Lightning stray voltage affecting dogs.

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Ravenvalor

Ravenvalor

Senior Member
Location
Triad region of NC
Occupation
Electrician
Can any one shoot down seemingly ridiculous theory that lightning in the area affects dogs negatively. My dog was shivering with fright during a lightning storm last night. I am wondering if stray voltage was the culprit. My code instructor used to say that clouds passing over cattle causes voltage to enter their hind legs and exit their fore legs (or vise versa).

Thanks,
 
Ravenvalor said:
Can any one shoot down seemingly ridiculous theory that lightning in the area affects dogs negatively. My dog was shivering with fright during a lightning storm last night. I am wondering if stray voltage was the culprit. My code instructor used to say that clouds passing over cattle causes voltage to enter their hind legs and exit their fore legs (or vise versa).

Thanks,
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That cow thing is the silliest thing I've ever heard. Although step potentials are really high around farms and their buildings. I suspect your dog fears the sound. It's very frightening to them, and you cannot explain to them what is happening.
 
Ravenvalor said:
Can any one shoot down seemingly ridiculous theory that lightning in the area affects dogs negatively. My dog was shivering with fright during a lightning storm last night. I am wondering if stray voltage was the culprit. My code instructor used to say that clouds passing over cattle causes voltage to enter their hind legs and exit their fore legs (or vise versa).

Thanks,
Click to expand...

No, it is not like this at all.
 
I once visited a friend at his farm. He was out in the pasture on the backhoe. It looked like he was digging a large pond! But he was digging a large grave! A grave for 13 of his cows! A bad thunderstorm had blown in, and the cows ran to lower ground in a stand of trees that always has about a least a few inches of water on the ground. Lightning struck the ground about 40 feet back up the hillside an ran down to the standing water and killed all the cows at once! Back to the OP. Most dogs are terrified of electrical storms!!
 
Stray voltage from lightning storms only affect dogs in rare circumstances. If there is a lightning storm on the night before an earthquare will occur, the voltage will interact with the dog's tail and the tectonic plates that are about to shift. The interaction between the lightning, the dog's tail, and the tectonic plates will cause a dog to react in strange ways. :)
 
We have 1 old house dog completely terrified of thunder storms & 2 young dogs that could care less.
I will tell you this, that you cannot stand on my cement front porch barefoot during a thunderstorm. Quadrupeds are a lot more sensative than we are.
 
Animals can hear the thunder much earlier than humans can. They are also much more sensitive to it and at a wider range of frequencies. In addition, animals can sense the change in barometric pressure and humidity changes. Us humans don't pay much attention to those factors or the way our bodies adjust to it. It's an evolutional thing.

Lightning really has nothing to do with it, other than the fact that most animals are afraid of lightning, or at least the flash and resulting thunder. Stray currents, charged stremers, and all that other stuff is myth.
 
I have no proof but there is a theory out there that some dogs can actually sense the electric field from lightning. Whatever it is my dog will shiver long before we see lightning or hear thunder. Other dogs do not seem to be affected by it.

I believe something is going on but I don't know what it is? do you-- Mr. Jones. :grin:
 
Well I don't know about dogs but many animals can sense many major things about to happen, Dolphins will swim out to sea long before a hurricane comes in, there are many forest creatures that can sense a forest fire long before it is even close or knowing which way it's headed, and there are a few animals that can even sense an earth quake before it happens.

So who knows you might have a dog that can warn you of bad weather coming in better then any weather man, just hang bells on him so they jingle lol
 
Dennis Alwon said:
I have no proof but there is a theory out there that some dogs can actually sense the electric field from lightning. Whatever it is my dog will shiver long before we see lightning or hear thunder. Other dogs do not seem to be affected by it.

I believe something is going on but I don't know what it is? do you-- Mr. Jones. :grin:
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How does that dog feel, to be such a freak? :grin:
 
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