Submitted by Trisha McConnell,
PhD, CAAB
Black Earth, WI
Isn’t it wonderful to have a dog who will respond to you when hundreds of yards away? That’s part of why we love Border Collies for sure, but also means that some of them are so sensitive to loud sounds that they become phobic. Noise phobias aren’t trivial—I’ve had several clients whose dogs went through second story windows in a panic to“get away” from thunder. I’ve had thunder phobic dogs myself, and it’s not fun. The good news is that it’s almost always treatable. The bad news is that it can be a pain in the butt to do so.
The best permanent treatment is called “counter classical conditioning,” a long name for what is essentially a simple process, but that takes some time and patience to pull off.It’s especially effective in mild or moderate cases, and is fantastically helpful to prevent noise phobias. (More on prevention later.) The goal is to condition your dog to associate thunder with something he loves, so that his emotional response to the loud noise is“Oh boy!” rather than “Oh No!” This is NOT like regular training, where you ask your dog to respond, rather you are pairing something the dog truly loves with a low level of something that frightens them to influence their internal emotions.
The simple version is to have easily accessible food treats that your dog adores—cut up chicken or steak, not kibble! Then you pair that with a low level of what scares them, in this case, when the thunder is first heard a long way away for example. Or, if your dog begins to be frightened long before the thunder (which is common), you start at the event that your dog begins to respond to. Perhaps the wind coming up or the barometer dropping. Here are the steps to get this to work:
~ Start at the stimulus that first elicits any sign of fear in the dog. Dogs “backward chain” storms so well that you can use them as meteorologists...beginning to pace and whine when the wind comes up, and in extreme cases, when the barometer drops long before the storm rolls in.
~ The thunder or other stimulus has to be mild enough to prevent eliciting extreme fear(you can also use CDs or tapes of thunder, but the speakers distributed around the room, overhead being best).
~ The “treat” (food or play) has to be highly desirable so that the emotional response it elicits is more powerful than any fear elicited by the thunder.
~ The thunder/noise has to come first...so that it becomes a predictor of something good.
~ You need to proceed in a step-by-step manner, gradually linking louder and louder thunder with the food or play. When it gets too loud for a dog to want food or play, stop offering those options and take the dog to a place that is as quiet and dark as you can imagine. It’s FINE to pet them if they are frightened. It will NOT make them worse, I promise.
Of course, you see the problem here.... how, exactly, does one make arrangements for thunder storms to begin in May with tiny, little quiet thunderettes and then gradually work their way up into glass-rattling boomers once your dog is ready for it? Well, you can’t (if you can, please write soon), but you can give your dog the ‘treat’ whenever the thunder is relatively quiet, and then just stop once it becomes loud. For one of my dogs,I’d run outside and play ball when the barometer dropped and the wind came up, continue playing until the thunder started far away, and then come inside when the thunder began to get so loud that it would overwhelm his love of ball play. Then we’d go inside, I’d let him hunker beside me, rub his belly, sing and laugh. I’ve also helped clients build “safe houses” for dogs who live outside---they should be double entry, safe spaces in which you teach the dog to go into (for chicken again) when a storm looks eminent.
The other options—“Thundershirts,” medications, etc, can be helpful, but they all require that you know when storms are coming and are home to get your dog settle with the treatment. That’s why I prefer the long slog of classical conditioning. It takes time and effort, but it pays off in the long run. That’s why, when I first got Skip two years ago, and heard him bark/yip in response to probably the first thunder he’d ever heard, I spent a couple of bleary middle-of the-nights up with him saying “Oh boy! Thunder Treats!”and giving him treats every time it thundered. I wouldn’t say he loves thunder now, but unless the house rocks he sleeps right through it. Which means I can too. Well worth it!