# GSD's and thunder



## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

hearing a lot that the breed has issues with thunder. here is my pup in his first thunder storm. the movement is from water dripping on his head.

didn't get the worst of the storm recorded but whta i heard some bolt just with a drop in air pressure.

can ceratinly verify dogs that have to be crated indoors for this reason;

anyhoo heres the link, make sure yr sound is on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR6JJ9QeX-Q


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## Kelly Godwin (Jul 25, 2011)

Peter Cavallaro said:


> hearing a lot that the breed has issues with thunder. here is my pup in his first thunder storm. the movement is from water dripping on his head.
> 
> didn't get the worst of the storm recorded but whta i heard some bolt just with a drop in air pressure.
> 
> ...


He seems to be handling it well - neutral to the sound. He is probably wondering why his owner put his bed directly below a leak in the roof! haha 

Looks good man!


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

Kelly Godwin said:


> He seems to be handling it well - neutral to the sound. He is probably wondering why his owner put his bed directly below a leak in the roof! haha
> 
> Looks good man![/QUOTE
> 
> ...


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Hi Peter, looks like he's handling it as he should, but to tell you the truth, I've never know GSDs to have any particular issues with thunder, nor have I ever heard it said that the breed is prone to reacting to thunder.

Most dogs who react negatively to thunder usually have owner issues not thunder issues.:wink:


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I have even had some GSDs lacking in the nerve department who had no issues with thunder......

Had one that thought a plastic bag we put over a small tree to protect it from a late freeze was the bogey-man though.......


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

cheers Susan, not certain but i thought i first read a thread here on it. not my concern now though i guess, thankfully. 

take pup to the shotgun range next shoot see if anything there, any suggestions on the intro to that stimulus. the older dog is rock solid so he won't copy any bad responses from her.


cheers


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## Doug Zaga (Mar 28, 2010)

Is this the video you were going to put up on focus work????


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

Doug Zaga said:


> Is this the video you were going to put up on focus work????


 
yeah under distraction, looks focused to me :-\"


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Peter Cavallaro said:


> cheers Susan, not certain but i thought i first read a thread here on it. not my concern now though i guess, thankfully.
> 
> take pup to the shotgun range next shoot see if anything there, any suggestions on the intro to that stimulus. the older dog is rock solid so he won't copy any bad responses from her.
> 
> ...


Your pup will take his cues from you, if you are neutral he should be neutral too.


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

not sure if i will be neutral as hangin out around the house, between beers and poppin off rounds .

but thanks


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

My older GSD has always been solid as a rock to guns, thunder, sirens, you name it but as he ages (almost 8) he seems to be developing a mild case of nerves with thunder and fireworks. 
Not out and out fear but he just paces the yard more so then when he was younger. 
Suprised the hell out of me because he WAS so solid. 
As a pup he spent a lot of time in a fire house and would sleep through all the ruckus of alarms, sirens and bells. He loaded, quite happily, on a heliocopter at 12 wks old. I shot trap many times with him sleeping under the car 15 ft behind me. Go figure!


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## Lynn Cheffins (Jul 11, 2006)

I have had dogs that as they aged got a little more uncomfortable with thunder - I always athought it might be that changes is their hearing made it sound different or distorted? don't know..


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## Kelly Godwin (Jul 25, 2011)

Bob Scott said:


> My older GSD has always been solid as a rock to guns, thunder, sirens, you name it but as he ages (almost 8) he seems to be developing a mild case of nerves with thunder and fireworks.
> Not out and out fear but he just paces the yard more so then when he was younger.
> Suprised the hell out of me because he WAS so solid.
> As a pup he spent a lot of time in a fire house and would sleep through all the ruckus of alarms, sirens and bells. He loaded, quite happily, on a heliocopter at 12 wks old. I shot trap many times with him sleeping under the car 15 ft behind me. Go figure!


We have a border collie mix who began having issues with thunder later in life. He's 15 years old now and this started 2 or 3 years ago.


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## susan tuck (Mar 28, 2006)

Peter Cavallaro said:


> not sure if i will be neutral as hangin out around the house, between beers and poppin off rounds .
> 
> but thanks


I meant if you act normal and neutral to gun fire your pup probably will too.


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## Laura Bollschweiler (Apr 25, 2008)

In regard to the older dog becoming sound sensitive, noise phobias are linked with hypothyroidism. Here's only one article i found after a super quick search. 

http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/DODDS-BEHV-THYROID.HTM

The in-office thyroid test is worthless. Better to send blood to MSU for z complete thyroid workup. 

Interesting tidbit, they (whoever they are) recently lowered the values of normal. The average has gone down over the years so normal is lower. 

Laura


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## Lynn Cheffins (Jul 11, 2006)

Laura Bollschweiler said:


> In regard to the older dog becoming sound sensitive, noise phobias are linked with hypothyroidism. Here's only one article i found after a super quick search.
> 
> http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/DODDS-BEHV-THYROID.HTM
> 
> ...


That's very interesting - good to know!


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

he's smart....

my puppy liked to go out in the rain, still does...not the brightest I know....


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

He looks real cool about it, I've never had a gsd either who was worried by thunder, or demolition type stuff. BTW, he doesn't look starved neither.


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## Jim Delbridge (Jan 27, 2010)

Thunderstorm phobia is usually created by a bad experience at a bad time. My very first dog long long ago was a GSD. I learned a sad lesson with him. Where I live out on the prairie, the thunderclaps can be as loud as a concussion bomb with the right circumstances. I was sitting out with the 4 y/o dog in his shelter during a loud, but harmless summer thunderstorm. I got the not-so-bright idea to screw with my dog by predicting the thunderclaps via the lightning strike. Each lightning strike I would pause then look at my dog and say, "boom." This would be followed by the clap of thunder. Within 2 minutes I had accidentally created a thunder phobia. I could just say "boom" and the dog would slink away. The dog's health was fine.

Most thunderstorm phobias get created by the sound stimulus followed by the dog jumping out of surprise and the movement causing pain via other stimulus (such as an adjacent fence/whatever). That this pain stimulus is not all the time simply reinforces the phobia as the dog can't predict the end result; Thus, the dog learns to protect itself by hiding.

Best solution I've had with dogs that ended up with this fear was simply to crate them in a dark place with music playing prior to the thunderstorm moving through.

I inherited a pointer from family that would literally cut itself up in attempts to escape fencing during thunderstorm. Same solution with no issues. This really isn't a breed thing.

You can have a dog that has passed all the noise level testing previously with guns, fireworks, whatever and have it be at the wrong time/wrong place and this phobia develops. You can also have one dog teach another dog the fear via observation.

Jim


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## Jami Craig (Jul 5, 2010)

Dogs that are afraid of storms typically are NOT afraid of the thunder or flashing lights, especially when the onset is later in life. Older dogs are more sensitive to certain environmental changes.


The electricity and current in the air is what typically causes phobias of storms. It tells the dog to get under cover to avoid lightning. If it happens enough and is not dealt with early it becomes a phobia. Many of the storm shirts and capes for dogs provide a method of grounding the dog, so that the static doesn't effect them. 

Another thread that was locked someone said

"I just Googled the Thundershirt. Can you imagine a working dog that needs something crazy like that? Just shoot the old dog and get a real one!"

This can happen to any dog, I'd imagine that working dogs who are taught to deal with stress and discomfort from a younger age deal with it a better and are more likely to cope if they're uncomfortable but this can happen to ANY dog. If you notice your dog seeking to ground itself during a storm, frantic or not, you may want to look into helping them before it becomes a problem. I know someone who rubs her dog down with dryer sheets to de-static him a bit upon the onset of a thunderstorm and swears it's a cheaper alternative to a storm shirt. I know my dog LOVES storms, when he feels the electricity in the his ears go up, his tail wags, I usually do OB since he gets an extra kick to perform, when it's a really bad summer one however and everything is static-y he'll lay in his "den" area fully grounded on the side of his metal crate for the first few minutes....


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

Lynn Cheffins said:


> I always athought it might be that changes is their hearing made it sound different or distorted? don't know..


 
i wouldn't count age as anything - all mammals deteriorate. learned this when an old guy came past my house on a tractor in first gear full throttle with a torch mounted on a loaded 243, he briefly pulled over to warn me that "they is comin hard" i said who is they, he said "dunno but theres thousand s of them, can ya hear em.... they're planning an attack". he let me use his special detection device so i could see them and passed me the rifle and switched on the torch so i could "see em", he's like "see they're F'ing evrywhere we gotta get out of here theirs too many of em" i asked if he would walk with me to my house and protect me while i got my belongings, as he got off the tractor i pulled the fuel line connecting the tank to the engine - we walked to the house and i sneakily managed to remove the ammo from the clip and replace the empty magazine, i also took the bolt out. he then got back on his tractor went a few miles down the road and ran out of fuel - his relatives picked him up and took him home. 

he was a rock solid guy his whole life - we are all going to lose it with age lol.


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## Doug Zaga (Mar 28, 2010)

Peter Cavallaro said:


> i wouldn't count age as anything - all mammals deteriorate. learned this when an old guy came past my house on a tractor in first gear full throttle with a torch mounted on a loaded 243, he briefly pulled over to warn me that "they is comin hard" i said who is they, he said "dunno but theres thousand s of them, can ya hear em.... they're planning an attack". he let me use his special detection device so i could see them and passed me the rifle and switched on the torch so i could "see em", he's like "see they're F'ing evrywhere we gotta get out of here theirs too many of em" i asked if he would walk with me to my house and protect me while i got my belongings, as he got off the tractor i pulled the fuel line connecting the tank to the engine - we walked to the house and i sneakily managed to remove the ammo from the clip and replace the empty magazine, i also took the bolt out. he then got back on his tractor went a few miles down the road and ran out of fuel - his relatives picked him up and took him home.
> 
> he was a rock solid guy his whole life - we are all going to lose it with age lol.


 
Was that your prophetic future...did you see that in your dreams Pete while it was thundering ?


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

well i always considered the guy as my mentor - said i would follow him anywhere, so who knows.


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## Doug Zaga (Mar 28, 2010)

Peter Cavallaro said:


> well i always considered the guy as my mentor - said i would follow him anywhere, so who knows.


 
Focus work Pete...focus work!!!!


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

hey man it was raining out, hence the thunder vid and not a focus vid. 

if you look forward to my vids like i look forward to Katrins, i'm not posting.


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## Shawndra Drury (Jun 28, 2010)

susan tuck said:


> Most dogs who react negatively to thunder usually have owner issues not thunder issues.:wink:


Oooooh yeah!
My parent's BC will work for me in the pasture during a thunderstorm, but if either of them is around he loses his mind and starts freaking out. Once he was inside and my mom got him so neurotically worked up that even my dog started getting worried. Ugh!


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

my dear old rescue dog Gracie Mae has fairly severe "thunder" issues. my boy Ikon does not, even though he has been raised with Gracie. IDK what Gracie went through in her previous life, and i was concerned it would affect Ike-but he doesn't give a crap about the noise (other than sometimes perking up over it).

this is NOT a genetic GSD issue. whoever told you that doesn't know GSD history. ask the germans. what a load of BS. not a "breed issue".


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

and peter--what a good-looking pup!!!! what i like about GSD is that they don't care if it's raining; i was cleaning out the garage (more than once) when it was raining, the pup got bored, curled up outside in the rain, no harm, no foul. just took a nap, water rolled right off him. wish i had pics.....

this depends upon coat "type", which looks like your boy has--a hard, tight coat vs a "plush" coat more like a husky (but softer)--i know 'cause Gracie has a soft, plush coat--not for working outside for hours. but she's not responsible for how she was bred. i'm just responsible for cleaning up her shedding nearly constantly, lol


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## Brian Anderson (Dec 2, 2010)

Bob Scott said:


> My older GSD has always been solid as a rock to guns, thunder, sirens, you name it but as he ages (almost 8) he seems to be developing a mild case of nerves with thunder and fireworks.
> Not out and out fear but he just paces the yard more so then when he was younger.
> Suprised the hell out of me because he WAS so solid.
> As a pup he spent a lot of time in a fire house and would sleep through all the ruckus of alarms, sirens and bells. He loaded, quite happily, on a heliocopter at 12 wks old. I shot trap many times with him sleeping under the car 15 ft behind me. Go figure!


Bob I have one right now thats 8 and he's getting a bit "flinchy" for lack of a better term. I have noticed it the last few months. We were in our shop and a friend turned the router table on and he was standing beside it and kinda lurched when he heard it. His whole life he was solid as stone. Now that I mention it I am not what I used to be either lol.


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

Anne i belive it may be genetic in a family sense but assocaiting it with a breed seems implausible - just a claim i heard, seems unfounded. 

also learned there is possibly no correlation between thunder phobia and a dogs reaction to other loud noises eg gunfire, can have a phobia about one but not the other????

BTW thanks for liking my pup, i'm really happy with him and will bore the heck out of the you all with pics vids etc.

very different personality to the hound types i am more familiar with - in one sentence he seems to want to please the handler where the hound types more want to please themselves - just an observation, generalising never gets far with dogs lol


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

peter i can't help you with the "thunder vs gunshots' phobia--Gracie is the first dog i've ever had with thunder (and fireworks) phobia. but hey--only had dogs a year or two, hahaha

as far as your hounds, i LOVE hounds, they're just sweethearts--but they're NOT a GSD!! their satisfaction comes from having their nose to the ground, and who cares what YOU want, lol!! unless you happen to want what they're tracking.

GSD love to work with you, as you've noted, but keep in mind they also are thinking dogs and will make decisions independent of what you may want. that's why i love the breed--better than "Lassie", IMO.


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

the shepherd says - what next

the hound says - what for


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