Thunderstorms and Puppy Jake

Last weekend I found out our 7 mo. old puppy Jake, is terrified of fireworks. He doesn’t even have to see them, just hear them and he freaks out. I had wondered if he also would be afraid of thunderstorms when I was looking at the skies early this morning. My body felt a storm coming on and I think the dogs knew something was going to change weather wise just by the way they were acting.

Sure enough, it started getting darker and the skies looked a grey black. I saw the first bolt of lightening and counted to three… BOOM! My poor puppy went ballistic. I felt so sorry for him. He nearly flew under my desk, spinning my chair around and I almost tipped over. He was under there shaking so hard I think I heard his teeth even clicking. I went under the desk to him…which was hard to do even if I’m small. Jake is just a pup, but he is BIG and it was a tight fit under there for both of us. Still, I held him and kept telling him everything was okay. He didn’t stop shaking though.

So, now I know Jake is terrified of thunderstorms and fireworks. I’ll bet he’s afraid of gunfire also. Living around here, all of these sounds are like an every day experience. I’m going to have to find a way to teach him that these things aren’t going to hurt him. Bless his heart!