1 Day 1 World Project: Donna at 05:00am – 06:00am
One of the reasons why it was so difficult for me to deal with a thunder phobic dog in the first year of adoption is that when I lose it, I really lose it.
When the rainy season comes around, I start losing sleep because the dog makes a racket and a mess of the house when it thunders in the middle of the night. The loss of sleep hours accumulated and eventually the human is pushed past her threshold.
My dog is not aggressive.
But I am, when I get to that point.
Which basically unravels all the good work I put in with desensitisation and dog regresses.
I find myself at that point again today, unfortunately, after a week of extremely poor sleep patterns and long hours. The best I can do for Donna is to distance myself.
This is Donna at about 5:30am sometime in the last week. I was woken by the thud of potted plants toppling due to strong winds and rain. Donna was looking only mildly worried, but happy to find me checking on her.
Welcome, human.
Since it was close to daybreak, there was no point going back to bed.
You know that when she stands pointing towards the study, she wants to go hide in the room. She feels safest there but isn’t as comfortable in there by herself if I’m not in there with her.
Let’s go to my safe place, human
I don’t like the weather outside, human
Now that you’re in your chair, you should start giving me treats, human.
While each dog is an individual, if you are interested to know what helped with Donna’s awful thunder phobia so that nowadays she only shows mild worry around humans – read this:
– Donna finds shelter from Thunder Phobia
I hope one day she would be worry free, even when the humans are not home.
Note: Despite the human’s bad humour today, the good news is Donna has passed the temperament test today at Therapy Dogs Singapore. Hopefully she will be comforting to the people she is suppose to therapise.
For 24 weeks, weliveinaflat will post photos taken for a specific hour in that week.
We will cover 24 hours in 24 weeks.
More about the 1 Day 1 World Project here.
Golden Woofs
Oh! Donna, we understand. Sugar just developed recently (which is very odd, n will share more on a future post). Glad that she finds comfort with her stuffie. Being with you in a safe room is the best. Golden Thanks for sharing. Golden Woofs
weliveinaflat
Oh no, I’m sorry Sugar recently developed it! And yes, being in a safe room with the human is the best! Even better with treats!
Kyla
Donna, have you been compensated adequately for this torture?
weliveinaflat
Which torture? Today I had a whole mooncake to myself :D http://instagram.com/p/sZQCbaFIDy/
Tenacious Little Terrier
Poor Donna. Mr. N doesn’t like thunderstorms either but he just hides under things and we get them very rarely. When is Donna going on her first therapy visit?
weliveinaflat
This Friday :D We are visiting some old people :)
NW Frame of Mind
I was wondering how she is coping with thunder now. Good to hear it’s a little better but sorry you missed another night of restful sleep. :(
weliveinaflat
Mostly not to do with her thunder phobia actually…. I seem to be a developing insomniac. :/
NW Frame of Mind
Oh no, sorry to hear. :(
weliveinaflat
No worries, really. If you realise there’s a problem, it’s easier to find a solution ;)
Lauren Miller
Awe poor Donna!! Zoe suffers from severe noise phobia, too. It can be so miserable for all of us. :(
weliveinaflat
It can! Only people who have to go through it will understand. You hang in there. And I hope you find something that helps Zoe!
Miley's Daily Scoop
Awww, our brother is a nervous nelly when it comes to loud and unexpected noises. Glad you have you’re stuffie to comfort you! Happy b&w Sunday!
Emmadog
Thankfully, Bailie and I are not phased by storms. Katie gets scared, but she goes into the bathroom with no windows and goes back to sleep. No one wakes up Mom.
MyDogLikes
Oh we are so sorry! This is the toughest!! Just keep working on it sweet pup!
dollythedoxie
I started wearing a Thundershirt this summer and it really helps. Maybe if you put one on her before bedtime? Love Dolly
Sam Loo
Sam and Pecan ain’t too fond of thunder either. While they may not be as terrified as poor Donna, they do bark the ceiling down when they hear one…and it sucks especially when thunderstorms seem to be happening at wee hours lately. Sure hope Donna gets better!!
Nature by Dawn
I’m so glad you’ve made some progress with Donna. It’s great to see that with hard work progress can be made. :)
Jessie
We also had thunder phobias- of the little girl kind. Fortunately are current dogs are unfazed by storms.
cottonthemaltese
So awesome that Donna passed the temperament test! Hope it’s not a lofty dream to do that with Cotton one day :) nothing beats volunteering and having your dog there will top the cake :)
2 Brown Dawgs
Wonderful that Donna passed her test.