June 10, 2008The dogs-and-fireworks problemWhile 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. 
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 |
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Comments
[June 13, 2008 10:47 PM]
Amy (aka Storm's Foster Mommy)Kenzie is also scared of thunderbooms (as they are called in our household). My vet's response was that dogs are generally afraid of thunder because they can feel the change in barometric pressure with the incoming storm and then the thunder vibrates in thier ears more. He suggested giving her a benadryl to help relieve the pressure that builds in her ears before/during a storm and will help calm them as well. When I remember, this works well. Madi and Kenzie say hi! And look forward to updates about bringing up puppy! *hug*