19/11/2025
🐕 CASE STUDY TIME… FEAR OF THUNDER & RAIN
➡️ This write-up is going to be a bit different to other case study write-ups I’ve done previously because this story is more about dealing with obstacles during the behaviour modification journey, rather than the behaviour plan and results themselves. It’s about emphasising the importance of the client having a good supportive team around them to help them overcome those unexpected obstacles and about the client listening and trusting that team…
❤️ This is Stan - How handsome is he?! ❤️
➡️ Stan’s mum came to me in July 2024, having been recommended by her vet to seek the help of a behaviourist. Stan had been getting increasingly anxious about rain and thunder and had started barking constantly in the late afternoon and evening - alerting to every little noise.
Now, problem number one (for the Behaviourist) is that Stan’s fear of thunder had been present since he was a puppy and he was 9 at the time of our first consultation. His fear of rain developed about 2-3 years later. This means that both fears were very entrenched and had been present for most, if not all, of his life. Long term fears are very resistant to change and we are unlikely to solve the problem completely. So, why seek help now, I hear you ask…
❓Well, Stan’s behaviour was intensifying, for no apparent reason. Stan was picking up on the drop in barometric pressure and would start whining and crying before any rain had even started. Once the rain started, he would constantly bark and pace for the duration of the rain and for some time after; if it thundered, he was utterly inconsolable and would run around the house barking in a highly distressed state, and it would take some time for him to calm down afterwards. The alert barking in the late afternoons and evenings was a new behaviour and happened regardless of the weather. Which leads us to problem two….. why is it getting much worse now?
⁉️ When we have a problem behaviour that increases in intensity for no apparent reason, or a new behaviour that suddenly starts, the first thing to look at is pain. In addition, we know that pain is often behind increased noise sensitivities AND early studies are indicating that those with musculoskeletal pain can experience an increase in pain when barometric pressure drops.
💉 Stan had already been diagnosed with arthritis a year earlier and was on monthly pain-relieving injections but when I saw videos of him on walks and observed his movements in the home, I was concerned that there was something else going on, so I referred him to a vet physio (the amazing Amy Stone Veterinary Physiotherapy).
➡️ While we waited for Stan’s physio appointment, I put some lifestyle changes and management strategies in place to try and reduce some of Stan’s anxiety, and I contacted his vet to communicate my concerns, inform them of the plan going forward and ask for some situational and long term medication to help with any heavy rain and thunder. At this point, the vet agreed to the medication but stated that Stan had seemed fine on examination and that this was probably just a flare-up of his arthritis.
❌ It wasn’t.
🏥 After an assessment with Amy, some treatment and an exercise plan for a few weeks, it was agreed that Stan needed to go back to the vet for some X-rays. Stan had a Cruciate Ligament Rupture and required surgery. It was thought that this had happened a year previously when Stan’s mum had taken him to the vet because he was limping but it hadn’t been picked up by the vet. This is a really, really painful condition for dogs and Stan had suffered with this for a whole year. No wonder his behaviour was getting worse.
❌ But the story doesn’t end there… The surgeon pronounced the surgery a success but didn’t prescribe any physio as part of his rehabilitation. A little while after his op, we were still experiencing some issues associated with pain - some limping and skipping on that leg, and some barking and growling at bigger dogs (another new behaviour). So I sent him back to Amy. After a few weeks of physio exercises and a lot of roast chicken in the presence of other dogs, there were some improvements but not enough. Back to the vet we went…
😧 Turns out the operation wasn’t quite the success the surgeon made it out to be. In fact, the surgeon had repaired the ligament but not bothered to tidy up and remove the loose cartilage so this was flapping around the knee - now any human who has had to undergo an arthroscopy will know how painful loose flapping cartilage is - it catches and hurts, it makes the knee really unstable, it can become swollen and inflamed. It’s a whole world of ouchy.
🏥 So off to the specialist we go. This time, a proper job was done, and physio and hydrotherapy done as part of the rehab programme.
⏰ Roll on another 4 months and Stan was physically well. He was great around other dogs but still a bit barky from time to time and, obviously still worried during rain and thunder. I should add at this point that the vet had been trialling various different medications with Stan - all situational (meaning they are used at the time of the worrying event) - despite my recommendation to add in a long term medication. And it had been a battle with the vet to get some of these medicines trialled at all. But here we were with another drug that wasn’t working and so Stan’s mum came back to me to ask for help. I went back to the vet and asked (again) for a long term medication. And we got it…
🙌 Wow! What a game changer! Stan is now much calmer overall but, more importantly, has snoozed his way through all the recent rainstorms we’ve had, putting us in a GREAT place to start working on his fear of thunder.
✋ Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, remember what I said at the beginning? We are unlikely to resolve his fear completely - it is too entrenched. Our aim is to get Stan as comfortable as we can, so he can tolerate thunder better, and not be in that same level of distress he was before. That is success in cases like these.
‼️ So, the takeaways from this case are:
- Sometimes we have to push back at vets. We can’t always take their first opinion. If we hadn’t pushed and explored pain ourselves, we wouldn’t have discovered Stan had a Cruciate Ligament Rupture.
- Just because a surgeon says surgery has been successful, it’s not always the case - If we hadn’t continued to push after Stan’s op, we wouldn’t have discovered he needed a second op because the first one wasn’t done properly.
- ALWAYS get physio after an operation, even if it’s not recommended by your vet.
- Not every drug will work for your dog. Sometimes we need to trial lots of different ones before finding what works. And this goes for pain relief meds, as well as behaviour meds.
- As a client, you want a good support team around you who are prepared to advocate for you and your dog. If you have that team, listen to them - Stan’s mum did.
✅ From my point of view, I LOVE having a network of good dog professionals around me who I can trust. Whether that’s other trainers or behaviourists, physios, groomers etc. But me having this amazing network only works if the client trusts me and takes my advice to use them. Thankfully, Stan’s mum did and it meant that Amy and I were able to work as a team and push to get Stan the treatment he so badly needed. But the biggest thing for me is that, YET AGAIN, we have pain playing a key part in the behaviour I was asked to help with. Pain that had been missed by vets for a whole year. If I ever needed a reminder (which I don’t 😂) of why I am taking the Dynamic Dog Practitioner course, this is it. 15 months after his mum first contacted me, I received this message from her “I am very happy - he’s like the old Stan!” ❤️ I can guarantee we wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t resolved that pain first.
