Moose will be six years old on July 13th. He’s never been afraid of storms, but that may be because in Colorado, it hardly ever storms. In fact, the ONLY thing I miss about Kansas are the thunderstorms and rain storms. I could count on my fingers the number of times I’ve heard it thunder in the 6 1/2 years I’ve lived in Colorado.
Wednesday night there was some thunder and lightning (of course it didn’t rain, as my yellow front yard can attest to). For some reason, Moose became very upset by this.
I was lying on the couch watching the best TV reality show ever (So You Think You Can Dance), and I barely noticed the occasional thunder and lightning.
Moose started panting like I’ve never seen him pant before. It was like he had just run a marathon. And his tongue was sticking out - something that never happens in the house because he’s not running around.
He kept leaning on me and trying to shove his head into my arm. So I pet him and didn’t notice. Next thing I know, he had jumped on the couch and jumped ON ME, and was trying to get so close it was like he was climbing through me. I think he was trying to hide his massive head by tucking it in the crook of my neck. He didn’t bark or whimper, but his eyes were a bit bugged out.
I couldn’t get him to settle down, and I certainly didn’t want a 180 pound dog laying on me. So finally I gave him two tablets of Benadryl. I don’t know if it worked or not because I had taken some too so I fell asleep soon after.
It is just weird to me that a dog suddenly develops a fear of thunder at the age of six.
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I LOVE Moose! He has got to be the sweetest dog ever. You need more Moose on this blog. I want to see big Moose pictures.
He’s probably scared because he knows that big red feathers are notorious lightning-attractors …
That is how all our dogs back on the farm acted. When they were young, they couldn’t care less about thunder. When they got older, they cowered in the most remote nook they could find. Hope Moose is better now.
My dogs hate storms. Quiver and quake and you can’t peel them out of your lap.
My four-year-old Australian Shepherd suddenly became afraid of thunder this year, too. It’s so weird! She shakes and cowers and practically attaches herself to us until it’s over. I have no idea, like you, why she would become afraid of it so suddenly. I wonder if it’s an age thing?