In particular, thunder and lightning?
I have a beagle that starts to shake and hides underneath the bed when she hears thunder. I had a golden retriever that did the same thing. It’s like, we’ve got plenty of shelter. There’s nothing to be afraid of, dog.
What gives?
It’s a loud and unpredictable noise. Of course they’re scared. Heck, some human beings are afraid of thunder.
It varies a lot. None of my dogs are afraid of thunder.
A few theories I’ve read seem likely to point to contributing factors. One is that dogs, being bred from wolves or wolf-like ancestors for specific traits, have inadvertently been bred for storm phobia as well. This dovetails with the observation that hunting breeds (like beagles and retrievers) are particularly prone to storm phobia, giving rise to the speculation that some hunting trait is correlated with – perhaps even responsible for – storm phobia. One speculation is that hunting breeds are bred for sensitivity, the better to detect subtle signs of prey and respond instantly. I’m not too sure about that, as a good hunting dog is not gun-shy, but that may actually be be common without careful introduction. Do any hunters have insights?
Any observations or data on whether wolves are storm phobic?
I grew up in California and when one of the larger 7.2 quakes hit our dog and the one we were dog sitting went bonkers about a minute before we felt anything. Their senses were clearly stronger than ours.
My cat gets super freaked out during hard rain and thunderstorms. I’m convinced it’s the barometric pressure she senses. The sequence always goes like this: I check radar and see a strong storm coming a ways out, ten minutes before there is any sound at all, or even rain, she starts getting low to the ground and tries to take shelter at the center of the apartment, then I see rain and eventually hear thunder.
It’s not an audible thing as far as sensing it before hand goes, but they do have sensitive hearing so it may hurt their ears.
there are a lot of low frequency components to thunder. growls have low frequency components. whatever could growl that loud is something you don’t want to meet.
My dog doesn’t like sounds where she can’t see the source. She is not afraid when the dogs across the street bark at her through the fence, but she’s terrified when she hears dogs bark from behind closed doors at the vet. She is scared of the sound of the train going by - behind the trees where she can’t see it - but barks and gets angry when the Goodyear Blimp drives by (low and slow where she can see it). She’s obviously not afraid of people talking, but people talking over the loudspeaker at the high school stadium next door makes her cower and shake.
She used to be afraid of the vacuum but she’s learned to keep an eye on it, and stay in the room with me, and she doesn’t care.
She’s trained herself to be so scared of thunder that she will not go outside if there’s a hint of rain on the way. She smells the air then retreats back inside if it feels like low pressure.
Mine, neither. It’s clearly not universal.
The giant sky dog is ANGRY!
My dogs both go under the bed or ottoman (and spend the whole time scratching the carpet like they’re trying to dig a hole) for a good 20 minutes after the last sign of thunder. Come 4th of July, there’s been years where I literally couldn’t get them to leave the house for 3 days (yes, I spent a lot of time cleaning the carpet).
I have two beagles. The older one is very afraid of thunder and lightning, and fireworks, and the beeping from my computer’s UPS… The younger one is fine with all of these. Now, I can’t tell you the whys, but I can suggest a Thundershirt. We put it on the old girl before a storm hits or as it is starting and she is fine.
One of our three dogs was very storm phobic when we first got her. Then a couple years ago we had them on the pontoon boat and misjudged the track a storm was taking. We were on the river during a horrible downpour that scared the crap out of us, let alone the dogs. Now she is better with storms!
Blackjack has a Thundershirt and it does help, a little. He doesn’t like thunder, fireworks, gunshots, and some power tools. It seems to all be about low frequency, unpredictable sounds. Thunder is the worst, and possibly because he used to get stuck outside during thunderstorms before he came to live with us.
“Honey, how big is our bell jar?”
What happens when somebody farts? 
I wonder why they work.
Perhaps the dog is too embarrassed to be frightened.
My dog is terrified of storms. He tries to get in the smallest space possible. Which can be difficult as he’s HUGE. He’s also afraid of the smoke detectors when they beep (battery low) and the beep from the scanner (again, battery low). He used to freak out when we’d sneeze (when we first brought him home from the shelter) but he’s gotten used to that. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to what’s he afraid of - I think he may just be goofy.
That site gives no good information as to why that might work using a “gentle calming hug” from a piece of fabric. Testimonials abound, and the only proof that it works is a survey of pet owners. Methinks the claimed “80% success rate” is more in the mind of the owner than the dog.
In short, a classic example of pseudoscience.
Probably about like swaddling a baby. Creates an instinctive calmness.