Pets and fireworks

It's coming up to the Fourth Of July here, which is always celebrated in our neighborhood with fireworks. It's hard to know when and where they will be going off, as people purchase their own and set them off as they see fit.

My dog absolutely can't stand fireworks, they make him super anxious and frightened. Despite having a fenced in yard, we always elect to keep him indoors on the Fourth, because the last thing we want is having our dog stressed and worried about where all the noises are coming from.

I've read that the Fourth of July also has the highest proportion of missing dogs, along with New Years, because of them getting frightened of the fireworks and running away.

Is your pet afraid of fireworks? How do you manage it on occasions where you know fireworks will be going off?

Well, I'm Canadian, so we don't celebrate the fourth of July here, but we do have Canada Day on the first! We've always lived outside of the city since we got our dog, but we very recently moved back into the city less than a month ago. There is always some sort of Canada Day firework event going on, and we've been fortunate up to this point because we couldn't see or hear them from where we lived. Haru, my dog, is very jitterish and gets frightened easily by loud noises (even small things like a plate dropping make him scurry away). I'm a little bit worried about how he'll react come the first of next month - which I just realized is tomorrow, my goodness - to be honest. I don't expect he'll get scared to a point that we'd need to do any sort of sedation (I've seen this method recommended for dogs that are especially anxious of fireworks) but I expect I'll have to sit with him inside and hold onto him to be sure he doesn't freak out. The basement in our house is very quiet so I'm hoping that if worse comes to worse just taking him down there might be enough to calm his nerves.

As for the running away - unless you already KNOW that your pet will do fine with the fireworks based on past experiences, I don't think it is ever a good idea to bring a pet along to watch fireworks with you. Animals need a safe, familiar place to retreat to, and if you go out somewhere unusual to the animal they are obviously more likely to run away. If you do take them out though, I'd say to always make sure the pet has an ID tag on no matter what.

One of our dogs is just a tiny bit frightened by them but she is an inside only dog so she can be guarded from it a little.
We are going to be out of town for the weekend but my sister in law will be house sitting and pet sitting for us so it shouldn't be too bad on her this year.

(07-01-2015 10:15 AM)niightwind Wrote:  Well, I'm Canadian, so we don't celebrate the fourth of July here, but we do have Canada Day on the first! We've always lived outside of the city since we got our dog, but we very recently moved back into the city less than a month ago. There is always some sort of Canada Day firework event going on, and we've been fortunate up to this point because we couldn't see or hear them from where we lived. Haru, my dog, is very jitterish and gets frightened easily by loud noises (even small things like a plate dropping make him scurry away). I'm a little bit worried about how he'll react come the first of next month - which I just realized is tomorrow, my goodness - to be honest. I don't expect he'll get scared to a point that we'd need to do any sort of sedation (I've seen this method recommended for dogs that are especially anxious of fireworks) but I expect I'll have to sit with him inside and hold onto him to be sure he doesn't freak out. The basement in our house is very quiet so I'm hoping that if worse comes to worse just taking him down there might be enough to calm his nerves.

As for the running away - unless you already KNOW that your pet will do fine with the fireworks based on past experiences, I don't think it is ever a good idea to bring a pet along to watch fireworks with you. Animals need a safe, familiar place to retreat to, and if you go out somewhere unusual to the animal they are obviously more likely to run away. If you do take them out though, I'd say to always make sure the pet has an ID tag on no matter what.

Firstly - hope you had a Happy Canada Day! I didn't realize it was celebrated so closely to the 4th of July! Your approach with Haru sounds like our approach with our dog - just keep him inside, give that reassurance and lots of cuddles, and try to keep any anxiety to a minimum...

And yes - I absolutely wouldn't take my dog out to a fireworks event! He would just be frightened out of his mind. I agree 100% that they need that safe familiar place. I know my pup still gets frightened when he's inside and can hear them, so I can't imagine the strength of his fear if he was at an unknown place outdoors where it's usually crowded with people and super noisy!

The importance of an ID tag can't be underestimated either, and ensuring the contact details on it are up to date! I know the times that I've changed cell phone numbers I've always updated the pets tags too, because there would be nothing worse than a pet going missing with an ID tag but it having an old number on it!

Now that both the 1st and the 4th of July have come and passed, how did everyone end up making out with their pets this year? I hope everyone's pets got on well!

This was Haru's first year being close to the fireworks, but he did really well. I could hear the fireworks going on outside and I was a bit worried, be we put on a movie while it was going on. He's used to the sounds of movies and doesn't mind the loud noises that come from the TV. The firework sounds ended up blending in with the movie sounds, and he slept through the whole thing. I was really glad! My kitty, Scarlet, was a bit more jittery from them, which actually surprised me. She was very curious about the noises coming from outside, and she ran out the cat door to check out what was going on, but the moment a firework went off she mewled and ran back inside, hiding in her cat house until it was over.

All in all we got through perfectly fine. It was a big relief. And now I know I can keep my pup settled down just by putting a movie on.

My little guy did pretty well on the Fourth, because we knew that people would be setting them off - but the evening before the fourth some people decided to get into the spirit early, I guess, and set a whole bunch of fireworks off too...needless to say our dog was freaked out!

He was inside, thankfully, but was running around barking his head off. It worries me to think what would have happened to other pets that were outdoors at the time and their owners weren't really expecting something like that to happen since it wasn't the 4th.

My birds don't seem to care, but fireworks noises are pretty much limited to the cities 13 minute professional fireworks show at night. Fireworks are illegal in town because of fire danger. There are always a few people who try to get away with lighting off one or two though.

Many years ago my uncle had a dog who, though kept inside, went berserk on the 4th of July and chewed thebcornernof the refrigerator door, chewed molding on the door frame and a few other things. After that my uncle got a tranquilizer pill for the dog so he could peacefully sleep through it and not hurt anything or himself. I know it's probably not considered the best thing to do to drug your animal, butninwoukd consider it an option if you aren't able to be home or have them with you for the whole time fireworks are happening in the neighborhood.