Dog Community

AArrgghhh! Dreading fireworks

Posted : 7/3/2006 7:13:26 AM

for the 4th of July. My Golden, Gumbo, is so afraid of the noise that I have to sedate him a bit and I truly despise having to do that. It started around my area last night and he was just so nervous.

angelamarie

Posted : 7/3/2006 7:15:45 AM

There's alot of us also dreading the fireworks right now, you are not alone. My previous dog had to be massively sedated over the fourth or for heavy thunderstorms.

What I do now is crank the window air conditioning units and turn the TV on loud, and that seems to help to dampen some of the noise.

My six year old foster dog has been adopted by a truly wonderful household, but they live on a pond where lots of 4th of July activity takes place, so I will not deliver him there until after the 4th when it's quiet. We didn't want him to think we'd dropped him in the middle of a war zone. Next year, the new owners will have to deal with what to do!!

Tuppy Gleason

Posted : 7/3/2006 7:39:35 AM

Thunderstorms and fireworks are the 2 things that Gumbo feels are an affront to him personally.
We do keep the TVs on loud and try to have as much noise going on in the house as possible but he still knows the big bad noise is out there.

spiritdogs

Posted : 7/3/2006 8:32:33 AM

Well, you could just have a "fireworks party". This is safe if you only have one dog. (If you have more than one, you must use your judgment, and I don't advise it.) When the fireworks start (or the thunder boomers), you get really happy and start tossing hot dog bits, liver or salmon treats all around the room. The motion of you tossing treats will, hopefully, pique your dog's interest, as will the smell of so much great food. The idea is to start early, with the first crackle. What you are really doing is some classical conditioning - having your dog associate the loud noises with "OMG, it's raining hot dogs!!!!" so that fireworks and thunder actually become a conditioned stimulous that means great stuff is coming his way.

mudpuppy

Posted : 7/3/2006 3:37:12 PM

If you're lucky enough to be able to get hold of a dog who isn't at all bothered by fireworks you can use the dog's blase attitude to help give a nervous one confidence while you hold your "fireworks" party. If dogs can be taught to enjoy guns being shot off over their heads, surely they can learn to at least ignore firecrackers going off down the street.

Xerxes

Posted : 7/3/2006 5:20:35 PM

Will all the same advice apply to a dog that would rather bark at the fireworks than cower? Either way I know he's disturbed by them.

spiritdogs

Posted : 7/3/2006 9:08:52 PM

Will all the same advice apply to a dog that would rather bark at the fireworks than cower? Either way I know he's disturbed by them.

Yup, my hound is a barker and is busily munching away as I type.
Everyone was sleeping until a big corker just woke him up - the fireworks are about a mile away, but closer as the crow flies, so the dogs can hear them. The girls couldn't care less about the fireworks, but they got cookies too :-)

)

Roxie865

Posted : 7/3/2006 9:32:48 PM

Roxie hates the fireworks, too. It's been a pain the past couple of nights to get her to go out and potty. She can be taking care of business, when someone sets off a bottle rocket and it explodes in mid-air ... so she freaks out and runs back to the door. I cannot wait for this to end! [:@]

cyclefiend2000

Posted : 7/3/2006 9:58:21 PM

they started in our neighborhood father's day weekend. i guess they were trying to beat the rush at the fireworks stand. it has been slowly escalating since then, and we are truly dreading tomorrow night.

good luck with your dogs!

griffinej5

Posted : 7/3/2006 10:23:20 PM

We sometimes get packs of fireworks, and we have to take Max out when we set them off. He thinks it's great, because last year we took him with us to the fireworks, and I shared cookies with him. I won't be taking him tomorrow, because I am pretty sure I have never seen a dog there, so i'm pretty sure they're not allowed. It's also a bit crowded, and he doesn't like men. But Saturday, I will be taking him with. Those ones we can sit in the car to watch, so there's no problems there with him being overwhelmed at the amount of people, since we'll just stay in the car where no one can try to pet him.