Our town fireworks took place last night. Thankfully we live a far enough distance away that the noise registers as a quiet, BOOM! Luckily for me, Sampson and Delilah are rarely bothered by loud noises. A couple of weeks ago we had a clap of thunder in the middle of the night that literally shook the house. Delilah barked once and I don’t think Sampson even moved. (Although he has been known to run outside to bark at the sky with particularly loud boomers.)
Fireworks in our neighborhood are an entirely different matter though. Often times the neighbor two houses over has a raucous party and lights off firecrackers. Fireworks THAT close to home can really set my dogs off.
I’ve been following our local animal control’s Facebook page and discovered that July 5th is the busiest day for shelters. Why is that? Because so many pets are terrified of the noise and chaos and get scared and run off.
I think this goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Don’t bring your pets around fireworks. A spinning, wiggling, sparkly firework could possibly tempt an animal in a game of chase, which could result in severe burns or worse.
Below is a list of a few extra precautions you can take to help keep your pet as safe as they can be this 4th of July.
- Even if your pet is micro-chipped make sure they are wearing a collar with your name and phone number on it.
- Try and keep your pets inside when fireworks are taking place. If they must go outside to potty, go outside with them. If possible make sure they are on leash.
- Run the air conditioning (or fans) along with some loud music or play the TV loudly to help dull the noise.
- Have the number for your local animal control readily available. (You don’t want to be trying to look something up when you are in a blind panic.)
- Have a current picture of your pet handy, just in case.
- Don’t leave your pet alone if you can help it. If you must leave them alone, consider making a nest for them in a small area of your home, one where they cannot hurt themselves and consider leaving the air conditioning and music on in there to help muffle the noise.
- If you have tried all of these and nothing is helping, consult your veterinarian to help find something that will work for your pet. There are many natural as well as prescribed solutions that might help.
And remember, it’s not just pets that don’t care for fireworks, some combat veterans have a real problem with loud noises, especially those that sound like gun fire.
To help spread the word, Sampson and Delilah made a little public service announcement.
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You can help us spread the word by sharing this post on your social media platforms, or if you’d just like to share the photo, you can grab it on our Facebook page.
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We’re not really looking forward to the fireworks on the 4th. Zoe gets really upset by them so we’re staying home with her.
Although we don’t celebrate 4th of July in Australia, fireworks take place quite frequently. I usually bring Cody inside during storms and when fireworks show are on, which seems to help. I really like the idea of having the TV or music on to muffle the noise. I will try it next time!
Great ideas for people and pets. I’m too busy worrying about soccer balls, golf carts, ladders, and balloons to be bothered by the fireworks.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
I’m not scared a bit. As matter of fact, I sit out in the middle of the yard and look at them in the sky every night these days. Katie can’t hear well, so she is no longer bothered. Bailie started to be a bit scared this year, so Mom got right on it with treats for every bang and she seems to be fine with it now as long as she is in the house. Mom doesn’t mind seeing them, but even she dislikes all the noise going on, and with it being on a Saturday this year, it is guaranteed to be louder than ever.
Hi Y’all
We have the same problem here at the shore. Fireworks are legal here. All weekend there are elaborate displays up + down the river.
Y’all come on by!
Hawk aka BrownDog
We’re going to watch the fireworks from the back porch. They are far enough away that they don’t scare us. Have a Happy Fourth!
Our dogs will be inside. In fact, Patches will be in the tub. It’s her safe place.
This is going to be a dry, hot Fourth. Our first. We have a huge industrial fan that we place in front of our french doors in the morning and evening to cool the house off. This will also help decrease some of the fireworks (but not the ones next door).
We’re hoping the burn ban will make this a quieter year.
Great advice, Jodi! My girls’ reactions to fireworks — actually any loud noise — are as individual as the girls themselves. I do my best to not leave them alone when we’re expecting thunderstorms, but sometimes it’s difficult to manage. All the potty breaks here are supervised, and at night both Callie and Ducky are on leashes. Shadow sticks close to me if there’s any noise, but the yard is completely fenced in/gated, so she won’t run off.
The arthritis keeps her from jumping high enough to clear the fence; but she usually runs to me or the porch door.
Great poster- I think people forget about both pets and vets, but you are so right. There were lots of fireworks last night but not too near our house. Kilo was inside. We walked early and late on leash so no problems. He snoozed with toys and a chew. X Susie
My neighborhood has been uncharacteristically quiet so far. Usually by now, every night at dusk “the poppers” , as we call them, start going off. It becomes so bad, my dogs refuse to go out for their bedtime pee break. But nothing so far…I attribute it to the unusually wet summer we are having. Kids are staying in more I think.
Both Jimmy and Wilson hate/fear fireworks, but my first corgi LOVED them. He would go with us to the fireworks shows and watch them launch from the ground and them explode overhead. You could see the wonder in his eyes. The only problem was he would cheer them on quite loudly to the annoyance of the crowd.
We will never understand the mentality of spending $25-50 for a few minutes of mindless noise that has nothing to do with celebrating the birth of a nation.
Excellent advice! Are these the same neighbors who don’t pick up poop off their deck by any chance? 🙂
We have some neighbors who (despite city ordinances forbidden fireworks) start shooting them off anywhere from 7-10 days before and continue 7-10 days after the 4th. It’s a cluster and headache I despise every year even though Sam is rarely bothered by them. They bother the hell outa me (I was hit by a bottle rocket as a young teen and have an aversion to those things) and I know they drive some dogs crazy. My solution has been to pray for buckets of rain but this year I may be calling the police to enforce. Houses in our neighborhood are so close together, one spark and a roof could ignite. Here’s hoping for a safe and happy 4th.
Yeah, we’re living in a town where they sell fireworks in the grocery story. No one has started setting them off yet. But it should be interesting.
Honey doesn’t mind them normally. But there’s always a first time.
Hope your 4th is fun and not at all scary. 🙂
Great tips! We just celebrated Canada Day here yesterday and went to see the fireworks show. (Not with the dogs) but with the human kids. Luckily my huskies aren’t really bothered by them, but they don’t get set off close to our house anyways, not sure how they would react then.
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
We don’t have that worry here since it’s illegal to have fireworks without a permit. They only do it for large events in town. : ) I’m sorry for the dogs who have to endure it though.
I love your PSA and I’m definitely sharing it!
Good reminders. We’re lucky to live far enough away too. Maggie is unphased by noises and Jack’s hearing is going, so it has to be pretty loud to get his attention.
Socks really hates loud noises. We give her a 3mg Melitonin and we have a Thunder shirt for her. You can get them lots of places but the best place is Bed Bath & Beyond because you can use a 20% off coupon. They really work good. They hold them real tight and press on certain nerves to calm them. I got my first one from the vet.
Our dogs hang out in the basement during the fireworks and it doesn’t seem to bother them much down there. I think it’s so insulated in the concrete and mostly underground that it deadens the worst of the noise for them. It also helps to keep them safe from our guests who aren’t always very dog savvy. They come out and make an appearance early on, but then we keep them out of the way. It’s much better safe than sorry!
The only good thing about Mity aging is that he is not a tad deaf and so he can’t hear fireworks when they go off – turns out every cloud does have a silver lining!
I find fireworks annoying. Period. The dogs do not like them and I don’t want to be kept up all night and worried one will land on the roof and burn the house down. (That happened in my city one year…a firework landed on someone’s roof and no more house.) We already had one kid blow his hand off and a guy blow his head off (put a lit one on his head). Yep not a fan.
Pinned this post! Thank you! As for your question about premies, all puppies look alike so can’t really tell if premies unless really obvious. Nellie was born a day later which I suspect because she was late getting conceived and she turned out just fine.