July 3rd, 2011
By Eric Letendre
As many of you know I ran a kennel for a lot of years and July 4th was always a stressful time for me because of the fireworks.
A lot of dogs were dropped of to stay at my place to get through the holiday safely.
It really was sad to see some of these dogs around loud nosies. With training, some dogs got much better. Some of them never overcame their fear of loud fireworks and loud noises though.
Here are 5 tips that can help you with your dog:
1. Use an Ace bandage. I know this sounds funny and the first time I heard about it, I was very skeptical. I once interviewed Linda Telling-Jones, the creator of TTouch. She said wrapping the dog in an Ace bandage will help the dog feel more secure and calm them. I didn’t really believe it until I tried it a few times and saw HUGE differences in the way the dog behaved around fireworks,
2. This tip is very hard for many dog owners to follow.
Don’t pay a lot of attention or try to calm your dog when there are loud nosies. The dog becomes frightend by the loud noise and the owner rushes over and hugs the dog. By giving attention to the behavior, you actually make it worse.
Typical secerio: Loud noise, dog gets scared, owner runs over and wraps their arms around the dog and starts to saying things like:
“Poor Fluffy, you poor, poor dog. It’s going to be alright. Don’t worry I’m right here you poor little thing, I won’t let anything hurt you,” as they continue to pet and hug.
Repeat this a few times and you have a dog that is going to be petrified everytime they hear anything that even resembles fireworks or thunder.
3. Act very matter of fact. My little 8 pound mix breed dog can handle the loudest, most distubing sounds. Ever since she was a little pup, I never made a big deal around sounds. Just last week, someone lit off some very LOUD fireworks in our backyard and she barely flinched.
When a loud noise happens, it’s best to walk away from your dog or say something like,”You’re okay, come here and sit.” Giving a command is good to do because you focus your dog’s attention away from the loud noise.
4. Remember that it is best to leave your dog home when you go to the fireworks show. I am amazed by how many people bring their dogs to fireworks shows.
5. Make sure your dog has identification on their collar if they are nervous around loud noises. Some dogs will run blindly when they become scared.
Please ask questions or share any tips you may use with your dog in the comments section below.
Have a great Independance Day!
Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States and has been training dogs for over 20 years, teaching regular, average, every-day owners all over the world how to get the training results they want as fast as possible. Eric is also the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Improve Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
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Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States. For more than 20 years, he has been developing dog training "hacks" that have worked for dog owners all over the world. Eric operates from a home office or a laptop while traveling and draws on his experience and passion for dog training to show others how to develop a dog that is truly “Man’s Best Friend”.
Eric is the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Hack Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
Please tell me what is an ace bandage?
Ace bandage sounds like a good idea (bit like swaddling) but where do I wrap it?
Thank you so much about your article regarding fireworks. We have done all you “not to do” things. We are so stressed because we are invited to a club bbq and watch fireworks, and leaving our toby home to stress. It sounds like it would be the best thing for him for us to leave..I’m not sure about how to apply the ace bandage?
Again, thanks so much. The whole month of July is fireworks in Utah, they celebrate on the 24th of July also when the pioneers came.
Have to disagree with you on #2. Comforting a stressed dog does not reinforce the behavior. I know of 3 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists that would also disagree with you on this one.
Hi Eric, When my little dog was alive he loved to go to the fireworks. I’ve even ridden horses under the hot air ballons with the fire going.
I do have a very important question. Last week I almost died. Last Sunday a couple of friends of mine and I had a garage sale. When I got home I went to my friends trailer and fell asleep sitting up, asked if I could borrow his bed for a little bit and slept for about four hours. Woke up, fed my horse, went to the house to be, it was still daylight, and slept till the next afternoon. My friend called me and said if I didn’t get to his camper he was going to call 911. Took all I could do to get dressed, in fact it was such a chore I almost went through the woods to his place in just a bra and panties. Did get some dirty jeans and a dirty shirt on and staggered through the woods. It took me forever. When he saw me he said I was slurring my words and pasty white. He got me loaded in his truck and to the ER in Venice, Florida. They addmitted me almost instantly. I slept in the ER and in the room till the next morning when the antibiotics started to have an effect. I still couldn’t get up till Friday which was the day they let me leave. I still have to go back for 14 days to have antibiotics adminstered and blood tests done. The infectios disease Doctor said it was from a dog scratch. I’d lost my spleen a few years back when I was training a horse for a woman. Have you ever heard of this?? I was just getting a trailer ready to go back in business with grooming dogs. One of the Doctors said if I wanted to be around dogs I’d better have a suit of metal on. Is there anything I can do. I want to groom and have dogs and be around dogs. I’d lost my business and commercial building due to the local sheriffs deparment’s lies about ten years ago and had only one job inbetween grooming. Havent had any job for the last 4.5 years and was looking forward to opening this mobile business as soon as I had the tailer finished and got my old pickup running. Is there anything I can do, other than wearing a metal suit to groom again. Thank You for your Time and listening. Diane
I have a big problem with this Shis Tzu. She is so terrified of fire works and storms I cannot get her outside. If I put a lease on her she pulls back – if we try to carry her out she lays down or runs back to the house – won’t do anything…. She stays down stairs in our family room until the middle of the night or when it stops storming. Then she does her potty on my carpets…I heard to rub dryer softner on her back — (Like bounce) If it helps she hasn’t said….She is seven years old and a real test. I have had some test done at the vet to be sure she doesn’t have a bladder infection and they cannot find any problems -after four or five hundred dollars but she is so difficult I have purchased dog training pads…
I have read your comments and tried the bell on the door…etc
I read this email after the fire crackers were already going off early tonight. All I said to my American Bull was “It’s okay good girl” She came over licked my hand and went back and laid down.It is important to be very calm.This is the same thing I did when we had devastating storms the past few months. Thunder and lightning like I have never seen before. Your dogs bark because they want to protect you.They can protect you from someone coming to your home and knocking but they can’t see or bite load noises.Thanks for sharing
Hi, Eric
Enjoying your informative and interesting articles as always, reading #2 on the list I remembered living with an ex and his English Setter. During New Year’s Eve and thunderstorms you would find the dog curled up trembling and whining under the bed. And he did exactly like you describe : ”Oooooh poor Leika, Daddy’s here. Everything’s gonna be fine. Wanna come out ? Please ? No way ? Ok, I’ll crawl under there with you and hold you, then…”. I tried to give him some hints that he had to stop babying her, but he never listened. He had her before I met him, so I kinda felt it wasn’t my business to tell him how to do or don’t do with his own dog, so after a while I stopped saying anything. But I really felt sorry for her & she only got worse during the 2 years I knew them.
I’m sure my old German Shepherd Sjako would have disagreed completely with your #4, lol
Then again, he was a strange one who just LOOOOOOOVED noise. Thunder, fireworks, you name it – AWESOME ! He could drive people totally insane chewing on his favorite toy ; a big Coca-Cola plastic bottle… Man, it felt like having an AK-47 in the living room and a woodpecker inside your head at the same time ! But seeing the ecstatic look on his face while ”firing off” an even louder machine gun burst than the previous one weighed heavier than my ear drums begging for mercy, so I was usually able to endure 30 minutes of the torture before the bottle went back up on the shelf again. And getting 10-15 big balloons he could chase around on the lawn and pop was THE coolest doggie entertainment ever in his opinion ! Sadly for him we don’t use fireworks on the Norwegian Independence Day, but every New Year’s Eve just before midnight I took him outside and he would watch the show with me & I just can’t describe the sheer JOY in his eyes, hehe. 2008 which turned out to be his last N.Y.E. was really, REALLY cold & I remember I was thinking ”Instead of watching this through the window in a nice, warm living room, I’m standing here freezing my b^tt off just so THE DOG CAN ENJOY FIRECRACKERS !!!” The closer and louder the bang was, the happier the dog was. Unbelievable ! During thunderstorms we didn’t go outside of course (although I’m sure he would have loved that even more), but I opened the door so we could stand in the doorway and watch the lightning & for every roll of thunder right over our heads he was like ”Wooooow, COOL !!!!!!!” Tail wagging and eyes sparkling, hehe. Yeah, he was a weird one, my old buddy 
When he passed away and I got a Flat-coated retriever puppy, I was prepared that I would not be as lucky with my second dog. So I downloaded a lot of audio files of fireworks, thunder, gunfire etc. which I was planning on playing for him very often the next 3 months, increasing the volume little by little so he would get used to loud noises and – hopefully – be ready when Dec 31 came. But I never had to use them, cause I soon realized Sjakaan was just as calm and ”laid-back” as the old guy. I kept an eye on him when I was watching action & war movies to see how he reacted (simply put ; he didn’t). And when he was lying flat out on his back with his feet straight in the air and snored through the entire ”Rambo 4” on rather high volume, I was confident New Year’s Eve would not be a problem at all. And it went perfectly fine
Even when a couple of firecrackers went off somewhere in the neighborhood just as he was outside for a quick pee a little earlier in the evening. He was a little puzzled after the first one, that’s all & when the second one came he was like ”Yeah, whatever…” and just kept on peeing. My Flat is now 2 years old and he has kept on sleeping like a baby through both fireworks and heavy thunder. Every time I see it I think about how fortunate I am & I really feel for all those poor dog owners who have scared dogs (my neighbor has to drug his Beagle on N.Y.E).
So I have been very, very lucky with both my dogs and I’m not sure I have any good tips to give. I got them both as young pups and I haven’t done anything special with any of them, so I really don’t know how/why they both became so relaxed about noises. But I think playing audio files for the dog to make him used to scary noises might work very well if it’s done slowly and gradually, depending on what ”level of anxiety” he’s on. (Increasing the volume too much too soon and you’ll just make things even worse, of course !) Should this method only be used with dogs who just dislike / get mildly stressed by loud sounds, or can you use it with the ones who have a full-blown fear of f.ex. fireworks as well ??? By the way ; I’m sure lots of people would like to hear more about how you trained those dogs to get better ! I totally agree with you about the importance of not making a fuss if the dog gets frightened. Just act normal and like it’s no big deal, maybe distracting him by practicing some simple commands like sit – down – come – jump up & off (f.ex. the couch) if he’s not to scared to focus ? Or how about a stuffed Kong or a Buster cube to turn his attention elsewhere ?
Well, this was just my two cents. Sorry my comment turned into the length of a novel… I wish both two- and fourlegged a great 4th of July
Cheers from Norway ; Elin Berg Vetrhus
With regard to wrapping my dog during fireworks, do we wrap the ace bandage around his body from chest to stomach?
Would this also work for thunder? My dog knows thunder is coming way before the storm or thunder begins.
Thank you for your reply.
Thank you Eric.
Where on the body am I supposed to wrap my dog?