Fear of Thunder

A majority of dogs are afraid of the sound of thunder. Jon is of no exception. However, in his case, I am not surprised because he has been on the streets before he was adopted, and was exposed to various forms of man-made and natural stimulation. When there is a thunderstorm, Jon will lie down at a corner and look up in the air, or go under the car and wait for this period of anxiety to pass.

As for Max, he has never been afraid of thunder. At least until last week. More on that later. In fact, Max is not afraid of anything or anyone except Jon. Max is gung ho and inquisitive in nature. This is a disadvantage to him because he does not anticipate danger. Any stimuli affecting the 4 organs on his head is worth inspecting. In effect, he is flexible and willing to learn. However, training him would be much easier if only he is more focused and have a longer attention span. Anyway, during a thunderstorm on a weekend recently, I noticed that he was very nervous. I was surprised by his reaction to this continuous thunder. In fact, the behaviour was much more intense than what Jon displays. The pictures below shows Max sitting in a hunched position and looking up at the sky; and one shows him huddling. Jon is seen cowering in fear, where his favourite refuge spot is under the car. In the video - it may not be clear to you - he is seen panting very heavily. It was as if he had just come back from a run.

I am unsure when this behaviour developed, because I only get to observe my dogs the most during weekends. I will never get to see how they behave when it rains during a weekday.

In a recent post, Scratch and Mark, where I questioned whether scratching the ground after eliminating is a learnt or instinctive behaviour, I would be interested to know if this change of behaviour - from being unafraid of thunder to being terrified of it - is a learnt behaviour. Was Max observing and learning from Jon's fearful behaviour towards the sound of thunder? Have any of you experienced behaviours like this, where your dogs pick up behaviours which they have previously not exhibited before?

Scratch and Mark

Max is now 18 months old. He was neutered at 5 months old. It was not an easy decision to make at that time, because I had to weigh the benefits of preventing him from engaging in "territory marking" behaviours, and the cons of him not fully maturing mentally. The outcome from that decision is that now he does not lift his leg at all when peeing; and that he still behaves like a puppy. Even physically, he is small by mongrel standards.

From the first day Max entered into our lives, Max had not learnt to lift his legs even though he sees Jon do it every day. Twice a day. Every time Jon tells his competitors of his existence in an area, I had hoped that Max has not begun to see the reasons behind this behaviour. Luckily he did not pick up this habit before he was neutered. However, this morning I was taken aback of what Max did after he pooed. He scratched the floor. It was as vigorous as any performed by a dog. I actually talked to him by asking " You have learnt this from Jon, didn't you?"

This is a interesting behavioural development I want to monitor. One year after having been neutered, he has learnt - albeit slow - the language of territory marking. But the one question I want to know is: "Is it possible to learn these behaviors after a male dog has been neutered?"