Is it just me, or are all dogs afraid of Thunder and Lightning. I understand that it hurt their hearing, but sometimes I feel my dog is actually "Afraid" of storms. All he has to do, is hear thunder miles away, and he wants in the house. And if a storm comes in the middle of the night, when he is already inside, he wants in the bed with us, just like my sons......

No, some dogs can actually be frightened of thunder storms.

The best thing to do is not to reinforce their fear, so letting him leap into bed is probably not the best idea.

Just remain calm and reassuring, but no overly fussy behaviour towards him.

Try and teach him that storms are normal, then he should get better as he gets older. It will also help with fireworks too.

My dogs were like this when they were puppies, but they grew out of it. Everytime it would thunder they would run into the living room and hide. It didnt matter who was in the way they would knock you down.

My dog is afraid of storms. During one he will always pace the room whimpering. Nothing comforts him. I'd let him on the bed if it would calm him and he would sleep, but nothing seems to help.

I think the problem is that most people try to comfort them, R8.

What that does is reinforce the dogs anxiety. I know because I have been guilty of this in the past.
We would automatically do this to a child, but we have an advantage there because we can explain to them that there is nothing to fear.

It really is best to act as naturally as possible. The dog will follow your lead and learn to calm down.

My dog is afraid of thunder & lightening, she just doesnt like the sound & never has done.

When she see's the flashes of light she goes loopy & tries it chase it lool.

Neither of our dogs seems scared of thunder and lightning... of course that could be because we live in Oklahoma, where it seems like we don't get very many thunderstorms. But that would make them more scared, wouldn't it? So maybe its because we live close to a military base that shoots artillery almost everyday, those sound alot like thunder.

Neither of them like to get rained on though... they both crowd the back door whenever it even sprinkles.

Our Pitmix is not only afraid of thunder- which drives him upstairs and into the closet hiding under a bunch of clothes- but also any loud noises like fireworks and strangely the toaster oven beep when its finished. Anytime we try and toast some bread and turn the toster oven on- he hears the timer and dashes upsatirs into the closet before it gets to the end and beeps...it drives him nuts!

t really is best to act as naturally as possible.

LOL, I would love to do that; at the times that my Dakota starts freaking out over a storm, it's generally 3 in the morning. To act naturally would be to go to sleep, but it's hard to do that with him pacing the room whimpering.

Oh well, it doesn't storm all that often. Just today, it has rained all day but no real storm, just a nice good soaking.

I've had that as well. Dogs running riot in the middle of the night, when I'm simply desperate to go to sleep!

I had a dog years ago that was never bothered about storms till she reached the age of 6. Then she became absolutely terrified of them. We never did get to the root cause of why she suddenly started.

My dog hates thunder she also hate rain if its raining outside she will not go out the door.

My dog hates the rain also but if shes that desperate to go then she bloody will lol.

But if she's just being a winge and not that desperate for a pee or poo then she decides to wait.

Our little dog is not afraid of anything...but he'll bark at every single noise he hears..that is somewhat annoying lol

Our big dog though He is afraid of LOTS of things..he is afraid of lightning, thunder and ladders the most though...yes...ladders...they can be over at the next building away from him but he still cowers in fear and stairs at them like he's been beaten by one..not sure why..

OH and the vacuum! He will FLY over the couch and CLIMB you to get away from the vacuum! It's insane.

Come to think of it, yeah, all my dogs have been afraid of both thunder and lightning!

Kingdom goes nuts at the sound of thunder, but we’re trying to rectify that by being as nonchalant as possible. Not that easy when we suddenly hear him barking at nothing in the middle of a CSI episode. We literally have to stop ourselves from showing any kind of reaction. Hope this works!