Scared -y Cat (er) dog

ATTENTION:The following is not for the faint at heart. It requires some somewhat disturbing discriptions about an animal. Proceed with caution!

My dog is a gentle 11 year old Golden Retriever. She doesn't do much at all during the day. Think yellow dog from the movie Funny Farm.

So here is the problem. She is scared to death of thunderstorms. She has done more damage to our home than both of our children combined! She's torn up trim thoughout the house but the worst was when she actually ripped the bi-fold doors off our laundry room. 2 sets to be exact. After ripping them down, she ripped of the trim. All in a matter of maybe an hour while I was away from the house and a suprise storm blew through.

We medicate her during the storm seasons with tranquilizer but that hasn't consistently worked. We built a pen out back under a shaded area and she ripped the metal fencing down and escaped. So we have recently tried medicating (1/4 of a pill to take the edge off) and chaining her to our carport steel pole with nothing within reach to destroy. It has worked better until yesterday . . .

I didn't medicate her before we left because we were only going to be gone about 30 minutes and there was no chance of rain or storm within site. It never rained while we were gone or even threatened to. We returned home to find our dog covered in blood! She apparently tried to dig a hole in our concrete driveway and ripped all her toenails out of all four feet! She was limping and barely able to stand anymore. After a thorough bath and inspection by my hubby he found she basically ripped some out and ground the others down until they bled. She also wore the pads of her feet off! Disgusting.

Hubby doctored her up with the help of our 4 year old soon to be nurse!. We heavily medicated her (whole pill - ok'd by vet) so she would sleep and be pain free throughout the night. She is ok today, but it is difficult for her to walk. So I have been giving her children's aspirin.

This dog has been with us forever, but she is becoming more of a problem then a pet!