Pet Anxiety

[whysewserious]

This is not about a fear of animals, but rather what to do when an animal experiences signs of anxiety.


Ever since I adopted her, my dog experiences extreme anxiety during rain showers - whether there is thunder and lightning in play or not. She starts shaking and hides in tiny spaces, and if there is quite a bit of noise, she also pants heavily.


I have not tried a thunder coat because at this point I cannot afford them. We have a box fan on the floor that I turn on because it seems to drown out a bit of the noise. She does not want to eat, and she loves her food, nor does she want to sit on the couch or be held in any way.


She used to have separation anxiety pretty heavily as a puppy but I was able to get her out of that, but almost eight years later I have had no success with helping her manage her fear of storms.

 

[janemariesayed]

This will take a while to bring her out of. You will have to hope for lots of thunderstorms to do it quickly! When there is a thunder storm, make sure you are home with her. Pick her up if you have to and have her on your lap. (however big she is!) stroke her continuously and talk gently all the time putting her at ease. When you can do this without her shaking, she should in theory come and sit on your lap whenever a thunderstorm takes place. Over time you can coax her to sit with you by the window and do the same thing, stroke her until she is at ease. I did this with my dogs to get them used to the sound of fireworks. At first they were afraid but in the end I had them asking me to go out on the balcony to sit and watch the 'bang, bangs'

 

[kgord]

Yes, my dog had serious separation anxiety and would cry and moan everytime someone left. I never knew how to get him over it. He suffered from it all his life. My cat seems to be neurotic about a lot of things. He doesn't like it when I leave, but mostly since a couple of times we have had fleas..he gets afraid of the floor and jumps from furniture piece to piece. He also is afraid of the beeping noise that trucks make when they are backing up..associating it with strangers. He always runs and hides or growls if he hears it.

 

[DDNatureLover]

Regarding the thunder jackets, you could try asking for one on TrashNothing or Freecycle. You never know. Someone may have an extra they're willing to part with, or may not have their pet anymore for one reason or another, so perhaps you can obtain one that way.


Does your dog feel safer in a crate? Sometimes it seems to help my cats (I don't have dogs) to be sort of enclosed in a cat house, because there's only one entrance, so they seem to feel nothing can get at them other than from the direction they can see. My sister's dogs had seizures during thunderstorms, so she had some medication for them, but it sounds as if you're doing a good thing with the white noise. I've used Feliway Comfort Zone in the past with some of my cats, and I believe there's one for dogs, also. Budget is always a consideration for me, so I don't always have them on hand, but there are also treats that help relax my cats, and they're available without a prescription.

 

[fuzyon]

At some point I realized my dog was scared of fireworks and in my area (countryside) people fire them off all throughout the year, he's little so he's able to hide everywhere in the house, I spend a good amount of time trying to get him out bit there's nothing I can do about it. I've talked to a couple of my friends that are dog trainers and they told me there's nothing I can do on my own. Is there such a thing as a dog therapist?

 

[djordjem87]

my dog gets anxious around the New Year's Eve and due to fireworks of course. Also when there is thundering and lightnings he is not quite himself. He runs in circles and hides under the table or even under his front paws. He is a golden retriever so he is quite big and it is easy for him to give me a hug as well. Usually I give him some treats but that works only if the noise is shorter. If it isn't short I have to play some music, put him down on the ground and on one of his sides and just touch him on his head, chest and paws. That makes him feel better.

 

[mkhl]

Do not pet or hug him during this times. Just let your dog lie down beside you but do nothing. If he calms a bit then try to play with him or give him food. My dog had this and would really be scared during thunderstorms but now he is okay with it. Good thing we experience a lot of it because I had a lot of time to help her.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

I am not sure if my pets suffer from anxiety. The nearest to anxiety that I have seen was probably when I take a bath. All my cats would line up outside the bathroom door. At first, I thought it was rather strange. Surely my cats were not wanting to come in and take a bath with me. So I kept my bathroom door open to see what was going on. All my cats just sat there in a row. None made a move to enter the bathroom. The only thing that I could think of was that they were worried about me taking a bath. Maybe they could not understand how I could stand under the shower and not drown to death.

 

[pwarbi]

I've had pets most of my life, and of course we are never going to be able to know for a fact because we're not Dr. Doolittle, but in my experience I think that they do suffer from anxiety as you can sometimes tell from their actions and behaviour in certain situations. Animals aren't as complex as humans I don't think and they will only have a certain set of emotions to cover most circumstances and that's why I think it's easy to tell if your dog or cat is suffering from anxiety or not.


As others have already said, when it comes to fireworks, you having to leave them for a period of time, or sometimes just changing their environment can cause anxiousness but just like with us humans, after a bit of reassurance that everything is going to be alright then those emotions will calk down and fade away over time.

 

[rz3300a]

I am actually surprised at myself for how little I have really thought about this. I have always had cats, though, so I think that it might be harder to see the signs in them versus a dog, but I could be wrong on that and just not looking hard enough. Fireworks is certainly one thing that causes them anxiety though, I know that, and you can also put the vacuum cleaner in there. It is kind of funny to see my little guy react to the vacuum, but I do feel bad for him on the fireworks issues, because he is just trying to relax outside and he probably things that the world is ending. Interesting stuff, and thanks for sharing.

 

[Ashley0323]

I have a form of pet anxiety. As of right now, we only have a bunny. While she is cute, friendly and cuddle-y, my anxiety is higher at times. For instance, when she is out of her cage (at least 5-8 hours a day) she tends to chew on cords, and chew at the furniture, she is just destructive at times. I feel like I am constantly looking for her to make sure nothing is ruined from chewed cords.

 

[GrubbyRose]

I used to have a dog that was afraid of thunder. Every time it started, she tried to get behind a piece of furniture. If she got in my lap, she would be extremely calm, even during the thundering, but if she was somewhere else, she would shake like a leaf. Most of the time during thunder, I would get on the couch, and let her sit in my lap while we watched the weather station on tv. She eventually died of old age.

 

[kmjones]

I think you should just accept that your dog hates storms. Embrace it and live with it. I've known dogs who lived 15+ years and never enjoyed a storm. It is OK. Just talk to your pet and say in a sweet voice that you "know how they feel and it's gonna be okay, baby".


I have an adopted kitty and it is scared of plastic bags.I have had him for two years and he is still afraid of plastic sounds/bags. So I take into consideration his feelings every time I have to change the trash bin or work with plastic bags.


Sometimes we just have to "be there" for our pets instead of trying to completely cure their fears. I believe some fears will last a lifetime.

 

[Dybbuk Jones]

Most pets are anxious by default, but I have a cat who was abused as a kitten and if I want to pet him I have to use the plastic cat toy which is basically a fake tail on a plastic stick. If I put my hand anywhere near him he runs away. The saddest moments happened when I actually had to touch him to put some medicine in his eyes. When I finally trapped him in the closet he didn't scream or claw at me or anything. He's a lovely cat but he relies on the other cats to pet him if he wants it (whether they want him to put his head under their chins is another story).

 

[KW2496]

My dog has extreme separation anxiety. I got him when he was only a couple weeks old, he is seven now, and he has always had this anxiety. It's not even just me and the people I live with but anyone. He barks and cries if we have people over and they stand up because he thinks their leaving. He does this if I'm walking and someone stops to pet him and then they walk away. He does it in the car if people are walking by. And he doesn't like when anyone wears shoes in our house because he thinks that means they are leaving. I've tried many different things to help him out and nothing works. But it's been seven years of this so I've pretty much just accepted it.