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There was a brief thing about helping dogs cope with firework-induced stress on the Today programme yesterday morning. Tried to find the sound file in the archive but no joy. Main point seemed to be keeping the domestic environment noisy to distract your beast. Doesn't much help when the firecrackers can go off anywhere, anytime.
Did find this advice from an American article though:
Distraction may be the best bet...
"When the dog hears a crack of thunder or fireworks go off and it sits up and shakes a little bit, I'll have the owner make an unusual noise," he said.
"Without the pet seeing it, you can squeak a toy, thump your fingers on a piece of furniture -- anything that will get the dog's attention and elicit an orienting response where it looks up to say, 'What was that?', and forgets the storm for 30 seconds or more."
"Have a party. Run into the kitchen, get a handful of really special treats and run around the house. For a border collie or a similar dog, grab a handful of tennis balls and throw them right and left.
"It makes the dog more likely to focus on you as you're racing around the house, and more likely to tune out other environmental stimuli."
[Expert] favors a kind of hard rubber toys with a hollow core into which food can be placed, making a distracting game out of getting at the kibble.
"Eating is incompatible with anxiety, so if you have them eating, it cuts down the anxiety," she said.
Oh, and about the family cat: Cats can indeed be frightened by noises... But... they address the problem themselves in the time-tested way. They run and hide.
Is kibble a generic term for dog food in the US then? Or is it the brand name for giant sized Valium tablets for dogs?
Monstrous children. Uma Thurman should pursue them and spank them with a big Japanese sword. |
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