Max, our 8 year-old yellow lab, is terrified of both. We live in Miami Lakes, Florida, and during the summer we have thunderstorms almost every day. We live in a one-story home with lots of windows and sliding doors, surrounded by palms and other trees. When there’s a thunderstorm, sometimes it feels like we are sitting outside in the middle of it. So imagine how this makes poor Max feel! (just in case you are wondering, we do have accordion shutters to protect us from hurricanes).
Since the time Max was a little puppy he started to shake as soon as he heard thunder or fireworks. I didn’t know what to do. But I knew I didn’t want to give him any medication to calm down. So I covered a sofa with a blanket and put Max on it. It worked. Even though he kept shaking, I could tell he felt safer there. Eventually he would relax. He would cuddle up and look half his size, and he would stay on the sofa until the storm passed, or the fireworks stopped. Then when he thought it was safe again, he would jump off and look for me or another family member. Kind of letting us know everything was fine.
Well, over the years we have used the same "therapy" to deal with Max's anxiety when a storm approaches or fireworks start. Actually, I’ve seen that this sofa/blanket remedy seems to work faster now than it did years ago. Now Max relaxes just a couple of minutes after jumping on the sofa and making himself comfortable. The bad thing is that Max has learned to associate the rain with the thunder, so now even if it is just raining he gets all shaky and goes to the sofa!
It was only recently that I talked to the vet about this, because we were at the office when a storm started and Max went crazy, shaking all over. The vet was very glad that we had found a way to calm Max down. He told me that this problem is extremely common and that many dogs become very destructive during storms and some even hurt themselves.
It seems though that Charlie, our seven-month Poodle/Schnauzer mix, doesn’t mind storms or fireworks for that matter. He doesn’t act any different when there’s thunder. He did not have any problems with the 4th of July fireworks celebrations either. So it seems Max will not need to share the sofa after all. I’m sure he is happy about that!
Here is Max on the sofa. This picture was NOT taken during a storm.
My beloved Boopi
My Bubbi and 
My Chela
;)
;)
Griselda, your post brought back fond memories of our dog. He passed away many years ago. He too was very frightened of thunder and lightening. He was very brave in any other situation. You have a beautiful dog.