My in laws are from Ukraine. They have a wonderful little Yorkie they brought with them from the war. But the bombing seems to have traumatized him. Now whenever it storms he pants and shakes like crazy.
We got him the hemp pills but it just seems to make him drugged out, but still nervous.
Any advice for what to do for him?
Posted Aug 15, 2022, 10:44 PM UTC
Thundershirts. I haven’t used them, but I’ve done a similar concept with my doggo and it seemed to help. A quick google search will give you purchasing options.
Also, pay attention where the lil guy goes when it’s nervous. It’s probably looking for (or already has) a safe space. My dog’s is his crate, which we always leave open, and has a covering so it seems like a cave. Always let your dog go to their safe space and encourage it with a treat or something.
Hope this helps.
They make thundershirts with adaptil that are REALLY good
I would go to the vet to see if they recommend anything. A lot of the suggestions on here are going to be for common dog anxieties. Coming from a war zone is very different and many of us and our pets haven’t been through that. You may think dogs act like a storm is a bomb, until you’ve seen a dog be in close proximity to a bomb. They can probably give your dog prescription meds to help along with some good tips
Welcome to r/dogs! We are a discussion-based subreddit dedicated to support, inform, and advise dog owners.
This is a carefully moderated sub intended to support, inform, and advise dog owners. Submissions and comments which break the rules will be removed. Review the rules here r/Dogs has four goals: - Help the public better understand dogs - Promote healthy, responsible dog-owner relationships - Encourage “Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive” training protocols. Learn more here. - Support adoption as well as ethical and responsible breeding. If you’d like to introduce yourself or discuss smaller topics, please contribute to our Monthly Discussion Hub, pinned at the top.
This subreddit has low tolerance for drama. Please be respectful of others, and report antagonistic comments to mods for review.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
There is some great advice in this thread! Just want to note I use melatonin to calm a generally nervous dog, and it seems to work. 1.5 mg for a 20-lb dog, once a day.
I'm sorry for everything they had to go through. They have lightweight compression jackets I believe called thunder jackets that are supposed to help reduce dog anxiety. You can also try other different kinds of calming chews. I've been using Pet Naturals Calming for Dogs and Cats you can pick them up from Amazon it doesn't put them out it just kind of takes the edge off.
hugs and treats and confidence in your voice. get him slowly used to scary things
Oof. Poor little guy (and poor in-laws). Go see your vet, you might be able to get some tablets for anxiety to use during storms. Once the dog has settled (give it a couple of months) then maybe try desensitisation training. He has been through a lot (not to mention picking up on his owners likely anxiety too) so he might just need some time to settle and feel those around him settle too.
Try some desensitization. Use a laptop to play storm sounds, just loud enough that he definitely hears them but isn't scared. Do this for 20 minutes while feeding him treats, a few times a day. Slowly increase the volume, but never so loud that he is scared.
Also the thunder shirt is a good idea.
I would also add, you can get a remote controlled light for fairly cheap, and flicker that intermittently with the storm noises. I would guess the pup's main problem is the noise, but you don't want to get them all calm with that and then have them freak out over the light instead yk.
Agreed! Didn't think of that. Thank you!!