How to Prepare Your Dog For the 4th of July Fireworks

Happy (almost) 4^th of July! Before I go into some tips on how to prepare your dog for the July 4^th fireworks, I just wanted to say that I hope you all have a fun and safe 4^th of July!

As we all know, the 4^th of July can sometimes be stressful and traumatic for our furry friends. The sudden booms, burning smells, large gatherings, and flashing lights can cause our pets to feel anxious and afraid. This is actually why more pets go missing on the 4th and 5th of July than any other day of the year.

So, what can you do to help your dog on this day?

In order to prepare our dogs for the July 4^th festivities, we first need to understand how their minds work.

Fireworks are like artificial lightning and thunder. Because thunder and fireworks sound very similar, dogs usually think that fireworks are, in fact, thunder — which is why they get scared. But dogs also get confused at fireworks because they see that humans tend to enjoy fireworks and go towards the fireworks — but they don’t do this when there is a thunderstorm.

Another important thing to note about dogs’ minds is that when dogs are afraid, they default to one of four survival methods: fight, flight, avoidance, and surrender. This explains why some dogs may run away from their homes on the 4^th of July — it is because they don’t feel safe and they’ll engage in that “flight” setting.

In order to keep our dogs safe and calm on the 4^th of July, we need to teach them to engage in “avoidance” and “surrender.”

So, how can you prepare your pups for the 4^th of July?

Here are two helpful tips for what you can do to prepare your pup for the 4^th of July:

1. Take your dog for a walk for one hour on July 4^th. If you don’t have time for an hour, just make the walk harder and walk at a faster pace to tire your dog out. What happens a lot on July 4^th is that dog owners don’t exercise their dogs enough before the fireworks and big festivities — and so, your dog may be more alert while the fireworks are going off, making them more afraid. However, if you are able to exercise your dog a ton and provide them with lots of mental stimulation leading up to the fireworks and festivities, they’ll be more tired and drained and will likely be more calm.

2. Desensitize your dog’s brain to the sound of fireworks. To do this, get a speaker and put on the sound of fireworks. While the fireworks are going off, feed your dog treats (smelly treats are best!) to distract them from the noise. Let your pup’s brain reach a state of calm surrender as the sound of fireworks continue to go off. Eventually, they’ll learn that food + waiting = fireworks.

I hope these tips help! Hope you all have a great 4^th of July!