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While surfing Google news yesterday, I found an article from the Canadian Press about ways to help a scaredy-dog deal with the fireworks that will be lit all over America in the coming weeks.

This is of particular interest to me since Dexter gets nervous and Coral has an anxiety attack whenever they hear thunder or fireworks. And now we have Storm to think about, and he is sure to pick up on the worries of the big dogs and probably mimic their fear of loud booms and bright lights.

The article quotes several dog trainers who recommend a variety of ways to help your pooch, depending on the dog's age and level of anxiety.

According to the article, you can begin introducing booming noises at low volume while your dog enjoys a favorite activity, like eating or playing with a toy, slowly increasing the volume until the dog becomes desensitized to the noise.

I would think you would want to start this right away to have any chance of it working before July 4.

In extreme cases, the experts recommend making a vet appointment now and getting your dog anti-anxiety drugs to help them stay calm.

You can also get your dog naturally relaxed with pheromone-mimicking scents that are aroma therapy for the pooch, helping to ease anxiety.

We may adopt a divide-and-conquer plan at our house. We have an even adult-to-dog ratio, so we can each take a dog to a different part of the house so they won't feed off each other's energy. We can concentrate on keeping calm with only one dog to worry about, which should help Dexter and Storm.

But for Coral, we may actually need doggy Prozac.

For the whole article, click here