Remember, remember the 5th of November and lots of other children’s rhymes. Its not just one night either, bonfire night seems to stretch from early October right through to early December and then theres Christmas, New Years, Ramadan and countless other reasons, they do seem endless. Our dogs aren’t fans, but regardless thats probably not going to change anytime soon.

As any dog owner unfortunate enough to have a dog scared of fireworks will tell you its no joke. That fear can lead to dogs hurting themselves, destructive behaviours or many others fear based behaviours the can hurt both them and our relationships with them. Remember that those behaviours are routed in fear, being annoyed isn’t going to help. Providing a self space will.

YouTube have loads of videos (one here) that give fireworks noises to help your dogs. Its vital that while this is playing the aren’t just left to listen – give them something fun to do as well – a meal, treats from you or a game. They will thank you for it.

Japanese Taiko drums play at very low frequencies, so much so that playing music from them may well lessen or cancel the sudden noises from fireworks. It does work.

Trained gun dogs are used to loud bangs, even then they hear a bang as preceding something fun (in this case a retrieve). Without the element of fun then even the most relaxed dog around loud noises risks becoming scared of them.

I know the picture has little to do with fireworks, but he looks very relaxed.

Like any form of training the best results will be obtained from year round, ongoing training. Your dog will thank you for it.