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Fireworks are a lot more powerful than they were years ago, and there are many more of them than in past years.
This is the reason for the increase in dogs fearing fireworks.
I am involved in a campaign in Los Angeles to get illegal fireworks enforced.
The LAPD presently does little to enforce the illegal fireworks laws in this city.
I am also spearheading a campaign,going forward at the end of the current legislative session, aimed at the state legislature to have fireworks banned in the state.
The only exception would be fireworks shows put on by professional pyrotechnics, such as the one last night at the Rose Bowl.
My family had a Golden Retriever growing up. Most years we were at the cabin and though the dog didn't care for the fireworks, she'd go sit with my grandfather (Who didn't care for them because they reminded him of combat) while he watched the DC display on TV and he'd pet her.
One year we couldn't travel, and so went to a friends house two towns over. The fireworks are within a half mile of our house, and the poor dear was petrified, pooed all over the house. After that we knew to have someone with her.
Fireworks are worse in rural areas. People have the freedom to get boozed up, then shoot guns and set off fireworks. My dogs aren’t too happy, neither are the horses. Yesterday, around 10 am, I was pulling weeds in the garden and heard several loud booms. I looked up to see the horses flying by in a panic. People tend to start early on the 4th.
The horses were put up in the paddock last night for their own safety. The two big dogs slept in the laundry room at the other end of the house. Otherwise, they would have barked most of the night, like last year. Shooting and fireworks tend to go on for hours out here. My little yorkies yapped a few times, but got over it better than the big dogs do.
The thought of drunken yahoos handling weapons doesn’t thrill me, but so far, none of the animals have been hurt.
Fireworks are worse in rural areas. People have the freedom to get boozed up, then shoot guns and set off fireworks. My dogs aren’t too happy, neither are the horses. Yesterday, around 10 am, I was pulling weeds in the garden and heard several loud booms. I looked up to see the horses flying by in a panic. People tend to start early on the 4th.
The horses were put up in the paddock last night for their own safety. The two big dogs slept in the laundry room at the other end of the house. Otherwise, they would have barked most of the night, like last year. Shooting and fireworks tend to go on for hours out here. My little yorkies yapped a few times, but got over it better than the big dogs do.
The thought of drunken yahoos handling weapons doesn’t thrill me, but so far, none of the animals have been hurt.
The horses where I board are so used to the sounds of gunfire from the hunting range on the other side of the hill that they don't even raise their heads when fireworks are going off right above them. There is a lot to be said for counterconditioning and desensitizing.
You can actually teach your dog to associate loud sounds with positive things. Maybe not every dog but I bet many would benefit if their owners took time to teach them.
I’m not trying to be insensitive but I really am curious. Fireworks have been a thing for years — decades — but it seems that in the past couple of years there’s been all this angst about it where dogs are concerned. For the past 2 nights people have really freaked out about it and describing their dogs as having PTSD type reactions.
We live in between 2 major fireworks shows and can hear them even with the TV on. My dog slept through it all. (Our previous dogs never reacted either.) Yet social media was blowing up with all these horror stories pleading for it to end because the animals were distressed.
A couple of years ago I never heard anyone talk about this issue and in fact the July 4 fireworks were always viewed positively. Now it seems there’s a sudden groundswell of people who want this tradition stopped because the dog can’t handle it.
Do your dogs have a huge problem coping with July 4?
In my experience, it's not the municipal or community fireworks shows that are the problem, although some dogs definitely experience anxiety when they're going on. But people can plan for those events.
What was difficult with one of my former dogs (border collie) was the neighbors with fireworks. They'd start lighting them off weeks before the 4th and wouldn't stop until a week or so afterward — always at intermittent times, usually during the late evening hours, with no warning. It was pretty awful.
I've never heard any of my dog friends complain (much) about community fireworks shows; it's this nonsense of neighbors stockpiling fireworks (in Oregon, they go up to Washington and load up on enough to last for weeks) and lighting them off whenever.
Fireworks are worse in rural areas. People have the freedom to get boozed up, then shoot guns and set off fireworks. My dogs aren’t too happy, neither are the horses. Yesterday, around 10 am, I was pulling weeds in the garden and heard several loud booms. I looked up to see the horses flying by in a panic. People tend to start early on the 4th.
The horses were put up in the paddock last night for their own safety. The two big dogs slept in the laundry room at the other end of the house. Otherwise, they would have barked most of the night, like last year. Shooting and fireworks tend to go on for hours out here. My little yorkies yapped a few times, but got over it better than the big dogs do.
The thought of drunken yahoos handling weapons doesn’t thrill me, but so far, none of the animals have been hurt.
Some dogs just don’t like loud noises. My dad had hunting dogs and he did a lot to habituate them to the sound. His dogs didn’t care about fireworks. Most people can’t fire of a shot before they feed their dogs if they’re in the suburbs. Stop with the misogynistic “fur mom” BS. Dogs have always been like this but people know more about it now. They don’t just stick the dog outside on a chain to cower in the doghouse
Fireworks are a lot more powerful than they were years ago, and there are many more of them than in past years.
This is the reason for the increase in dogs fearing fireworks.
I am involved in a campaign in Los Angeles to get illegal fireworks enforced.
The LAPD presently does little to enforce the illegal fireworks laws in this city.
I am also spearheading a campaign,going forward at the end of the current legislative session, aimed at the state legislature to have fireworks banned in the state.
The only exception would be fireworks shows put on by professional pyrotechnics, such as the one last night at the Rose Bowl.
Bob.
Bob My mom would be smiling down from heaven if she read this as before her death she tried for years to Get Garden Grove the OC city she lived in to crack down on the illegal fireworks but they would just pay her lip service. Every year she would tip the police off about the neighbors behind her who set off professional fireworks that lasted at least 1/2 hr sometimes it lasted an hour. Not only did it terrify her dogs but left a mess in her back yard and in her pool as the waste fell back down right in her yard. The cops would thank her and that was it they never once came by and busted the people. One of the other neighbors said he heard the guy had friends in the police department most of the neighbors did not like the fact the guy was shooting these off in the neighborhood so were behind my mom but as I said in her life time nothing was ever done about it.
Once upon a time I might have phoo-phooed the issue of dogs being afraid of fireworks or thunder, but my Mister was absolutely terrified of fireworks, thunder, gunshots, etc. I think people conflate a genuine phobia with dogs who are simply surprised and apprehensive of unfamiliar noises. There was no desensitizing the reaction Mister had. It was completely different from the reaction of Shura to fireworks on our day of celebration, July 1.
When the fireworks started in town I walked out on the driveway with the dogs and sat down to enjoy the show. Shura was surprised/didn't know what to make of the fireworks and sat beside me for a while but when the lights seemed to be headed for her head as far as she knew, she went slowly back to the house and waited for me there. It was completely a normal reaction for a young dog. She has no reaction to thunder.
Mister was nothing like that and until I got him, I had never heard of a dog afraid of thunder. As a side note, last summer I was getting in the horses because of a storm, and as I opened the back door of the barn, something hairy that looked like a sheep flashed underneath my surprised horse's legs and into the barn. I got the horses into their stalls before I went looking for the "sheep" only to find the sheep was a fat, wet Golden Retriever. To make a long story short, he turned out to be a neighbour's dog. He had been on the field with his people who were baling when the storm struck and at the first peal of thunder he had taken off running, and mine was the first farm he came to. And he was an outside dog - no "fur mama" business going on at all.
I'm sure it's not a new thing - what is a new thing now are people wanting to ban fireworks, etc. Fortunately we don't have hours' worth of fireworks going off and hearing gunshots is not rare but not common either.
A neighbour told me once that it was a rural belief (I've never heard of it and I think it's likely that his belief was based only on a belief unique to his family) that dogs who are afraid of thunder are "no good." He said his father had had a way of dealing with dogs afraid of thunder - and he made his finger into the shape of a gun.
Think about how people accepted smokers/smoking everywhere. Most people said nothing and just accepted it.
Like many things in life that always "were" a problem, but never really talked about, fireworks is one of them.
People are learning to speak up about things that bother them (or their pets). Sometimes speaking up is a good thing, sometimes it's not.
I'm on the fence about fireworks. It scares my two dogs, but so does thunder and we can't control the weather. Fireworks only happens a couple of times/year. They are just going to have to suck it up and hide under the bed or in the closet until they (maybe) get banned. I won't be sad it they do get banned, but I'm not holding my breath.
There are things in life that people complain about, or make rules about now that are simply RIDICULOUS.
(a teacher not being able to touch (hug and comfort) a hurt and crying child comes to mind IMO)
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One of the other neighbors said he heard the guy had friends in the police department most of the neighbors did not like the fact the guy was shooting these off in the neighborhood so were behind my mom but as I said in her life time nothing was ever done about it.
