Desperate Dogs

Sunset girls in pearls

Happy July 4th!
Have a fantastic weekend enjoying all the bounty that this beautiful nation has to offer, hopefully with your family and friends.
At DD, we'll be managing the dogs in the heat all day and tonight we will be managing them with the fireworks! It's an absolutely dreadful experience for some dogs so if you know anyone letting off fireworks in a neighborhood near us, you have our full authority to go slap them with a wet catfish.
Here's a couple of quick last minute tips for helping your dog deal with the fireworks.....
1)Take them out for a good, but not exhausting, run somewhere new, fun and shady.
2) Give them a good dose of CBD on an EMPTY STOMACH an hour before the fireworks are likely to start. You can still feed them dinner a half hour to an hour after dosing with CBD but for it go systemic and be effective, it needs to be given on an empty stomach.
3) Play music at a decent but not overbearingly loud volume throughout your home.
4) Give your dog a bolt hole, like a crate draped in blankets, the bottom of a closet or even better, the shower stall.
5) Be present as much as you can, sitting with them and reading or watching TV quietly. Don't be tempted to keep saying "its okay, its okay" in a panicked voice which nearly everyone does, because it makes them feel like the world is ending.
6) Lavender oil on a bandanna (just two drops) works a treat to calm dogs.
7) Thundershirts or a child's close fitting T-shirt placed on them throughout the duration of the fireworks really help them to feel like they have a suit of armor.
We have way more ways to handle firework and thunder phobias obviously...as experienced behaviorists we've been doing this a minute, but these are some simple things you can do without much planning or prep to lessen the problem.
If you would like to have a bit more info, you can go to our blog site at 'The Dogs Honest Truth' and find our thunder and firework phobia blog from a few years ago.
Enjoy the weekend!