July 4 is a wonderful celebration. If you're like me, I love the large firework displays that grace our nighttime sky's. The day of celebration of our nations birth is something that should definitely be treasured.
However, many of our pets do not like the loud noises, so this makes this celebration a bit worrisome for many pet owners. For many pet owners this also coincides with the storm fears their pets have.
So what should you do?
The first thing is to make sure your pet is healthy. Just like for you and I, any chronic illness can make a normally fun activity very uncomfortable and painful. Those with arthritis can attest to how that low pain can take the enjoyment out of many simple and fun activities.
However, most pets, it is a fear of the loud noise. So how do we, as the pet's owners, help them?
The first thing to do is try to minimize the noise that your pet will hear. While the thought of the ear protectors sounds not very logical, we can still use the principal to help our pets. Keeping them in the home is best. Try to find them a room in the interior of the house that will muffle the sounds as much as possible. Also try to make sure windows and doors to your home are closed, so this will dampen the sound.
Once you have the sound reduced as much as possible by location and rooms, the next step is to make the pet comfortable, but not praised in that room. What does that mean?
If the pet has a favorite toy, blanket or bed, then that is helpful to have it in that room. It will help to give them peace of mind.
The one thing that is very common to do, and is actually counter productive, is to be petting the dog while they are scared, and telling them 'that is OK, it's all right'. What the dog hears from you is that they are right to be scared of this, and I ( the dog) need to be even more scared the next time.
It is a natural reflex for us to do comfort our pets. And I am not saying that it is bad to do so. But if anyone has watched the different Animal Planet trainers, they frequently remind us that our pets are not people. They do not hear the words, only the tone of voice and what we do. So they take the soothing tone of voice and petting as a reward, and that what they are doing (being very scared) is correct, and then the next time, those behaviors "get turned up a notch".
So what should you do?
Reprimanding the dog is also not appropriate.
The best response is to not acknowledge them, nor to pet them. Just let them 'do their thing, but ignore you. They will keep looking to you to see what you are doing in response to their reaction - espcially if you have been doing the comfort thing before. That is ok. but is important to stay the course, and not interact. The exception would be if the dog stops shaking, and comes up to you. Then calmly just pet them and say 'good dog'. Try to downplay any of the activities.
And sometimes tranquilizers are helpful. It is important to remember that the tranquilizers do nothing to reduce the anxiety of the pet. They will still react the same, but they will be sleepy and groggy, and will not react as much. If you do use medications, it is imporant to make sure you still do the other behavior modifications to help your pet cope with these loud noise reactions in the future.
I hope this information helps you help your pets not be so anxious with our enjoyable celebrations for this Fourth of July. Thank you to all our military men and women who have allowed us to enjoy these freedoms we sometimes take for granted.
And my God continue to bless our great nation.
