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Bonfire Night

shippers

Well-known member
Bonfire night is soon approaching and I'm a little worried how Sally is going to react. This will be her first Bonfire Night as she was born in February. We have been invited to a family members house where we take Sally regularly so she is familiar with the surroundings. We will have to take Sally as we have nobody to look after her but obviously I'll stay indoors with her. There will be fireworks but no bonfire. I'm worried Sally will be terrified of the fireworks and maybe we should give it a miss and stay at home but then she'll still here neightbours fireworks. Any suggestions?
 
If you are inside with her then she should be ok, would be the same as a neighbour having them. If you are able to put back ground music on in the house so they are not quite so obvious, last year I was so worried about how Chloe would react, so she does nothing more than running into the garden barking and jumping at them as she tries to catch them! Oh well its better than been scared I suppose
 
I hope I can help you....I know my Ellie is only a couple of months older than Sally, so it will be her first experience of fireworks too.
My Yorkshire terrier died last year aged 15, and for 13 years I dreaded bonfire night, he was so terrified I used to think he would have a heart attack :(.......
Two years ago I was watching TV and a programme came on and it was explaining what to do to calm your dog during thunder storms and fireworks.
I listened carefully and thought no way would it work and I also thought it seemed cruel, but I had to try it........Here's what they said to do...
'As soon as your dog becomes afraid you must pay no attention to them.
Don't talk to them...don't pat, fuss or cuddle them.
Do NOT look them in the eye.
Keep yawning as though you are bored
Let your dog sit with you or by you and just rest your hand on them, but remember, no talking or trying to sooth them.
Keep the TV or radio on......'
:( Seems cruel doesn't it?? But for my little Yorki who had been a dithering wreck for 13 years it worked straight away..... We were amazed.
I must admit we felt silly yawning all the time :D
So if Ellie shows any signs of being nervous I am feeling confident it will work.
 
I will give this advice a try and hopefully she'll be ok with it. At least they are young and it's their first bonfire night experience so how we react this time could shape how they respond in future years. I suppose if I cuddled her it was reinforce her fear. Poor little babies I always feel so sorry for pets on bonfire night. I know my parents cat is also terrified of fireworks.
 
There's another thread in this section on Halloween where that's basically exactly the advice I gave -- this is what Tara andLisa and dog trainers generally recommend. The reason why is that our dog looks to you for YOUR response. If you make a big deal out of fireworks you signl your dog that it too should think they are scary and a big deal. If you rush to comfort a scared dog all you do is reward the fact that it gets scared and send the message that this is the right response, which perpetuates the scared response.

halloween thread: http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=20871

I was out helping Tara this evening and saw that there are now DAP collars -- these are collars that emit Dog Appeasing Hormone and will thus naturally calm a worried dog. This would be afantastic tool for a dog that regularly get scared if people want an alternative to the DAP plug-ins. The are pricy but they can really help -- many vets carry them or if you are in the UK/Ireland you can order them from Tara. They should be widely available over the net in the US too.
 
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