By Jon Bowen BVetMed MRCVS DipAS(CABC) director of Sound Therapy 4 Pets Ltd and clinican in charge of the Royal Veterinary College's behavioural medicine referral service.
www.soundtherapy4pets.com

Most people start thinking about their dog and Fireworks Day just a couple of weeks or a few days before the event. This guide will help you survive the day. There is also a long term strategy whereby you can retrain your dog so he is no longer frightened by fireworks or loud noises. For this read HOW TO HELP DOGS WITH NOISE PHOBIA.

Here are some simple rules:

• Never take your dog near to firework events.
  
• Keep your dog inside during fireworks.
  
• Don't get annoyed or try to reassure your dog when he is afraid.
  
• Provide your dog with a safe hiding place to go to whenever he feels afraid.

By doing these things you won't cure the problem but you will prevent it from getting worse.

Our reaction to what the dog is doing is very important, because dogs do look to us for guidance when they are nervous. If we show our dog attention when it is nervous then the dog just gets the impression that it is correct to show signs of fear. Not only do we make ourselves seem more unsettled and vulnerable, but also the dog may quite enjoy and come to seek out the extra attention. In some cases dogs will even learn to pretend to be afraid when they are in fact completely calm. Getting cross will just make the dog more afraid.

The best way to behave is to stay calm and act as if you are happy and having fun. Sing, whistle, and play a game with one of the other pets…do whatever is necessary to show your dg that you are happy. Just don't overdo it or your dog may find your behaviour annoying and worrying!

Changing your behaviour won't resolve the problem, but it will help to stop the situation getting worse.

The most important thing we can do to help dogs is to provide a hiding place for them. Many dogs will already have found somewhere that they like to hide, usually under a bed, in a bathroom or under stairs cupboard where sound levels are naturally lower. For dogs that already have a bolthole like this all we need to do is to make that place even more desirable, and to give the dog free access to it at all times. Some dogs don't know where to hide and will pace or go from place to place without settling. These dogs feel very vulnerable and it is important to provide them with a hiding place.

Here are some suggestions for what to do to make a hiding place more desirable for your pet:

• Choose a place that your dog has shown a preference for hiding in before, and make this place available to your dog at all times, even when you are out.
• Provide your dog with a heap of old blankets or clothing to dig into and hide underneath.
• You can add a couple of drops of lavender oil onto these blankets, as this can help to calm some dogs.
• During the firework season or when there is probability of thunderstorms, keep windows and curtains shut in the room where the hiding place is, to reduce noise levels and block out flashes of fireworks or lightning.
• Install a music system so that you can play music that may drown out some of the noises of fireworks or thunder. Only play music your dog is comfortable with, and don't play the radio, as occasionally stations play firework noises.
• Install a DAP diffuser in the bolthole where your dog can sit right next to it to gain reassurance. Leave the diffuser switched on at all times. DAP is a synthetic form of a natural pheromone that bitches produce to calm their puppies. It also has a calming effect on adult dogs.

Some owners choose to give their dogs short term tranquillisers during firework events, and this can be a very effective way to help a dog through a brief period of stress. However, we have to be very careful about which drugs to use, because some are less than ideal. One medication, known as ACP or acepromazine, is commonly prescribed as a sedative for phobic dogs but is not the best choice. This drug causes sedation and immobilises the dog, but has no effect on its fear or anxiety. So the dog may be aware of what is happening but unable to get up or go to its hiding place easily. You can imagine that this can potentially increases the stress that the dog experiences.

It is far better to use a benzodiazepine drug instead, as these work just as quickly and do effectively reduce anxiety without causing sedation. Additionally these drugs tend to suppress the formation of memories of scary events so that the dog will not remember what happened. This can be a very useful way to reduce the impact of phobic events on the dog.