Seriously though, my last two dogs were petrified of fireworks , the de sensitising tapes worked wonders for them both . Currently, its like a war zone out there , our neighbours are having a bonfire party , Nelly cant hear it at all , even when it sounded like a rocket was about to come down the chimney , still fast asleep , and as for Sam ? Cant be bothered to open his eyes xx Hugs for all the scared dogs x
Very proud of the Pig so far. I definitely understand what people said about being careful not to be forcing treats on her. I generally use taking treats as a test of stress anyway, she won’t take treats when we go in the car for example and I know to not try to persuade her to because she is too scared. But tonight the fireworks seemed to startle and excite her, but it seemed like she hadn’t decided whether it was good exciting or bad exciting yet. So I thought I had a very narrow window of opportunity to show her it was ‘good exciting’. So every time there was a flurry of bangs, I scattered some kibble for her to hunt on the rug. And she actually started wagging her tail at the bangs and looking at me expectantly! It was definitely high arousal, not relaxed acceptance which I guess would be optimal, but I was very pleased. At the least, she was able to hunt for and eat treats. And there is a break in the bangs now and she has put herself to bed I am expecting more later but fingers crossed. I’ll still do the proper desensitisation from dogs trust for next year but it seems like we might survive tonight.
We have had 4 nights of fireworks here - a lot more than previous years. I am really hoping that’s it now until new year. (There has been a lot of upset/angry comments on our Village fb page of frightened dogs so some people have had a really difficult time. I like the idea of silent fireworks). Sky has never bothered about fireworks and we have always had a make no fuss attitude to all the pops and bangs and fortunately she has not paid any attention. I knew it would be different with Red - 10 months - as she seems to be going through a ‘fear’ period - she has been barking at any noise or movement that is not part of her routine for a couple of weeks. Not a lot but enough to feel it needs managing. Yes she barked at the noises - but only inside the house. I took her out for our usual evening walk and the fireworks were going off all around us - some sounding like bombs - very very loud. She was ok and no barking - just jumped a couple of time but so did I . Get home though and she’s trying to settle and more fireworks going off just around us. This is how I dealt with it. Everytime she barked, I said ‘listen to that, that’s a firework’ very quietly in a ‘nothing to bother about’ tone. She’d look at me and then settle again. After a short time, she was looking at me everytime she heard a noise but not barking. I’d just repeat the listen to that and she’d settle. In the end, she was hardly bothering. I know all dogs are different and next time she might react differently but I was pleased last night. Didn’t need to use any treats. Hopefully this might help others.
Ugh just tried the Dogs Trust fireworks soundtrack...excellent recordings but they had no effect whatsoever, even on full tilt coming from a decent set of surround sound speakers I even tried playing it by the window to mimic the real deal. I might as well have been playing nothing for all the notice my dog took! But cue real fireworks and he's a scared mess Not sure how I can desensitise him for New Years if he pays no mind to the recorded sounds. I may have to just play loud music like I did for Bonfire night, that did the trick and made him completely unaware anything was even going on outside, but unfortunately doesn't solve the root issue of his fear.
Are your TV speakers different/any better? May be worth a try playing a video of fireworks on there. I'm sure you'd be able to find something on YouTube, if you can stream that on your TV? Otherwise, what about trying party poppers? Even going to a clay pigeon range and doing some work there might help?
I actually don't own a TV but party poppers are a great idea. Oddly enough he isn't bothered by gunfire at all, but then he spent time as a puppy near a range so that's probably why. There's just something about fireworks...
Hi all, I've not been on the forum much for the past few weeks but happy to report that (so far!) we've made it through fireworks season quite well. Last year Jess was a quivering trembling wreck. This year she barked a bit inside the house but was easily distracted and last night happily chewed a rawhide without paying much attention to the fireworks at all. She was still frightened outside the house and pulled to get back in, so I have been walking her in the late afternoon and not feeding her after that so that she only needs short pee break before bed. I did use the Dogs Trust recordings for desensitisation earlier in the year so that may have made a difference to her sensitivity to noise inside the house. Also the fireworks aren't quite as incessant in our new house (though still was surprised how many of our neighbours were setting them off so we did get more than I expected). The next stage is obviously more work on bangs and shooting outside - time to find a local clay pigeon range! - but still, I'm so pleased at the improvement and relieved that she can apparently feel safe in the house at least.
Last year Bailey paid no attention to fireworks that went off while he was in the house, and if they went off when he was out then he would stop whatever he was doing, look at them and then look at us - we just said "oh pretty fireworks" and off he went and carried on. This year however was a different story - mind you the main town firework display was held in the park just behind our house this year, which it wasn't the year before, it was across town (still audible but more muffled). Saturday evening I was working and when I took some empty barrels out into the storage area I could hear the main firework display which was loud (I was about 5 miles away) and my OH was at home with Bailey. I can only imagine the noise level at home - OH turned up the TV as loud as possible (apologised to neighbours the next day) and put the washing machine on, put a cover on the settee next to him that Bailey made into a nest and he snuggled up there with the OH smoothing him and speaking gently to him (so actually well done to my OH). However since then we have had fireworks being let off in the back gardens around us and each time Bailey is jumping up next to me and hiding his head. Last night he pushed himself behind me on the settee. We just speak gently to him and fuss him and he falls asleep! I am going to start playing the Dogs Trust/YouTube videos of fireworks in readiness for NYE. I did this last year, but just didn't think about it this year as he was so good before trying not to beat myself up about not thinking about it, feel I've frightened my boy when I could have perhaps avoided it
So difficult, the trouble with the firework thing is that it's unpredictable and it must be impossible to cover every eventually. You can only try.
