HOW TO PREPARE YOUR DOG FOR BONFIRE NIGHT
With Bonfire Night not far away, I wanted to give you some tips for helping calm and distract your dog(s) so you can try and have a more relaxed evening. These tips can also be great ways for calming your dog down if you have people around to the house, visiting someone or are trying to work from home.
TIME WALKS EARLIER IN THE DAY
During this time it’s a good idea to time walks earlier in the day, when its still light and always keep your dog on their lead if you think fireworks will be let off.
Make sure your dog is microchipped with updated information, and is wearing an ID tag with your name, phone number and address displayed when they are in public places. This way it’s easier for your dog to be reunited quickly to you in case they are spooked by the fireworks and run off.
KEEP AN EYE ON SIGNS OF STRESS
This can include panting excessively, drooling, shaking, yawning, putting their tail between their tail, intense attention seeking or avoiding you, and jumpy on walks.
Let your worried dog pace around, whine and hide in a corner if he wants to. Once they have found a safe space try not to disturb them. Never shout at your dog for doing this, reprimanding them won’t help and will also make your dog more stressed.
CREATE A RELAXING ATMOSPHERE
Creating a relaxed environment for your dog can help too. Close all the curtains so your dogs aren't able to seen the bright flashes from the fireworks. Classic FM usually play a calming playlist on Bonfire Night to help relax your dogs. YouTube and Spotify also have a selection of chilled playlists. Any other background chilled noise from the TV or smart speaker is also good. Try and keep calm yourself, if you are worried that they are going to react to the fireworks they will be able to sense this and could cause them to worry too.
Let your worried dog pace around, whine and hide in a corner if he wants to. Once they have found a safe space try not to disturb them. Never shout at your dog for doing this, reprimanding them won’t help and will also make your dog more stressed.
It’s also important that you try and stay calm and act normally. It’s okay to cuddle and stroke your dog if you find it helps them to relax, but if they prefer to hide under your bed, then let them do this instead.
CHEWING AND LICKING
Chewing and licking releases endorphins which help calm a dog down in stressful situations. Make sure you got a good selection of your dogs favourite chews and preferably long lasting ones that you can give before the fireworks start as a distractions. A Lickimat is another great way to help calm your dog down. If the dog is raw or wet fed, you can smooth their food over the mat. It also acts a slow feeder. Alternatively, you can pour some smoothie, yogurt, nut butter, smashed fruit and berries (banana, papaya, blueberries etc) and some healthy, tasty food toppers onto it and freeze so it lasts even longer.
PREPARE AND TRAIN IN ADVANCE
A couple of months before the firework season begins you can try and use a desensitisation playlist, to gradually get your dog used to the noises. Start at the lowest possible volumes and very gradually increase the volume and duration of sounds each day over a number of weeks. Reward and praise any calm behaviours and if you see anxiety, stop immediately and take it back to the previous volume – only progress when they are calm.