Calming Dogs During Fireworks Night: Coping Techniques to Help Soothe Staffies
We all want the best for our pets. To give the best care during festivities, Knowing about calming dogs during fireworks night is going to ease their obviously heightened level of anxiety.
Thorough preparedness involves pre-conditional training, reassurance, distraction methods on the night, and post-anxiety measures to bring them back to normalcy.
Part of training Staffies in their puppy days is getting them familiar with the world they’re in. Walking them on-lead on quiet streets with plenty of parked cars, building up to walking them on a short lead on pavements with traffic passing. Trucks, buses, tractors, the works.
The more familiar they become with the sounds, motions, and ordinary things they can expect to see and hear, the less sensitive they become.
Fireworks don’t go off regularly throughout the year, so, you can’t exactly familiarise them with fireworks. That leads them to have a natural aversion to sudden bangs and unfamiliar sounds on fireworks night.
Understanding Your Dog’s Fear of Fireworks
Fireworks are not – and never will be – a normal part of life for any dog. They’re set off a few times per year – New Year, Bonfire night, and any large events of significance.
The noise itself will terrify them.
That’s why, in the build-up to the big night of bangs, your best bet is to prepare for them going off. Where we are, it’s not a one-time event. There’s usually the odd fireworks being set off. Not an entire display, but enough to frighten the dogs.
The sight will be even scarier
In the garden, dogs see the sky light up without a clue as to why. That ain’t normal!
Certain fireworks give the illusion that they’re falling from the sky. Falling stars for example. There are various fireworks effects and each one of them will scare your dog. Whether that’s the short whistle of a Roman Candle or the huge bang of a Rocket, the sound are scary on its own.
Combine that whistling and banging (at four times the volume you hear it), with the visual illusion of lights falling from the sky, it’s no wonder the dog’s terrified.
Fact: Staffies hear at 47,000 Hz to 65,000 Hz. We hear things at 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
Source: American Kennel Club
It’s no wonder their hearing is ‘sensitive’.
Preparation Tips for Bonfire Night
Walk them early and preferably tire them
The more tired they are, the less energy they’ll have to dart around from room to room looking for the source of unfamiliar sounds or attempting to find a hiding spot that’s silent.
Walk them earlier in the day, and if possible, take them somewhere they can run off-lead to get rid of their exuberant energy levels. If yours is still in the early stages of training and/or you don’t trust their recall, this is the time of the year to book a dog run.
A lot of farms in the UK have opened up space for dog owners to safely let their dogs run, care-free. Two I know of are Dog Parks Near Me and Run Free Dog Fields. The one we used when they were really young pups, we found on Facebook.
Most of the local ones that don’t use booking platforms are cheaper. When we booked, it cost £7.50 for 45 minutes for up to 4 dogs. I’ve seen them go as high as £10 per hour for the first dog, then extra for every other dog to use the field at the same time.
We’ve also used secure fields for free when the cattle weren’t around. If you pass a farmer on your walk, talk to them. They may just give you permission to use their fields and tell you the times the fields are empty. (and when they’ll be fertilising – don’t let your dog in after they spray the fields. I did. What a mess!)
Show them where they can hide
Without a place to hide when fireworks are going off, your dog will look for one. Typical places might be in the shower, under a bed, under a table, or behind the sofa.
Ours run to their bed and there’s a reason for that. It’s covered, intentionally, to create a safe space. It’s a huge cage with a cover over it that’s aptly named “Quiet Time Defender” It blacks out the interior of the cage, when the front is closed. We don’t close it though.
The cage is left open and the dogs go in on their own, cowering to the back of it when noise levels spike on fireworks night, then when things quieten, they’ll come out to scoot around and come get petted for reassurance.
They will try to cuddle in, by jumping up on the couch. We don’t encourage ours to do that.
They get petted, reassured, then put back down to sit on the floor beside us. They aren’t allowed on the furniture and fireworks night is no exception. Allowing it would emphasise that something is out of the ordinary.
If you don’t have a cage with a cover, you could make a den instead. A table with a bedsheet slung over it, or use a couple of side tables spaced apart and put a blanket over them. The dog can then take cover under the cover, in the dark.
Have them with you though, if you can. Hopefully, you won’t have to leave them alone on the night. If you do, make sure to provide them with background noise.
Use online de-sensitising videos to familiarise your dog(s) with firework noises
Creators on YouTube have done a smashing job putting together soundtracks and fireworks videos. Firework noise desensitization for dogs (Turn the volume down before clicking) is one. Some show the firework display complete with the sound FX, others have classical music in the foreground softening the loud banging and crackling.
Any other time of year (not November), the soundtracks would be fine for a 5-minute play, while you’re there. Not for an hour-long – that’d drive anyone crazy.
Consider using calming products
You don’t need products to calm your dog. Your hands and voice are enough. Pet them, talk to them, reassure them, play tug, fetch, or find the treat, all in an effort to distract their attention. It won’t hold, but it will let them know it’s nothing to be afraid of.
If you feel the need to spend, do so wisely as there’s numerous products developed to ease anxiety in dogs.
- Thundershirt Jackets may help reduce anxiety
- Calming treats include CBD/Hemp or herbal oils
- Calming music for dogs is the one I prefer, opting for the YouTube channel Relax My Dog.
On the Night: Practical Strategies to Help Your Dog
Keep things as close to regular as possible
The only thing to do differently is to make sure they get out to do their business before daylight disappears. By dark, the outdoors gets lively. If you regularly do training with your dog, be it five to ten minutes here and there, delay ’til later in the day. They’ll be glad for the distraction.
Techniques for Comforting Your Dog
White noise is likely to be your saving grace. You can buy white noise machines, or just use what they’re used to.
- TV,
- music,
- people chatting, etc.
The more sound there is that your dog’s familiar with, the more at ease they’ll be.
Something else that’s likely to be handy is anything with a strong scent. For example, meat-flavoured treats, or even a pack of cold meat like chicken strips. When they show signs of anxiousness, wave something with a strong scent across their nose to get their attention immediately on you.
As soon as you have their attention, get them to do something, whether that’s sit, or to give you a paw, insist. Rewards are for positive behaviour. Not just acknowledging your presence. Have them acknowledge and follow the command, then reward.
Behaviour to reward and ones to ignore
Aim to keep stimuli to a minimum. The heightened noise in itself will create a testing environment that’s practical for positive reinforcement training.
It’s as much about discouragement as it is about encouragement. Have plenty of tasty treats at the ready to use as rewards when they follow your command. That could be sitting after they’ve jumped on your knee. Pet them for a wee bit, put them down, tell them to sit, then reward them.
What to avoid is letting your dog believe that any behaviour that gets your attention gets rewarded. You don’t want them biting and chewing bedding out of anxiety, or pacing up and down the room until they’re told to sit and stay. The more they work themselves into a tizzy, the harder it’ll be to calm them.
With a calm approach, plenty of praise, enough encouragement, and direction, you should be able to get through most of the night with your dog, or dogs by your side – either on the sofa if you let them, or on the floor by your leg.
Preferable is to have a den for them to go hide, but ensure it’s optional. Don’t force them into staying in a cage when they might find more comfort from sitting near you.
Post-Bonfire Night: Recovery and Long-term Strategies
Don’t expect normalcy in the morning
The more stressed your dog is on firework night, the more likely it is the stress will continue.
Following quite a few fireworks going off before bonfire night, Reo, one of our younger Staffies, was petrified. The following morning, he would not come out of the cage. 5 hours later, I had to coax him out with treats, playing the come, sit, wait game. Moving closer to the door each time.
Eventually, he got to the patio doors, then bolted back into the cage. The game carried on until he finally went outside, and when he did, he only did a #1, then ran straight back in.
Later in the day it was a walk on the lead he was fine with (just me and him, minus the other 2), but he would not go into the back garden. My guess is he didn’t want to brave it alone, or with the other dogs.
This goes back to another post I wrote about calming Staffies down. They need the one-on-one, even when they live with other dogs.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the young ones, or the seniors… if they’re stressed, they’ll benefit from a time-out.
A wee walk with just them and one person where they can dander around long grass, sniff at flowers, weeds, and grass, and just calm down on their own.
Training and desensitization as long-term strategies
Take a leaf from UC Davis Veterinary Medicine, over in the US where they advise owners about counter-conditioning pets in the months leading up to July 4th celebrations.
They take rewards-based training to another level on this. It’s where you use audio alone for a while, working up to visual stimuli, which can be getting dogs familiar with firework displays using online videos, or taking it up another notch to practicing in the garden with sparklers or the like.
Volume is kept low when counter-conditioning, so you’re not creating the illusion of bonfire night. Instead, you’re building up a tolerance. Reward your dog for following commands while the fireworks sound plays at a low volume in the background. Gradually increasing the intensity.
Importantly, rewards stop when they show signs of anxiety such as attempting to snap the treat out of your hands. At that point, you don’t punish, but you reinforce. Go back and try again, this time with the volume decreased.
Considering professional help for extreme cases
Lastly, it’d be remiss not to acknowledge professional help. You can’t find solutions to everything online, and some dogs may have never had any assistance to cope with excessively loud events.
For those with rescues, there’s likely to be no way of knowing what calms and soothes them other than learning through trial and error.
With Staffies, you never want them reacting because if they get out of the garden in a state of heightened fear, their actions will be out of character. They’re more likely to pose a risk to themselves, by, for example. bolting fast into traffic, or jumping the fence that you thought was insurmountable for them.
When Staffies are stressed, their stunts can surprise you.
Did yours surprise you? Comment below about what you do to calm your dog down during fireworks night, or if yours is so laid-back like our Flash, that he doesn’t even notice.
