barking at fireworks

Re: barking at fireworks

Tracy Windler RVN — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:18:48 GMT

[quote user="lorraine wiggins"] ill let u know how it all goes thanks for the advice [/quote]

Hope its effective- all dogs are different, so it might not be right for your dog, but fingers crossed!

Re: barking at fireworks

Kim Buckley — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 11:38:52 GMT

Millie my terrier barks at fireworks whilst wagging her tail, the same way she does if someone knocks on the door.

Meg my collie x used to sit and shake if there were fireworks. She is deaf now so can't hear them! whoop!

Re: barking at fireworks

lorraine wiggins — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 10:23:06 GMT

thanks for the adivce, i will give it a go 2night when they start. i was thinking the same thing shes tryin to protect the house rather than actually been scared of them.

i had been tryin to explain this to ppl and they said oh shes just scared but i really didnt think she was. ill let u know how it all goes thanks for the advice

Re: barking at fireworks

Tracy Windler RVN — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 01:34:57 GMT

hi, my dog does a similar thing- he started doing ot soon after I had him from Dogs Trust, but barking at any noises outside. We lived on a busy road, so there were often loud noises. He still does it occasionally now, but fireworks are the biggest trigger

A good method I used was to remain very calm, walk up to them, tap them on the shoulder without saying a word, get theor attention and walk them back to where you are sitting. This has to be done religiously every time. Once they "get" this, I found I could extend it to calling in a calm voice, (just as if I needed him for something trivial!). Then giving him some attention, but not making a big deal of it.

The way it was explained, which made sense to me (although this might not be the reason it worked!) was to indicate to the dog that their" assistance" is not required, its all under control and there's nothing to worry about. I get the impression from my dog that he feels this is something he needs to protect the household from, but not something he had a phobia of and sounds similar to what you are describing??

On a side note, I have found zylkene has a similar success rate to dap. For some it works brillaintly, some it does nothing!