Are dogs afraid of thunder & lightening?

[rubicon]

My male lab, Rusty could care less about thunder but if he sees a flash of lightning its Forrest Gump all over again. He just runs and runs and runs. This is always a big problem. There is no catching him on foot -so- its in the Rubicon and try to ambush him. this little trick is interesting too cause he has another little quirk. This dog who is normally obedient, and obeys all my commands, will not come to an automobile with the motor running. He will literally hide when he sees a car coming. When I am finally able to get ahead of him, shut the motor off, and get outside, he will come to me and load with no problem. I think the record was during a severe thunder storm my son, my neighbor, my neighbors wife, and I rode for 3 hours until we got him. This was when Rusty had only been a part of my family for two months and after I had moved to a new neighborhood only two weeks prior so I was afraid he would be leaving Maryland and heading back to South Carolina. Oh, and by the way it was before I knew he could get out of the house by opening the back door. Never a dull moment at Rubicon's