Fireworks are not a dog's best friend...

I Love Family Reunions!

I remember my Dalmatian lab mix, Pal, I had when I was around 10 years old.  Pal did not like fireworks, firecrackers, bottle rockers, storms or anything that went boom.  He didn't grow up with the loud noises being a regular occurrence, and when I got him, it was probably too late to retrain him.

When I bred hunting labs, when they were young we would expose them to many things very early, trips in the car to the bank, or to the McDonald's drive through, or to run an errand, water, noise, people, kids, other animals, cats, more people and so on, and as many noises as we could.  Normally labs aren't gun shy or water shy, but it happens.

If you get a pup at a younger age, you can work on anxiety issues early.  The more you can expose a puppy to before the age of 16 weeks, the less it will fear things when it's older.  This is a key time for socializing and introducing new things.  If you get a dog from a breeder you can ask if they've socialized the pup or introduced them to different things, but if you get a dog from a rescue or another place, you'll find out what they're afraid of as you get to know them.  You can retrain a dog by doing the same thing 31 days in a row.  That means if you want them to lose a bad habit, you have to prevent them from doing that bad habit that many days in a row while introducing the good habit for 31 days.

Here's how to work on noise issues, have one person by the pup petting it, or just talking to it.  Have another person farther away, bang pots and pans, let off some firecrackers, run the generator in the garage, the house vacuum, or shop vac, and have the person by the pup just act calm--not react to the noise and act like nothing happened.  It doesn't always work, but if you get pups used to all kinds of noises when they're young, they won't fear them when they're older.

There's also the magnetic force field that comes with a storm, some dogs sense it before the weather person even knows it's coming and they're in the closet, under the bed, or just shaking their little boots off with fear.  Those dogs may need a dogie medication from your vet.  Talk to your vet about how extreme their fear of storm is and your options.

Remember, dog's sense how you feel and react from you, just like children.