Fireworks can be very frightening to a dog . . . even deadly! Since 'tis the season of sparklers, I'm offering some quick tips to help your pets cope with these scary sounds.
- While it's fun to include dogs in your activities, this is one they should definitely sit out! Please keep your animals inside during the noisemaking. If you've got a pet that goes out, make sure he does his business before the display, or can wait until after it's done.
- Close all doors, windows, curtains, and blinds. Turn on the television or radio to drown out the noise (as best as possible).
- Try to distract your pet with special guests, brand-new toys, or rare treats right before the display starts . . . if possible in a room furthest away from the noises like a basement.
- If your pet takes off into hiding, let him be. Trying to lure out a frightened creature while the scary stuff's still happening is not a good idea . . . and extra stressful!
There are many soothing products you can get from Feliway and Dog Appeasing Pheromone to special fireworks CDs, either to purchase or as free downloads (when you right-click). To use these audio effects with a pet, start playing at a low volume and build up to normal volume over time. If you play repeatedly, furry friends can get desensitized to the noise (at a level from inside the house).
Remember, if it's loud to you, it's definitely too loud for your dog – canines can hear sounds at an ultra-high frequency (like those "silent" dog whistles) and can register sounds three times greater than your ear can – keep your pets safe!
Barbara Bui
Cheer
Goldsmiths
I'm glad you posted this, pet. The number of strays goes way up after the 4th b/c animals want to get away from the noise... very sad.
1
maxie hates fireworks!
2I'm actually getting a mild sedative for my pup after seeing her reaction to only a few fireworks the other night. She was terrified!
3My wheaten is quite unusual in that she absolutely loves fireworks, and just wants to go sit in the garden watching them. Every so often she'll bark at a loud one, and just loves the experience. When she was a pup, we took her outside the first time we heard fireworks, and made lots of noise ourselves, while having a major play session. With her it worked, which is great, but I do feel for those of you whose dogs are scared by fireworks, as we did the same with our black russian, but he is still a bit nervous. Good luck for 4th July-us brits don't have to worry about fireworks until october through november.
4My dog is really scared of fireworks because of the noise. We found that if we move her crate to the basement and shut the door, she'll go into her crate and camp out there while the fireworks go off. It's a lot quieter down there than upstairs, so she likes it a lot better.
5Great post, Pet! I was talking to a local shelter worker many years back and can vividly remember her saying that the week following the 4th is by far their busiest for the year. Many animals get spooked and simply take off.
6Thanks for this post! We hear firecrackers going off all weekend long, and my dog doesn't like them. I'm going to try to drown them out.
7polka is so damn scared of Fireworks!!
8nice article!
My dog doesn't mind the fireworks really. But we took her to this concert one time (which was also a dog-washing benefit, so a LOT of dogs were there) and they turned up the music real loud! My poor dog was shaking! You would think considering how many dogs were there that they would have been more considerate to the dogs.
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