Take Your Dog to Work Day

Lately, and unfortunately, it has been very rainy and dismal in this part of the world.  Late May is the time of year that, normally, one would love.  The temps are supposed to be warming up and the sun should be making regular appearances.

But here in NW Indiana, there has been an unhappy amount of rain.  It is spring, and we need rain, but I say "enough."  It's bad enough that such weather ruins outdoor plans.  But rain, and even worse, rain with thunder (such as we have today) makes my life a living hell. 

My dog, the Zipster, spent the first ten years of his life as a normal Jack Russell Terrier.  He was rough, tough and fearless.  Zip was raised in Arizona, and while rain storms are infrequent, the summer brought a lot of lightening and thunder (usually accompanied by dust and sand instead of rain), and other than an occasional "woof", I was proud to see that my dog didn't seem to have any aversion to the noise.

That all changed about 2 years ago.  We were visiting my brother in Holland and staying overnight.  At about 10:00pm an extremely thin band of thundershowers moved over his house.  And it moved over his house for about 8 hours.  I don't remember ever being subjected to such a lenthy storm.  Initially, the Zipster was ok, but as the storm showed no signs of abating, he started panting.  And then he started shaking.  And then he started shuddering.  He was beside himself, and nothing could calm him or distract him. 

And that was the commencement of a new stage in our lives.  Zip's fear of thunderstorms, if evidenced in a human, would be a phsychiatrist's dream.  It has gotten to the point where he begins shaking and panting if he even senses rain.  A mere gentle rain, if he can hear or see it, causes the same reaction in my poor dog.  I have tried every tip given me by vets or by reading books and articles, all to no avail.  Here in Indiana, unfortunately, rain is relatively common.  Drugging him with Benadryl or melatonin have no effect whatsover.

Sometimes, when it's quiet at work; such as today (we are between the end of the spring semester and summer school, and it's a Friday), I'll bring Zip to my office with me.  I went home at lunch and had heard the afternoon forecast for thunderboomers.  So I collected the pup, who gets VERY excited to come to work with me, and brought him along with me.

After the second thunderboom, as Zip was going into full terror mode, my boss Joe came knocking on my door.  Before he fully entered my office, he was chiding me about being a bad dog owner, leaving my dog home alone in this storm (everyone knows of Zip's fear of thunderstorms).  Halfway through the sentence, he entered my office only to be assaulted by a terrified, yet excited terrier jumping all over him.  I was delighted to see that Joe was able to distract Zip from his fear, for all of two minutes, but when he departed, poor Zip was back to his shaking, panting (complete with drooling) and shuddering.  Another trait of his fear is that he keeps his little tail down.  It's not long enough to go between his legs.  In fact, it's so short that it seems it must take a lot of energy and strength for poor Zip to keep that little stub in that position.

The thunder has ceased.  The last sound was well over 45 minutes ago, but Zip isn't having any of it.  He's still panting and shaking, anticipating the next big noise.  I have to go to the bathroom, but there's no way to do it without him following me.  He is plastered to my leg...

The only upside of this is that it makes him extremely exhausted when it's all over.  Assuming there's no more thunder, he should sleep well tonight.  Bring on the sunshine!