Fireworks

[3rdtimeinflorida]

Hi,
Dog terrified of fireworks.
Have been recommended Sileo but to get from my vet including consultation I am looking over £100.
Any alternative recommendations please? There are so many products out there and obviously every dog is different so I know it will be a case of trial and error.
Thank you in advance.

A lot of OTC products need to be taken well in advance so they build up in the dogs' system. I'm talking weeks rather than hours. My own dog is on NutriPaw which helps massively but he takes it every single day.

If you want a guaranteed sedative then you'll need to pay a fair bit unfortunately.

I'd like to hear about Nutripaw if you're happy to say.
Why did you choose to give it and what effect has it had?

Training helps hugely.

You need to desensitise your dog, working year-round so that the sounds aren't a fear trigger.

You can use the sound of fireworks on the TV, high value treats, etc. But it has to be done slowly and below the dog's threshold, I'd recommend consulting a behaviourist for a plan.

My dog is and always has been utterly unbothered by fireworks. He's scared of plenty of other stuff. I always wondered why.

This 👆

With the addition that you must completely ignore the fireworks and not fuss the dog. If you do, it will interpret your fuss as telling it that there is something to worry about.

my dog became worried as she got older
nightmare
not planned any treatment though
just classical music perhaps

Dogs make so much more noise than fireworks 😅

My dog was terrified from when she was young and no amount of 'training' or attempts to desensitise her did any good. She would run upstairs and we'd find her shaking in my bedroom. Every year worse as fireworks get noisier and go on for longer. They've been going off for a couple of weeks near me already. My dog died this summer so it's the first year in ages we will not have to worry about the noise as our little dog and my vacation aren't bothered. The irony is that she was born on Halloween and today would have been her birthday.

I'm pleased to see more supermarkets are now selling silent fireworks, or refusing to sell at all. Personally I'd like to see UK being more like Australia where I believe public can't buy fireworks and it's organised displays only. I'm not saying this just because of pets, but also agricultural and wild animals who get spooked, people with PTSD, and the yobs who every year go out and terrorise people with fireworks.

Hi @LakeFlyPie if I'm honest, I picked them because they were on offer and cheaper than Zylkene which I'd been using previously!

He's been taking them daily for a year now and is so, so much better. Last year he cowered under the table at fireworks, this year he's not batted an eyelid. He's also noticeably less reactive on walks to other dogs.

However saying that, I know lots of people who've tried them and it's made no difference - like with humans, I think different things work for different dogs.

My dog is terrified too.

We've been using the pooch & Mutt calming treats - 6 trests and she's a different dog, very calm.

This is not an add - just what works for us right now.

Did you do firework training when she was a puppy?

Because your dog was born just before Firework night, it meant she didn't experience them before she was around 1 year old, (it wouldn't have registered as a newborn pup) then naturally she then found it terrifying, and that imprinted deeply.

Did you try year-round training? I've never seen it fail, even for the most terrified dogs, so I'm surprised that didn't help.

Doing firework training within their usual puppy training usually avoids severe fear.

Doing firework training within their usual puppy training usually avoids severe fear.

Mine was absolutely fine with fireworks until he was out for a walk aged 4 and some idiot set one off about ten metres away while it was still light outside.

You can do all the socialisation and training in the world, but sometimes all it takes is one bad incident for them to be terrified for life, sadly.

Unfortunately this is incorrect information. It is often offered as a solution usually by people that do not have dogs truly firework phobic.

Sogs know the difference between recordings and real life fireworks. Many phobic dogs do not bat an eyelid when they hear recordings but go into complete breakdown hearing the real thig.

Noise phobias usually get worse with age and willl have very little to do with previous "training" (I argue that you can not train the relationshop with fireworks as it is an emotional response)

The only way to get relief for some dogs is prescribed medication.

OP it is a horrible thing to have to witness a dog terrified by sound

I agree. Dogs do know the difference. Real fireworks are accompanied by vibrations. Some dogs need medication. Mine needs it on bonfire night and at new year.

I loathe fireworks and really think that they should not be for sale to the public. Should be organised displays only. I spend all of October and November worried about my cats being out and worried that my dog will be even more terrified than thd previous year.

Desensitisation, when a dog is young, helps because if you do it right, you are desensitising to all sorts of loud noises (even if firework noises are one of the ones you pick) and thereby making it less likely that the dog will find a brand new type of loud noise scary when they are older. They generalise the learning. Mostly. But this is not guaranteed.

There is some chance to do the same work when they are older but I think it unfair to set an expectation this will definitely work with any dog. That just isn't the case and there will be dogs that have developed a speicifc fear for the specific noise fireworks make and no amount of recordings is going to replicate it. Not least, because there is often a detectable vibration that goes along with the truly loud firework noises. Unless you are about to upset your neighbours with an advance sound system turned up loud, you will never make the windows rattle with a recording.

I personally hate the way dog training is sometimes talked about in absolutes. For eg whilst it is true that puppies born on the run up to firework night tend to display less fear to the noise when they are older, this is not a guarantee and some puppies born during this time do go on to develop fears. They are complex little beings and you just cannot have absolute rules about complex creatures.

Similarly, it's not true that you must never reassure a frightened dog. Yes, dogs do sometimes take their cues on behaviours fom us and so for some dogs, sometimes, a relaxed attitude towards fireworks can help them learn the same - this is mostly true when the dog does not yet have an ingrained reaction. But you cannot reinforce fear and I would hate to think someone would not comfort a scared dog out of worry they are making it worse fot the dog. That's not fair to the dog for whom reassurance can be helpful.

OP, there are very few OTC medications that can really help to be honest and most have a doubted success rate, regardless of manufacturer claims. Zylkene MAY help, but it really is better if it's had time to build up in their system and even then the jury is still doubtful. Your best bet for this year (if you really cannot afford a vet) is to create a safe space for your dog to hide (comfortable, warm, dark and enclosed) and have constant soothing music on at a level that helps drown out a tiny bit of the noise. Follow your dog's cues as to whether or not having you there comforting them seems to help.

Plan for next year - which for best results does mean a vet consultation and effective prescription.

Pretty much the same happened with ours. He was absolutely fine with them until he was about 3 years old. He was outside in our garden and the neighbours decided that for some reason lunchtime was a great time to have a firework display, except obviously they did it right down the end of their garden which was just next to where the dog was sniffing. It absolutely terrified him, I've never seen anything like it. And a huge amount of desensitisation training in the years since has made absolutely no difference at all

We have a thunder jacket which helps a bit but when he’s really bad , only option is the vet prescribed meds, we use Xanax, quite lucky that our vet just tags it back onto his prescriptions when he has his booster so no additional consultation fee

It's horrendous isn't it @Pogggle?

It also really bothers me when people tell me it's because I didn't train him properly or desensitise him appropriately - like @KeenOtter says, dogs aren't stupid and they know the difference between a recording and something happening in the sky a few metres away!

It's a bit of a soap box for me but I really hate the way dog owners are sometimes left feeling like behavioural struggles are their fault as if it's automatically a failing in training or upbringing. Of course, these things have huge influences on the dog but they are not the only influences and many other experiences and genetics inform the dog's reactions and behaviours.

It's a fine but important line (IMO) between telling people what tools can be used to tip the scales in their favour and leaving them feeling like any behavioural struggles must be because of something they did or didn't do. Dogs are complicated. Maybe not as complicated as humans, but they are complicated animals and it's impossible for anyone (even behavioural scientists) to be sure x = y when it comes to behaviour. It's almost always 'x sometimes helps achieve y but not always.

(Not to suggest anyone on here has done that expicitly - mostly people try to help as best they can)

Well said @SirSniffsAlot - I think some people forget that we can't control the outside world and that, sometimes, no matter how much time and effort you put in, things go wrong.

Our previous dog wasn't bothered until he was about 3 or 4 when a rocket sailed right over our garden and exploded above the house while he was outside. After that he was firework phobic. Strangely, if he could be outside and go into bolshie barking/guarding mode he was less fearful than being stuck indoors hearing fireworks go off.

I'm dreading it this year because we have a 7 month old puppy and, after being pretty bombproof when she was tiny, she is currently in a secondary fear period. I really don't want to resort to medication because of her being so young.

Just to correct this as i've seen it come up on my SM too, there is no such thing as silent fireworks, it isn't possible to make silent fireworks from what I've read. Lots of supermarkets selling low noise ones, but they're not silent.

It wasn't fireworks that caused the problem it was another severe noise trauma she experienced as a very young dog. From then on every loud noise terrified her. Yes, I did all sorts of therapy with her all year round for a few years, building up from low noise to louder, but the damage was done and nothing helped. Just because you personally have never seen training fail, doesn't mean it doesn't happen, or I didn't try hard enough.

Thank you for your advice everybody. We have been using Nutripaw for the past couple of months but tbh don’t think this has made any difference.
I think we will just have to struggle through with many tips given and plan better for next year to get a prescribed sedative.

We trained from a young age with cheese and hotdogs as a distraction. Helped when we watch films with fun shots too. Dog is utterly unphased.