July 2, 2024 • 11 mins
Fireworks can be very scary for your pets. Dogs who don't even have anxiety can be strongly affected by fireworks. The Dog Professor, Robb Lust from The Edgefield Animal Care Center, dug into the ways you can protect your dog from fireworks and gives you tips on how to desensitze them to the booms.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Back in studio with the Dog Professor. Welcome to the Dog Professor Podcast featuring
the Dog Professor himself, Rob Lustfrom the Edgefield Animal Care Center. Rob,
How you doing, my friend great? We are coming up on the
fourth of July, and I wasjust on the radio talking about fireworks displays
in multiple communities and they happen ondifferent days, different times, different everything.
(00:23):
People are on Facebook saying they've beenshooting off fireworks in my neighborhood since
Memorial Day. Yeah, things havechanged. We've got some different rules about
fireworks in the state. We've gotdifferent days that people are doing fireworks displays,
And if you have a dog,it can be a very stressful time,
no question about it. Yeah.Usually after the Fourth of July,
(00:46):
you can get online or look aroundon telephone poles and stuff like that,
and you see a big influx ofdogs missing dogs ran away and why because
fireworks. Yeah, you know Ihad a dog back in the day.
He ran right through a screen doorwhen the fireworks would go on. Yes,
So I mean it's a big issuewith a lot of dogs. Some
(01:06):
dogs are not worried about it atall. Some dogs it really affects badly.
Yet you'll still see people at functions, firework community fireworks with their dogs
on loose leads, on loose collars, all this stuff. So it's just
a bad setup. So long storyshort, if your dog has a fear
of loud noises or they've shown anissue with fireworks, and a lot of
(01:32):
times just your neighbor shooting off afew here there is not that big a
deal. But when you get toa real fireworks display and they're sending off
those boomers with a high concussion,or they're sending it off for two three
minutes solid, that will really havean effect on your dog. So there's
different things you can do to preparethem if they have to be around that.
(01:56):
Obviously, at the end of theday, the easiest thing is for
them not to be around that,But if they have to be around that,
you prepare them just as we wouldprepare a gun dog. And that's
a desensitization issue. And how youdo that is obviously you don't do it
on July third and try to haveit fixed by July fourth. This is
something that goes on and this isusually dogs that have problems with fireworks also
(02:21):
have problems with thunderstorms and other loudconcuss of noises. Now, thunderstorms are
in a class different than fireworks becausethere's atmospheric changes, barometric pressure changes,
other things that will weird dogs outcompared to fireworks. Okay, but fireworks
are something that is basically a noisedistraction, and you can usually desensitize to
(02:45):
a noise distraction by recreating that noiseas much as you can. So it
starts off early with loud noises ata distance, you know. And the
easiest way to explain it is howwe do gun noise training with gun dogs.
We don't start off. Most huntingwe do with gun dogs is usually
(03:05):
done with a twelve gage shotgun,one of the biggest booms you can get
with the gun. But we don'tstart off with that, and we don't
start off right next to the dog, behind the dog, next to the
dog's ear whatever. We start offat two hundred yards away, three hundred
yards away with a smaller caliber gun. So it's a smaller, smaller noise
at a distance. And now we'realso not just making the dog sit there
(03:30):
and listen and wonder what's going on. It's about distracting the dog, keeping
them busy, So the easiest thingto do in cases like that is,
if your dog, you don't wantyour dog to have an issue with fireworks,
keep them moving, okay. Alot of times will be healing with
a dog, or walking on aleash, or tossing a toy or something
(03:52):
like that, Boom, noise goesoff. We go right back to the
game, like nothing happen. Ifyou stop and make a big deal out
of it, you know, mistakemost people make is the dog runs over
to them scared, and the firstthing we do is treat them like we
would a small child or a baby, and we try to comfort them.
When we do that, we thinkwe're comforting, telling them it's okay,
(04:14):
you don't have to worry about it. And you've heard me say this ad
nauseum a million times before. Whathappens is we're actually praising the dog's behavior
at that moment in time. Sowe're actually telling them, yes, that
was a big scary noise and youshould be very much afraid of it at
all times. Instead of telling themthat it's okay. The best thing you
can do is act like you didn'teven hear the noise and continue on with
(04:35):
something else and Usually, keeping adog moving makes it harder for them to
focus fully on the thing that justmade them nervous, whether it was a
thunderboom, whether it was a fireworksboom, whether it's a strange person,
whether it's a dog, whatever itis that your dog is nervous about.
If you allow them to sit andfocus and build the focus on that issue,
(05:00):
then it becomes a bigger problem.So the easiest thing to do is
distract and redirect their attention onto somethingelse, And usually that's you can work
obedience, you can toss toys,whatever. But we make it less and
less of a big deal as wego along with puppies. When you first
get puppies, the easiest thing todo is desensitize them to all those things
(05:20):
right away. So we go outand or I guess, we don't go
out and buy CDs anymore. Weget online and we get on our computer
and we get some soundtracks with thunderstormsor even fireworks or whatever, and we
let that play in the background ata low volume in the house with the
puppy around, with the dog around, So pretty soon they're learning to ignore
(05:43):
it at that low level. Soall you have to deal with when it
comes fireworks times is a little highervolume and the concussion feeling. You know,
if you feel it hits your chest, your dog feels that too,
and your dog can't understand what's goingon, So the concussion is a big
thing in that case. Distance isimportant in issues like that. So long
story short. Instead of dealing withall the stress and problems desensitized desensitization training
(06:10):
is needs to be started and doneall the time. Uh too. There
are certain medications out there and thatcan be given to your dog. There
are certain ones that are an actualmedicine that we give in in cases with
dogs that are really nervous about things. We use them like in boarding or
grooming or whatever. And there's naturalissues out there. Composure is a medication.
(06:34):
It's kind of it's a natural calmingmedication, don't You don't even want
to call it a medication because it'smore of a supplement. Contains trip to
fan. So you know how comfortableyou are after you eat your turkey dinner
on Thanksgiving and you and the tripto fan kicks in and you decide you're
going to take a nap. That'sbasically what's in this medication. You can
(06:57):
talk to your veterinarian. Your veterinarianwill usually care or something like that.
If you're worried about it, orif your dog is super super anxious,
then we do need to go tosome medication like that. But nine times
out of ten desensitizing like we talkedabout with noise and exposure, we'll basically
handle all that. So if somebodywere to call today and say, look
(07:19):
it, my dog is not preparedfor this, but I need to do
what I need to do today becausewe have a fireworks display that's happening to
you know, two blocks away thatI know is going to be happening tonight.
But I don't need to lose mydog or whatever. What's your best
suggestion for that person, Well,you're my best suggestion. If it's if
(07:41):
the dog's a real high anxiety issueand it's got to be around in that
experience, then you need to callyour veterinarian oka and your veterinarian will suggest
something medically ok to do it,because you to any of those medications to
calm your dog down, you're goingto have to have a veterinarian and your
vet has to be experienced with yourdog to understand that. Okay, this
(08:03):
dog's cool with that medication, soforth and so on. If you don't
have that and you can't do that, then your best thing is isolation.
As much as you can not ina room. Okay, okay, I'm
going to put him in the bedroom. Then the next thing that happens is
the dog digs through the drywall orthe dog breaks through the screen or whatever.
They're going to go in a crate, a kennel. And in case
(08:24):
when a dog needs security, thesafest type of kennel, they prefer the
airline enclosed crates, not the wirecrates. Those tend to give a dog
a little bit more safety. Putsome background music on so they're not they're
hearing the music or the TV orsomething like that instead of the booming and
shaking and stuff outside. And that'sabout your best bet. If you can't
(08:46):
do any of the other stuff,probably good idea. If they have a
cong toy, put some peanut butterin that guy. Leave that in there
too, to keep them busy.Any type of distractive a redirection of the
brain. Yes, but a lotof times with high anxiety, anxiety takes
place over hunger, and you cantry that, but you'll they'll usually ignore
(09:07):
that because they're too worried about theother stuff. So so redirection and uh,
desensitizing with the music going with lessvisual stimulus, less noise stimulus.
The more you can cut back onall of that stuff for your dog,
the better. And don't be thatguy that goes, well, we're just
going to take fight oh with ustonight and we'll just fightos under the chair,
(09:28):
you know, Yeah, I know, he's fine, he's fine,
fight shaking eyes big. You're inthe chair and you're holding the leash and
you're hits reverse. You know,the dog walks backwards right out of his
collar. Then he's running and soforth and so on. So that's the
worst thing to do. Yeah,yeah, yeah, you don't want to
do that. I mean, it'sjust like anything. Don't don't don't don't
throw him right into people are tough, you say that all the time.
(09:52):
Absolutely right, absolutely right. Soyou are going to a fireworks display?
Are you taking your dog with you? Is she okay to go? Because
I know you put her in thejeep, you take her out, but
you're not even gonna do that.She would be okay to go, but
no, Yeah, Yeah, No, she's she's gonna be fine. Plus
it's gonna be ninety or something likethat. It's gonna be warm. It
may be thunderstorms with it too.I mean, think about that. If
(10:13):
you go out and you get athunderstorm at nine p fifteen and the fireworks
are supposed to go at ten,you've got that. Then you've got the
fireworks. And she's much more comfortablein the air conditioning vent at home.
Yeah, she's like, you gohave fun all to be here. I'll
be here, Rob Great stuff.Talk to people about the Edgefield Animal Care
(10:33):
Center and how they can hook upwith you for training or for the for
the docs, or for boarding oranything. If you're in the central Ohio
area. The Edgefield Animal Care Centerwe're a full service family business pet care
facility. We're a veterinary clinic,boarding, grooming, training, all of
that stuff. We've been around herefor almost fifty years. You can find
(10:54):
out all our information, phone numbers, emails, everything, get on our
website Edgefieldanimalcare dot com. Great stuff, And if you're just finding this podcast,
we have about one hundred and fortyepisodes that we've already done. Most
of them are extremely Evergreen. Soif you have a dog, maybe a
dog's new to your family, andyou want to get some education, you've
(11:16):
got it The Dog Professor Podcast whereveryou find your podcast and of course right
there ready for you, absolutely freeon the iHeart app
Back in studio with the Dog Professor. Welcome to the Dog Professor Podcast featuring
the Dog Professor himself, Rob Lustfrom the Edgefield Animal Care Center. Rob,
How you doing, my friend great? We are coming up on the
fourth of July, and I wasjust on the radio talking about fireworks displays
in multiple communities and they happen ondifferent days, different times, different everything.
(00:23):
People are on Facebook saying they've beenshooting off fireworks in my neighborhood since
Memorial Day. Yeah, things havechanged. We've got some different rules about
fireworks in the state. We've gotdifferent days that people are doing fireworks displays,
And if you have a dog,it can be a very stressful time,
no question about it. Yeah.Usually after the Fourth of July,
(00:46):
you can get online or look aroundon telephone poles and stuff like that,
and you see a big influx ofdogs missing dogs ran away and why because
fireworks. Yeah, you know Ihad a dog back in the day.
He ran right through a screen doorwhen the fireworks would go on. Yes,
So I mean it's a big issuewith a lot of dogs. Some
(01:06):
dogs are not worried about it atall. Some dogs it really affects badly.
Yet you'll still see people at functions, firework community fireworks with their dogs
on loose leads, on loose collars, all this stuff. So it's just
a bad setup. So long storyshort, if your dog has a fear
of loud noises or they've shown anissue with fireworks, and a lot of
(01:32):
times just your neighbor shooting off afew here there is not that big a
deal. But when you get toa real fireworks display and they're sending off
those boomers with a high concussion,or they're sending it off for two three
minutes solid, that will really havean effect on your dog. So there's
different things you can do to preparethem if they have to be around that.
(01:56):
Obviously, at the end of theday, the easiest thing is for
them not to be around that,But if they have to be around that,
you prepare them just as we wouldprepare a gun dog. And that's
a desensitization issue. And how youdo that is obviously you don't do it
on July third and try to haveit fixed by July fourth. This is
something that goes on and this isusually dogs that have problems with fireworks also
(02:21):
have problems with thunderstorms and other loudconcuss of noises. Now, thunderstorms are
in a class different than fireworks becausethere's atmospheric changes, barometric pressure changes,
other things that will weird dogs outcompared to fireworks. Okay, but fireworks
are something that is basically a noisedistraction, and you can usually desensitize to
(02:45):
a noise distraction by recreating that noiseas much as you can. So it
starts off early with loud noises ata distance, you know. And the
easiest way to explain it is howwe do gun noise training with gun dogs.
We don't start off. Most huntingwe do with gun dogs is usually
(03:05):
done with a twelve gage shotgun,one of the biggest booms you can get
with the gun. But we don'tstart off with that, and we don't
start off right next to the dog, behind the dog, next to the
dog's ear whatever. We start offat two hundred yards away, three hundred
yards away with a smaller caliber gun. So it's a smaller, smaller noise
at a distance. And now we'realso not just making the dog sit there
(03:30):
and listen and wonder what's going on. It's about distracting the dog, keeping
them busy, So the easiest thingto do in cases like that is,
if your dog, you don't wantyour dog to have an issue with fireworks,
keep them moving, okay. Alot of times will be healing with
a dog, or walking on aleash, or tossing a toy or something
(03:52):
like that, Boom, noise goesoff. We go right back to the
game, like nothing happen. Ifyou stop and make a big deal out
of it, you know, mistakemost people make is the dog runs over
to them scared, and the firstthing we do is treat them like we
would a small child or a baby, and we try to comfort them.
When we do that, we thinkwe're comforting, telling them it's okay,
(04:14):
you don't have to worry about it. And you've heard me say this ad
nauseum a million times before. Whathappens is we're actually praising the dog's behavior
at that moment in time. Sowe're actually telling them, yes, that
was a big scary noise and youshould be very much afraid of it at
all times. Instead of telling themthat it's okay. The best thing you
can do is act like you didn'teven hear the noise and continue on with
(04:35):
something else and Usually, keeping adog moving makes it harder for them to
focus fully on the thing that justmade them nervous, whether it was a
thunderboom, whether it was a fireworksboom, whether it's a strange person,
whether it's a dog, whatever itis that your dog is nervous about.
If you allow them to sit andfocus and build the focus on that issue,
(05:00):
then it becomes a bigger problem.So the easiest thing to do is
distract and redirect their attention onto somethingelse, And usually that's you can work
obedience, you can toss toys,whatever. But we make it less and
less of a big deal as wego along with puppies. When you first
get puppies, the easiest thing todo is desensitize them to all those things
(05:20):
right away. So we go outand or I guess, we don't go
out and buy CDs anymore. Weget online and we get on our computer
and we get some soundtracks with thunderstormsor even fireworks or whatever, and we
let that play in the background ata low volume in the house with the
puppy around, with the dog around, So pretty soon they're learning to ignore
(05:43):
it at that low level. Soall you have to deal with when it
comes fireworks times is a little highervolume and the concussion feeling. You know,
if you feel it hits your chest, your dog feels that too,
and your dog can't understand what's goingon, So the concussion is a big
thing in that case. Distance isimportant in issues like that. So long
story short. Instead of dealing withall the stress and problems desensitized desensitization training
(06:10):
is needs to be started and doneall the time. Uh too. There
are certain medications out there and thatcan be given to your dog. There
are certain ones that are an actualmedicine that we give in in cases with
dogs that are really nervous about things. We use them like in boarding or
grooming or whatever. And there's naturalissues out there. Composure is a medication.
(06:34):
It's kind of it's a natural calmingmedication, don't You don't even want
to call it a medication because it'smore of a supplement. Contains trip to
fan. So you know how comfortableyou are after you eat your turkey dinner
on Thanksgiving and you and the tripto fan kicks in and you decide you're
going to take a nap. That'sbasically what's in this medication. You can
(06:57):
talk to your veterinarian. Your veterinarianwill usually care or something like that.
If you're worried about it, orif your dog is super super anxious,
then we do need to go tosome medication like that. But nine times
out of ten desensitizing like we talkedabout with noise and exposure, we'll basically
handle all that. So if somebodywere to call today and say, look
(07:19):
it, my dog is not preparedfor this, but I need to do
what I need to do today becausewe have a fireworks display that's happening to
you know, two blocks away thatI know is going to be happening tonight.
But I don't need to lose mydog or whatever. What's your best
suggestion for that person, Well,you're my best suggestion. If it's if
(07:41):
the dog's a real high anxiety issueand it's got to be around in that
experience, then you need to callyour veterinarian oka and your veterinarian will suggest
something medically ok to do it,because you to any of those medications to
calm your dog down, you're goingto have to have a veterinarian and your
vet has to be experienced with yourdog to understand that. Okay, this
(08:03):
dog's cool with that medication, soforth and so on. If you don't
have that and you can't do that, then your best thing is isolation.
As much as you can not ina room. Okay, okay, I'm
going to put him in the bedroom. Then the next thing that happens is
the dog digs through the drywall orthe dog breaks through the screen or whatever.
They're going to go in a crate, a kennel. And in case
(08:24):
when a dog needs security, thesafest type of kennel, they prefer the
airline enclosed crates, not the wirecrates. Those tend to give a dog
a little bit more safety. Putsome background music on so they're not they're
hearing the music or the TV orsomething like that instead of the booming and
shaking and stuff outside. And that'sabout your best bet. If you can't
(08:46):
do any of the other stuff,probably good idea. If they have a
cong toy, put some peanut butterin that guy. Leave that in there
too, to keep them busy.Any type of distractive a redirection of the
brain. Yes, but a lotof times with high anxiety, anxiety takes
place over hunger, and you cantry that, but you'll they'll usually ignore
(09:07):
that because they're too worried about theother stuff. So so redirection and uh,
desensitizing with the music going with lessvisual stimulus, less noise stimulus.
The more you can cut back onall of that stuff for your dog,
the better. And don't be thatguy that goes, well, we're just
going to take fight oh with ustonight and we'll just fightos under the chair,
(09:28):
you know, Yeah, I know, he's fine, he's fine,
fight shaking eyes big. You're inthe chair and you're holding the leash and
you're hits reverse. You know,the dog walks backwards right out of his
collar. Then he's running and soforth and so on. So that's the
worst thing to do. Yeah,yeah, yeah, you don't want to
do that. I mean, it'sjust like anything. Don't don't don't don't
throw him right into people are tough, you say that all the time.
(09:52):
Absolutely right, absolutely right. Soyou are going to a fireworks display?
Are you taking your dog with you? Is she okay to go? Because
I know you put her in thejeep, you take her out, but
you're not even gonna do that.She would be okay to go, but
no, Yeah, Yeah, No, she's she's gonna be fine. Plus
it's gonna be ninety or something likethat. It's gonna be warm. It
may be thunderstorms with it too.I mean, think about that. If
(10:13):
you go out and you get athunderstorm at nine p fifteen and the fireworks
are supposed to go at ten,you've got that. Then you've got the
fireworks. And she's much more comfortablein the air conditioning vent at home.
Yeah, she's like, you gohave fun all to be here. I'll
be here, Rob Great stuff.Talk to people about the Edgefield Animal Care
(10:33):
Center and how they can hook upwith you for training or for the for
the docs, or for boarding oranything. If you're in the central Ohio
area. The Edgefield Animal Care Centerwe're a full service family business pet care
facility. We're a veterinary clinic,boarding, grooming, training, all of
that stuff. We've been around herefor almost fifty years. You can find
(10:54):
out all our information, phone numbers, emails, everything, get on our
website Edgefieldanimalcare dot com. Great stuff, And if you're just finding this podcast,
we have about one hundred and fortyepisodes that we've already done. Most
of them are extremely Evergreen. Soif you have a dog, maybe a
dog's new to your family, andyou want to get some education, you've
(11:16):
got it The Dog Professor Podcast whereveryou find your podcast and of course right
there ready for you, absolutely freeon the iHeart app
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!