Can dogs anticipate fireworks?!

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RockinRudolph

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I'm just wondering if I could pick some experienced brains on behalf of a friend of mine?! She owns a border collie (he's about 18mnths old) who was very upset by fireworks around Bonfire night last year. Over the last week or so, he has started to become very reluctant to go out for a walk. He will go out with the dog walker during the day, although with much less enthusiasm than usual (she has other dogs with her so we think this helps to motivate him a little). Nothing has changed in the dogs routine and he is fine in himself when in the house (hasn't been attacked or anything when on a walk, and isn't showing any signs of illness). My friend took him out walking away from home over the weekend and he was much better, but is still very unhappy about his usual weekday walks. She bought a thunder shirt over the weekend to see if this will help but he has only had it a few days.

He was castrated during the summer without any problems. He is quite nervy (typical collie I know but markedly more nervy than my own collie) and we are wondering if it's possible that he is worrying about fireworks. My reasoning is that the 'firework season' comes with a noticeable shift in the season/weather so he may be associating the cool air and darker nights with this - but is this possible?! Around here, fireworks aren't just set off on bonfire night itself - they are already being sold in the shops and used.

She noticed tonight that when she did manage to get him out for a walk, there was a bang in the distance and he immediatley looked up to the sky.
I guess that if he returns to his usual self after bonfire night has been and gone, then this might show us but in the meantime, does anyone have any pearls of wisdom that I can pass on? She is going to contact the dog trainer this week who ran the puppy and obedience classes that they went to, to see what she suggests, but I thought I'd have a go at asking on here.

Any advice would be appreciated!
 
JulesRules said:
Maybe the dog has heard a few going off in the distance which has unsettled it?
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This is what I am assuming too. I think his anxiety is continuing long after he has heard something which I think is making him nervous about going out (friend isn't aware of fireworks actually going off when she has been out with him but maybe he has noticed something when she hasn't).

Thanks!
 
RiR, I really don't think that dogs actually think beyond the here and now. That's not to say that they have no sense of awareness, but that if they heard a firework go off, say a year ago, at the first explosion and today, the memory would be triggered. Without the 'prompt', so memories lay dormant. to consider that a dog would think to itself "Jeez, we're coming up to Nov5th. I'm not looking forward to this", won't happen for them. That's what I think!

Alec.
 
Honey08 said:
100% this. He is hearing them in the distance and you're not...
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Took the words right out of my mouth . . . I have a firework-phobic dog and he HATES this time of know - and, from years of experience, that he hears them before we do (and freaks out or hides behind the television - poor lamb).

P
 
Alec Swan said:
RiR, I really don't think that dogs actually think beyond the here and now. That's not to say that they have no sense of awareness, but that if they heard a firework go off, say a year ago, at the first explosion and today, the memory would be triggered. Without the 'prompt', so memories lay dormant. to consider that a dog would think to itself "Jeez, we're coming up to Nov5th. I'm not looking forward to this", won't happen for them. That's what I think!

Alec.
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Absolutely. I realise that dogs lack cognitive ability, but I guess I was thinking more along the lines of a conditioned response and learned behaviour (as in the firework would produce the fear response, which could have naturally been paired with something innocuous such as specific changes in the environment at the time. So it's possible that the fear response could still be elicited even in the absence of the firework, particularly as the firework isn't consistent but the change in the environment is?).

That could be a load of twaddle - not sure if I remember my learning theories properly!

But I guess the chance of the dog hearing it and the owner not, would definitely explain it. Maybe I'm thinking about it too much!
 
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