Dec. 21, 2005 — Sympathetic owners of dogs that are terrified of thunderstorms do their best to calm their pets, but a new study determined that only other dogs, and not humans, can alleviate canine stress during storms.

The findings support the theory that dogs benefit from the companionship of other dogs, particularly during stressful situations. The effect becomes even more pronounced for thunderstorm-phobic dogs, whose outrageously high anxiety levels were measured for the first time in this study.

Lead author Nancy Dreschel is a veterinarian and researcher at Pennsylvania State University.

Dreschel told Discovery News, "My experience in clinical veterinary practice has been that one of the most frustrating things for owners of thunderstorm-phobic dogs is that there doesn't seem to be much they can do to comfort them. Many dogs seek out their owners during a storm, but then don't seem to calm down when their owners are present."

For the study, published in the current Applied Animal Behavior Science, Dreschel and colleague Douglas Granger asked 19 dog-owner pairs to listen to a five-minute recording of a thunderstorm in their own homes. The dog and its owner were videotaped during the listening session.

The dogs included five purebred golden retrievers, a corgi, a keeshond, a border collie, a Labrador retriever, and 10 mixed breeds.

Just before the test, both the owner and his or her dog provided a saliva sample. The samples also were provided 20 minutes after the session, and then 40 minutes after the session.

The videotapes revealed that most dogs freaked out, as predicted, while listening to the storm. Many paced, panted, hid, whined and barked, while one dog actually defecated and tried to scratch through some doors and windows in an attempt to escape.

Cortisol, a stress hormone, rose accordingly. Analysis of the saliva samples revealed that dog cortisol levels tended to increase by 207 percent, and did not even fully drop to normal levels 40 minutes after the test.

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