FIREWORKS NOISE PHOBIA

[fishngjb 2]

Does anyone else have pups that freak out with thunder storms or fireworks ? Both of our Toy Fox Terriers pant and tremble every night during the fireworks display. We just either swaddle them in a blanket or put them in their crate, but still they are upset. Don't like the idea of sedation or long term meds for them.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Our pup does not like the fireworks so much either.

Since we know what time they will be going off, we just make sure he is inside the camper, with the AC (or heat) blowing, and the TV on.

It's all over in less than 15 minutes, and he never even knows that they went off.

TCD

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

Lola (our teacup poodle) detests loud noises. Thunder and fireworks especially freak her out. Let the first distant rumble sound, and she will be your best friend ... shivering and wanting to be a snugglebunny until it's over.

[Discamper 394]

Rudy freaks out over thunder storms but no problem with Fireworks he will sit and watch them. I give Rudy PRO-PET Anti-stress calming Tabs that I get at Wal-mart when we get our afternoon thunder storms here in So Florida for Rudy they work great. Hope this helps

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

2 of our 3 are not fans of thunder or fireworks - Brady in particular tends to have a stronger reaction.

We do like TCD and try and create as much white noise as possible, but since we're usually in the 300 loop, that only does so much.

Luckily for us, both of them recover pretty quickly. Brady retreats to his cave under the dinette, Lyn to her crate, and once it's over they come popping out.

Some things people I know have had success with include:

Thundershirts - http://www.thundershirt.com

Key with these is they need to be fitted properly ahead of time and you need to put them on before the dog starts freaking out.

With Brady his reaction had a lot to do with his general anxiety all the time. Once we got that down, his reaction to storms/fireworks lessened too. We had him on an herbal supplement for a while that seemed to help a lot -

http://www.arknaturals.com/p/112/happy-traveler

I'd be cautious about drugging your dogs for this. Be sure to consult with a vet that has plenty of experience with anti-anxiety drugs - not all vets do. A lot of them prescribe acepromazine - which can be nasty stuff. While it gives the *appearance* that the dog is calm, it only acts on the dog physically, not mentally. In other words, the dog is still freaking out, they just can no longer DO anything about it because of the drug. For some dogs that can actually make the anxiety worse. There have also been cases of funky reactions to Ace.

When we first got Brady he was a freak show and our then-vet couldn't even get a muzzle on him to do an exam. They recommended that we give him 1/2 an Ace an hour before the visit, then another 1/2 30 minutes before. It never kicked in until a few hours later and then he was literally bumping into walls.

The Whole Dog Journal (http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/) has had some great articles in the past about the different kinds of these types of drugs and what they really work best for. Not sure if that info is on their website, but it might be worth a look.

Good luck!

[Roller ... aka Ed 351]

Ace is not the solution to ANY vet problem, imo. Just saying ...

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

I agree with you, Ed. It probably has a proper application, but I've never seen any good results from its use.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

In my experience ACE typically kicks in AFTER the storm passes. Our Great Dane is terrified of thunderstorms. Our vet had us try ACE. If we gave it too him early enough to work the storm typically missed us. If we gave it too him as the storm hit... it was too late. Either way we had a drugged dog and no help.