Fireworks

[silverangel]

So, my gorgeous 2 year old Cairn isn't phobic I dont think (unlike my last cairn and westie who would tremble and hide and not go outside for ages) - he wants to go in the garden and run after the fireworks, and bark at them and generally I think scare them off. He does the same with thunder and I did read something that said it could be that he's trying to 'protect' us in some way or chase off the noise.

Which is quite cute, but I have 14 month twins and his barking wakes them up ? and then they don?t want to sleep and we end up with a barking dog and crying twins which kind of ruins my evening!

Anyone have any ideas on how to kerb the barking or do we just let him get on with it ? keeping him in has no effect, he?ll just go literally mad trying to get out!

How much time does he give you between the first bang and when he starts barking? Is there enough time for you to reward him for not barking? If so I think I'd download some sound effects of fireworks and start working with him before fireworks night. Play the first sound and praise him quietly for not reacting, then reward (with treat / toy / whatever floats his boat). When training dogs with problems like this I've always found they respond more quickly if you give them an alternative behaviour, so perhaps teach him to run to his bed when he hears fireworks. You can do some sits / downs with him to keep his mind occupied. Eventually you'll hopefully find he breaks the habit and simply ignores the fireworks. This could take a while to achieve though - it's possibly a bit late for this year's bonfire night but still worth a try.

Alternatively, what games does he like? If he's in to fetch can you play a low key game in the living room to keep him busy, and stop the game if he barks? He'll soon learn that it's in his interests to keep quiet!

Thank you - fetch is his absolute favourite thing in the whole world so that may work if we stop when he barks. We were watching a tv programme with fireworks on the other night and he tried to get in the tv! He used to do the same with dogs and now he's fine so tomorrow during the day I will try again with the same programme and see how we gom

Great ideas, thanks again:)

Thank you - fetch is his absolute favourite thing in the whole world so that may work if we stop when he barks. We were watching a tv programme with fireworks on the other night and he tried to get in the tv! He used to do the same with dogs and now he's fine so tomorrow during the day I will try again with the same programme and see how we gom

Great ideas, thanks again:)