Since summer is practically here and with summer comes thunderstorms and fireworks there are a couple tricks you can use if your chi is scared.

1) If it is storming or if there are fireworks being shot off near you and your chi is scared, you can try to put him/her in a central room and put on the radio. Sometimes this can get their minds off of the noise and can calm them down

2) if they are really freaked out and are darting around try putting them in a crate with lots of soft blankets and cover the top of the crate with a blanket...leaving the front of the crate uncovered...this can calm them down also (along with the radio/backround noise)

3) if you find that nothing works there are medications you can get at the vet that can take the edge off your pups anxiety...at my work we will perscribe Acepromazine...we only give out a couple at a time and we always tell the owners to give a couple hours before a storm is expected to hit

We are getting more and more calls about this so I figured I would post what we tell our clients to do. I hope this is helpful!

(As i wrote this a bad storm just arived...lol! Thankfully my dogs seem pretty relaxed when storms hit...good thing too because we live in an area where we get a lot)

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Thanks JESS

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Good advice, Marcus isn't afraid of thunderstorms (thank goodness where we live) but he hasn't seen or heard fireworks yet.

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http://www.dogster.com/?191149.

thanks for the info !! mine don't freak when there's a thunder ;........thank god

kisses nat

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Thanks for the advice, especially with the fireworks. Fireworks are legal where I live to I have a feeling I'll be hearing them A LOT once july 4th comes rolling around.

we actuall don't get that many firworks here at the ark but the surrounding area gets a lot of them.. this will be Gadgets first 4th of July....

as far as thunderstorms.. He would be just fine if I would get over my fear of them...

if the pup is scared and you comfort it and baby it they say that reinforces the behavior.... going about your normal business and acting like nothing is going on is supposed to help ease them..... out of the 5 shih tzu mixes we have only one of them is afraid of storms and used to be fireworks but she is deaf now so it's only the storms that bother her (they can feel the changes in the environment) we didn't get her as a puppy and her previous owner would baby her for everything! my mom babies her when she acts scared she only sits in my moms lap and shakes, she doesn't stress real real bad. not like my tasha bird used to. it was so bad her blood pressure would go up, she would be a stress case. the eyes would get real dry and her obsessive compulsive behaviors would come out more so i had to give her ace. i always had soem on hand and i was like a weathergirl always knowing when the storms would hit. plus muphin as sesnitive to the pressure as she was i could tell by her behavior when a storm was coming.

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I knew I had seen a product somewhere that is supposed to eliminate thunderstorm fear. I just found their ad. The product is called The Anxiety Wrap and it is "a gentle, revolutionary tool that uses maintained pressure to reduce stress. When your dog or cat wears it, any behavior resulting from fear or anxiety, like pacing and panting from thunderstorms, can end." I have no idea if it works but their website is www.anxietywrap.com.

I'm going to check it out and if it looks good I will probably get it for Lily. She has a real bad time with loud noises and with July 4th coming up I'd sure like to help her out.

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I love my baby girl, Lily!
www.dogster.com/?124961 Lily
www.dogster.com/?127388 Gracie