Is your dog afraid of fireworks? These seven tips can help them stay calm and relaxed.
While most of us love the Fourth of July — who doesn’t love a day for grilling out, spending time with family and friends and relaxing — for your pets, the holiday can be really stressful because of another aspect of the holiday: fireworks.
Dogs are sensitive to sound, and the array of unexpected noises fireworks generate can easily scare them. And for dogs that already exhibit signs of anxiety, the impact is even greater.
If your dog gets anxious by the sound of fireworks, here’s a few steps you can take to help them calm down:
1. Get them lots of exercise.
A tired dog is a happy, stress-free dog. On the day of a fireworks show, take your dog out for a run or to the dog park for a long visit. Come nightfall, there’s a good chance he’ll be so tuckered out, he won’t even notice the fireworks outside!
2. Keep them indoors.
The best thing you can do to keep your dog relaxed is prevent exposure to fireworks in the first place. If your dog is frightened by fireworks, do NOT take them to the fireworks show with you — he will not “get over it” and the experience will only exacerbate his anxiety now and in the future. Keeping him indoors will also prevent him from running away, a dog’s common survival instinct.
3. Cut off the sound as much as possible.
Sure, most people don’t live in a completely soundproof home, but there are ways to tone down the sound of those thunder and booms outside. First, keep your windows shut if possible and the curtains drawn. (Caveat: If it’s hot and air conditioning isn’t available, opt for ventilation over noise control.) Turn on a fan or television to help drown out the sound.
4. Distract him with activities.
Give your dog something else to focus on! Play his favorite game, or better yet, have him exercise his brain with an interactive toy like a Kong or a dog puzzle. Be sure to use high-value rewards — in stressful situations, dogs often turn down their “standard” treats. So use peanut butter, chicken, beef, or whatever your dog goes nuts over to help keep his attention.
5. Try a product to help with anxiety.
When we first adopted Lucy, our vet told us about Adaptil, a product designed to help keep dogs calm. More specifically, Adaptil is a synthetic pheromone that “mimics the pheromone mother dogs emit after giving birth to help their puppies feel calm and secure. Dogs of all ages recognize this pheromone throughout life.”
Adaptil is available as a collar or a spray. (Our vet has a diffuser in her offices that hooks into the wall like a Glade plug-in, which helps all of her patients stay calm!). Adaptil is available through vets; specialty retailers carry it under the name Comfort Zone. (The collar and spray are available via Amazon Prime! Here’s a link to the Comfort Zone collar, and here’s a link to the Comfort Zone spray.)
There’s also the popular Thundershirt, which are special jackets for dogs and cats that apply gentle, consistent pressure to the dog’s torso. Like swaddling a baby, the pressure helps soothe anxious pets. Thundershirt says it helps pets in more than 80 percent of cases.
The great thing about the Thundershirt is you simply put it on your pet prior to the anxiety-causing event: fireworks, thunder, vet visits, etc. And given that it’s essentially a jacket, you can easily take it with you wherever you go.
6. Cuddle with your dog — maybe.
Our dogs love nothing more than hanging out with us, and many pets even run right to us when they’re frightened. If fireworks are booming outside and your dog runs to your side, try a soothing technique: Calmly run your hand down your dog’s back, from neck to tail, and breathe out loudly as you do. Reinforce that behavior by repeating it during times of stress, and over time, your dog may learn to calm down with the ritual.
However, if your dog runs under the bed or to his den, don’t force yourself on him — dogs have different coping strategies. If your dog runs to his den when scared, that’s totally fine. (That’s what it’s there for!) Just be sure to check in on him every now and then.
7. Bonus tip for puppies:
If you have a puppy, you’re in a great position! Puppyhood is the perfect time for you to introduce your dog to the various sounds of the world and prevent anxiety later on. To do this, pull up a YouTube clip of fireworks sounds and play it at a low volume. Play it for short bursts and feed your puppy treats throughout — this teaches your pup to associate these loud sounds with good things! Do this with other sounds, too, like vacuum cleaners, thunder, garbage trucks, barking dogs and more.
As they acclimate to the sound, you can turn up the volume more and more. Don’t expect this strategy to work overnight, though — this’ll take a few months of repetition on a daily basis. But if you put in the work (no more than a few minutes a day is required!), you’ll truly see your work pay off with a dog that doesn’t get nervous by the various sounds of the world.
When the Fourth rolls around each year, don’t just think about what you’ll be throwing on the grill — consider what you can do to help make sure your dog is safe and relaxed. If you do, you’re both sure to have a better holiday for it.
Thanks for reading, and have a happy (and safe!) Fourth of July!
Note: This article contains affiliate links; if you make a purchase, The Dog Mom Life will receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you!), which helps keep the site running.
Pin this!
