Fireworks - best way to deal with?

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numptynoelle

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Morning all!

This week I start dog/house sitting for three weeks for some friends. Dog is a lovely collie (approx 3yo) who is the easiest dog to have around – except when there’s fireworks. He gets very stressed and if you’re out for a walk when they go off, he bolts for home.

Now, at this time of year in Edinburgh there are fireworks every night for the Tattoo and this year they seem quite variable, anytime between half ten and half 11pm. Unfortunately that tends to coincide with the on-lead “Last Pee of the Night Walk”. Now I can postpone the walk until after the fireworks, but what can I do when they are in full force? Owners say he doesn’t hide away, he just blindly works himself into a tizz and I have visions of carnage! He will occasionally have an accident which upsets him even more – he’s such a house-proud dog he won’t even do anything in the garden! They sedate him for Nov 5th but as this is a nightly occurrence for the next month I don’t think that is an option in this case.

Any tips?! :confused: Madam always loved fireworks, she would crane her neck to see them, so it's an unknown problem for me! Any help much appreciated!
 
Poor lad, it must be a nightmare for firework hating dogs (Henry doesn't mind them, and until he got older and went a bit deaf Barney would sit and watch them too). Close the curtains and turn the TV up to drown out some of the noise. Don't react to him if he's getting into a tizz, just stay calm and relaxed yourself to show that there is nothing for him to worry about.

Good luck!
 
I would agree with Spudlet, do not react at all to his behaviour or stress otherwise he then knows there is someting to stress about, because u are reinforcing that, try and keep him indoors (as u already suggest) the last thing you want is him bolting off and losing him, curtains closed, tv up, and try and exercise him and ware him out before the fireworks go off to take some of the energy off him, he would otherwise use to stress, if I have dogs that are cratesd, I put thick blanket over one and leave te door open for them to go in and feel a little more secure in a smaller space (when Im boarding them.

Ask the owner to get hima DAP collar to maybe help de stress him aswell, or maybe some meds for emergency incase he gets really bad.
It's unlikely he will eat, but a nice juicy butchers bone could otherwise distract him as get him to assoiate the FW with a positive association, otherwise in the long run a CD is a good way to work towards de-senzitising.
 
Every time I have a new dog at fireworks time I grab their favourite squeaky toy and head for the garden with them squeaking and jumping about basically saying Yay! Look, exciting fireworks! All my dogs have been ok as a result but this has been done before a phobia has developed so I'm not sure it would work in his case. I think Spudlet and Cayla have given excellent advice and collies are so quick to learn that it may be this dog has just learnt this reaction as a way of getting attention so in theory you can reverse the process by only rewarding calm behaviour.

I've never tried it with a dog but cotton wool in the ears worked for a firwork phobic horse I once had......
 
Thanks guys! I've got these next few weeks off work to be with him full-time so I'm going to walk the legs off him, in the hope that if he's tired enough he won't be up for a Wall of Death spin around the house! My favourite game with him involves having two ball-flingers - I fling one and when he brings that back I fling the other immediately, then fling the original ball as soon as he brings back the second - works a treat :D

He's not crate-trained at all, but I will speak to the owners about getting a DAP collar for immediate use, and a CD for long-term training. He's such a sweetie, it's really the only thing that bothers him. Perfect recall, walks beautifully on the lead, plays nicely with other dogs, ignores the nasty dogs - it's hard to believe he's actually real! :p Owners are leaving behind a digi camera to document his weeks with me, I'll finally be able to post some piccies!!! :D

Thanks again all!
 
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