Dog freaks out when the electricity goes off in the middle of the night?

[RobinZClark]

Has anyone had experience with a dog that pants, paces and becomes extremely stressed when the electricity goes off in the middle of the night? This happens to my 10 yo every time and is getting worse the older he gets. I used to think that it was because of thunderstorms, but the thunderstorms have nothing to do with it. If there is a thunderstorm with no power outage he is just fine. If there is a power outage with no thunderstorm (like there was last night) he freaks out. This has happened dozens of times over the past 6 years and is getting worse all the time. I do my best to just ignore him, but would like to know the best protocol in situations like this.

If I put him in a crate he wails and loses control of his bowels. If I leave him out of the crate he keeps me awake. I have a kennel in the basement that is large, but I was afraid to go down the steps and walk thru my very cluttered basement with only a flash light. I felt like it was too cold to put him in his outdoor kennel (plus he would wake the neighbors) and I did not want to take the chance of having a mess in my car.

Right now the only solution I can think of is to get some emergency lighting in the basement, clear out a good pathway, put ear plugs in my ears, and get ready to scrub the basement with clorox in the morning

Thanks for any advice.

[hotel4dogs]

xanax works wonders (for him, not you). Talk to your vet about it.
Do you have something that sounds a "beeping" alarm when the power goes off? We have a backup sump pump that will beep continuously when the power goes off, and it used to freak out my old girl when she could still hear!

[luvalab]

I get freaked out when the power goes out, too, until I know why. It's so quiet... Feels like doomsday. I sympathize with the poor guy.

Do you have a battery powered radio to turn on? Maybe it would be worth it to have some ticking clocks in the house?

[Bridget Bodine]

I wonder if your house is grounded properly ....or in other words I wonder if he FEELS it when the power surges and goes out. Is this even possible ? I do not know , any electricians? I like the battery radio idea

[mostlygold]

I'd check for something that is making noise whe. The power goes out. My dog did the same thing and I found lout it was from the very low beeping of my smoke/heat alarms. I didn't even notice it but she would go crazy, just like your dog. I did put her in the car one night and she was very content. I finally figured out what is was when the battery ran logo. One of the alarms and it made the same noise.

Dawn

[copterdoc]

.....I finally figured out what is was.....