To not understand why they can't just make fireworks that don't BANG!

[StepAwayFromGoogle]

Just that really. Sitting here listening to the ridiculously LOUD banging, praying my 1 year old doesn't wake up and thinking about all the absolutely terrified animals up and down the country and thinking WHY DO THE SODDING THINGS HAVE TO BANG? Surely they could just make pretty patterns in the sky, maybe even some whooshing sounds, without the need for the flipping deafening bang?

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR all I'm off to my bed...

You can get quiet fireworks and they are beautiful. On guy fawkes night we went to a Low Noise Firework display. It was brilliant, and the first time that my kids have ever enjoyed fireworks. It was a revelation. Normally we have tears and leave early. But last night and in the last week, we've heard loads of load fireworks go off which has caused anxiety. And we were just in our own home, indoors. This should be ours kids safe place. Loud fireworks used domestically should be banned imo.

Loud fireworks used domestically should be banned imo.

Yep. Aside from anything else they're not great for the environment.

Distressed dogs during fireworks is entirely down to poor training, sorry. You can train most dogs to cope with them. Cuddling them or giving them treats or anything else is just reinforcing the 'terrified' behaviour.

@totallynotchanging so explain to them they can't be hurt by them in their own home, and it's just noise

I'm not sure that's totally true Cryingoverspilttea

Our dog was always fine with fireworks, until when he was about 6 he went out to have a wee at the exact same moment neighbours randomly let off a firework that went a funny direction and exploded quite low over our garden. He was terrified and has been terrified ever since. It wasn't firework night or anything, I think they were having a birthday party. Nothing we could have expected.

Before that happened since he was a puppy we had made a point of behaving totally normally when fireworks went off and he learned it wasn't a problem. But his response now is much harder to train away because he learned actually he should be a bit afraid of fireworks.

@Cryingoverspilttea
Absolute horseshit.

It's not bad training. My (rescue) dog was pacing and crying downstairs while we were in bed last night. He eventually ran up the stairs, jumped on our bed and sat right in between our pillows. He's 40kg. He was terrified. He didn't stop panting until about 40 minutes after the fireworks stopped.

The fireworks last night were extremely loud and there were lots of them.

My 2 year old was hysterical last night after being woken by the fireworks. Didn't get back to sleep until 4am. I'm not feeling particularly enamoured by fireworks this morning...

Jenala similar here. My puppy was never bothered about bangs, loud noises and fireworks when young. However, after a series of admissions into the vets he became fearful of lots of things and loud noises was one of them. But no it's clearly poor training on my part according to Cryingoverspilttea.

Distressed dogs during fireworks is entirely down to poor training, sorry. You can train most dogs to cope with them. Cuddling them or giving them treats or anything else is just reinforcing the 'terrified' behaviour

Firstly, that's bullshit.

Secondly, if you, as Dog Trainer Extraordinaire, forbid the use of cuddling and treats in order to train said dogs, how else are you meant to train them? Have you ever heard of positive reinforcement? By your use of "or anything else" I'm going to infer that you would leave your dogs in a room somewhere to howl their terror away, if indeed you have any.

Thirdly, have you heard of rescue dogs? If a dog is mentally scarred from past experiences, loud banging and whooshing is only going to exacerbate it. Aside from removing the dog's memories of the bad experiences entirely, how do you train them out of it? Explaining that it's just noise is really going to help, isn't it?

I'm really hoping that I've got you all wrong and that your posts are a joke!!!

For anyone getting a puppy, it’s worth trying to introduce them to the noise during the socialisation period - usually from when the eyes and ears open until 12 weeks or so. There are lots of recordings on YouTube etc. Start off with the sound on low and give small treats (taken from their daily food ration) while it's playing so they build up positive associations with the sound. Then gradually increase the volume, making sure that you dpn’t do it too quickly so that your puppy doesn’t experience fear at any point.

It may also be possible to achieve the same with older dogs, though it’s more difficult later. Again, start with very quiet recordings, try to have it at a level where your dog will still eat (very frightened dogs won’t). Take it really slowly.

I agree though OP. Much better if there was a push for quieter fireworks, especially if people are using them more and more outside of traditional dates.

When I say gradually increase the volume, I don’t mean during a single session. Think a minute or so at the beginning, once a day, building up over weeks at a pace that the dog can cope with without too much difficulty.

Someone had some fireworks which actually set off a car alarms here🙄
I love fireworks but they are getting way too loud

Not sure you can train pets out of it. I have always dosed mine right up on Valium for the occasions we know there are going to be fireworks- seems to do the trick.

Must say, I think the bang is part of the experience. We did have several years where going out for fireworks was out for us as I have one with ASD who just couldn’t cope even with earphones, but at home with ear phones on was okay for them. Never begrudged others going out to see them though. It’s also 2 nights where you know little kids are going to have lack of/broken sleep, but it’s 2 nights in a year.

I fucking hate fireworks. They woke my 15 month old DS at 11:30pm last night and he wouldn't go back to sleep until 4:30am

I'm so tired I feel sick 😩

I recently rescued a 9 year old bulldog who’d previously been abused. Clearly I’ve been unable to train him properly in the last 3 months to stop him being absolutely distraught last night. Still, some find loud bangs thrilling so all good.

They're bloody loud and my hearing is good (not excessively sensitive), and I'd like to keep it that way, thank you. Whoosh and pop is fine. BANG BANG BANGITY BANG just across the road every hour from darkness until the early hours is beyond the pale. Bah and humbug.

I’m a regular poster on these threads because I feel very strongly that fireworks either need withdrawing from public sale or their strength reduced.

I agree with all the reasons people give for hating them but the crux for me is that everyone in the vicinity is forced to endure/enjoy them. This means that people’s homes aren’t somewhere they can stay and opt out of them if they don’t like them and worse still it’s completely down to the whims of someone else’s timings. It’s really intrusive, selfish and antisocial.

I let my cats out at 5pm yesterday thinking they could have a run out before the fireworks got started. Nope, buggers were setting off great booming things and this continued intermittently till 1am.

Thing is I do actually love fireworks but in recent years they have gotten louder and louder and people seem to have gotten much less considerate about letting them off. People also seem to hoard them for random birthdays/celebrations throughout the year and it boggles my mind how they don’t see the issue with scaring the shit out of their neighbours with unexpected explosions.

NYE fireworks are about scaring away the demons of the old year. It's something we've copied from the Chinese and Chinese New Year. It needs the bang to scare the ghosties. But Chinese firecrackers are much more discrete than the sky rockets sold here.

Last night was a 10+ minute solid barrage of bangs from the local estate at midnight, plus the sporadic displays from about 9pm onwards. The dog was not amused.

“animals who not only don't, but are traumatised by it, it is just such an unbelievably selfish and 'I'm alright Jack' 'I'll do it because I can and screw you' horrible attitude.”

I like animals and fireworks. But this attitude is also true of dog and cat owners who have dogs bounding around in public parks all year and cat owners whose cats shit in other people’s gardens all year round, and kill garden birds.

Pet ownership and Bonfire Night are both deeply held cultural enjoyments.

Cryingoverspilttea- that's a great idea. I'm really not sure why I never thought to do that before. I really think you need to take your startling new thesis and publish it pronto. I'm sure those with ASD , PTSD, etc would welcome this new revolutionary thesis with open arms.

How are dogs socialised to deal with other things they find alarming? How are police dogs trained to not be afraid?

They can and do. There are some towns in Italy where the noises are banned for the welbeing of animals. Many horses have been injured through terror