Does your dog get stressed out by fireworks, thunderstorms and other doom-filled occasions marked loud noises?
If so, you’re in good company. Fortunately, this very common condition can be made much more tolerable for your dog and in many, many cases, your dog can actually learn to not mind the noise.
If your dog is firework-phobic, you know how miserable Independence Day can be. The day after July 4 is the very biggest day of the year for most animal shelters, due to dogs bolting, springing, freaking out, going through screen doors and windows.
Your local shelter will be inundated with people dropping off lost dogs or trying to locate their own dogs. Many of these dogs will have suffered far more than just firework fear in their journey to the shelter. You owe it to your dog to not let a nightmarish incident like this take place.
You have a little more than two weeks to plan your dog’s fear-free day. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Desensitization. Follow a gradual program of exposing your dog in incremental ways to the sounds of fireworks. This can be done online by going to www.dogsandfireworks.com where you can download the wonderful (and free) mp3 file and instructions to get you started. This is 100 percent about empathy for dogs and there isn’t a product in sight that they are trying to sell.
- Provide your dog with a comfortable sanctuary. If it’s your dog’s crate, great. But it might also be that bathtub he tends to take refuge in when he’s scared. Or under your bed. Wherever. Just make it accessible and comfortable and be sure to let your dog choose it.
- Consider purchasing a Thundershirt that your dog can wear. The vast majority of people who make use of them have very favorable things to say about their effect on their thunder-phobic dogs.
- Look into DAP diffusers. Dog appeasing pheromone sprays and diffusers have a good track record, but be very careful to avoid the product made by Comfort Zone whose plug heats up to a very hot temperature and can pose a fire risk.
- Have up to date tags and identifiers on your dog —- just in case.
With just a little bit of foresight, you can easily change your dog’s reaction to this year’s fireworks. Hopefully that will be one more thing for you to celebrate July Fourth.
Hany Hosny shares life with his adopted shelter dog, Stella. He volunteers at animal shelters and shares his relationship-centered ideas on living with dogs, on his popular Facebook page, Smarter You, Happier Dog.🙂