled like death. Later that afternoon we found my daughter sitting on our front porch with the dog wrapped up in a blanket. We told her no again but we finally realized she was stronger willed that we were. She would have stayed out there all night and it was cold. So we acquired a dog. After she grew some she started to have problems with her skin and hair. The vet said it was an incurable type of mange. He said he could give her relief but eventually we would have to put her down. She live another 14 years. Guess some relationships are just fated to be.

Yes she was one tough cookie. My oldest daughter and her husband had a Rottweiler and brought it over to our house one weekend. Our dog didn't like the intrusion and jumped on the Rottie. We finally had to put her in the house. Funny thing was after she was in the house my daughter came in and the dog nipped her on the ankle. Her way of saying don't bring that dog back.

-- Posted by devan on Thu, Apr 3, 2008, at 6:27 PM

Chantal,

I have enjoyed seeing pictures of your fur babies!

What a cuties this scardie-dog is!

-- Posted by Mary on Fri, Apr 4, 2008, at 12:30 AM

Mary,

Hartley thanks you. Also, it was fun seeing you the other day at the Kroger - I almost didn't recognize you since I'm so used to seeing you in a different setting (if that makes any sense). Of course, I'm so used to not seeing anyone we know anywhere, that it's weird when we do see someone we know.

-- Posted by cfrich on Fri, Apr 4, 2008, at 6:14 AM

Last summer someone dropped off a wonderful Lab here at our home. We took her in and we call her girly girl. She is wonderful and we love her so very much. She also is very very scared of the thunder..She will bark and bark and can get into the smallest places to try to hide..I have often wonder why she is scared of the thunder.When our little chihuahua can sleep thru anything.If I know that we are going to have bad weather I make sure we are home so we can give comfort to girly girl.

-- Posted by rebelrose on Fri, Apr 4, 2008, at 7:09 AM

I had a sheltie that was terrified of thunder and fireworks.

Nothing else fazed him.

My current dogs complain about all noises that hurt their ears (no wonder).

They want the emergency vehicles to exchange those evil sirens to something akin to what normal vehicles sound like.

(The big,red trucks could play "Fire" by the Doors, ambulances could do "Who Wants to Live Forever?",police cars could announce 'Bad boys,bad boys,whatcha gonna do?')

I think I'll get them earmuffs instead of suggesting their music picks to emergency services.

-- Posted by quantumcat on Fri, Apr 4, 2008, at 4:01 PM

Chantal Rich

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