Spring storms: thunder plans before the first big one.

The first big storm line of the Houston spring usually arrives in March, at night, with lightning that goes on for an hour. Storm-anxious dogs know it is coming before you do, and the ones that were fine last year are sometimes not fine this year. The plan is built in the calm weeks, not during the storm.

The two-week build

• A crate in an interior room with no windows, covered, with a bed the dog already loves
• Storm sounds at low volume during meals and play, raised slowly
• Place with a fan running, then with the sound on
• A routine for storm nights: walk early, feed, crate, noise, lights low, you calm

During the storm

Do not coddle and do not scold. Be boring. Sit in the room, read, let the dog settle in the crate. A dog that has practiced crate calm for two weeks treats the storm as a loud night. A dog that has never been asked to settle treats it as the end of the world. If yours is the second kind and the fear is severe, this is one of the anxiety cases we work through in a stay, and March is when the calls start.

Flooded streets are the other spring hazard: keep the dog out of moving water and bayous, and check the paws after a walk through standing water.

What storm anxiety looks like, and what it is not

Pacing, panting, drooling, trembling, hiding in the bathtub or the closet, scratching at doors, and a dog that will not eat with the sky rumbling are the real signs. A dog that simply moves to the interior of the house and lies down is coping fine and needs no plan at all. The difference matters because a coping dog handled like an anxious one, followed and soothed and fussed over, can learn that storms are an event. Be boring with the coping dog and structured with the anxious one.

• Mild: pacing that settles in the crate within ten minutes
• Moderate: cannot settle, pants for the length of the storm, hides
• Severe: destruction, escape attempts, injuries to paws or teeth on the crate; talk to your vet as well as to us

The static-electricity theory and the practical answer

Many storm-anxious dogs seek the bathtub or the tile, which some trainers put down to static build-up in a dog's coat before a storm. Whether or not that explains it, the practical answer is the same: give the dog a low, enclosed, non-carpeted spot it has chosen or been taught to love, and make that spot the crate. A covered crate on the bathroom tile with a bed the dog already uses answers the instinct and gives you a place to send it before the first thunder. Build the calm there in the dry weeks with meals and chews, and the storm becomes a night in a familiar den.

Written by

Best Dog University Team

Board and train trainers in Cypress, Houston. 16+ years, 900+ dogs. About our team