Advice for Calming Pets During Fireworks

Thursday is America's Independence Day, a day for grilling, patriotism and fireworks. But for pets, it's a day of loud noises.

Cheryll Johns, facility manager of the Rio Rancho Animal Resource Center, wants to remind all pet owners that animals get scared from fireworks as well as the increasing thunderstorms.

"Make them comfortable, give them toys," Johns advises once loud noises start.

"They're like little children," Johns said. "They're not used to it. They don't hear it every day. Thunderstorms, the fireworks, the balloons. They do have sensitive hearing. You'll notice when a firetruck or a police vehicle go by, it does affect their hearing. So anytime a dog can be indoors during storms or fireworks, it just keeps them from being scared."

"Their hearing is so much better than ours, and it's a sudden like 'Bang!' just out of nowhere, kind of like whenever you're like doing something in your living room and your dishes fall and you're like, 'What the?'" said Dakota Robinson, kennel supervisor for the Rio Rancho Animal Resource Center.

"It's a natural reaction for them," Johns explains.

Johns also says that around July 4, shelters fill up because animals tend to escape once they are scared.

"It goes back to like the fight or flight response, and most dogs will have a flight response. The ones that aren't afraid of the noises are the ones that are going to have the fight response," said Robinson.

Even if pets are successfully kept inside, Dr. George Abernathy, D.V.M., says that the noise will still get inside the house and upset the animal.

"Having somebody stay with the dogs is definitely a benefit than just leaving them alone. They can definitely destroy the house and they can actually hurt themselves very badly trying to get out. So someone being there is helpful," Abernathy said.

Abernathy says that pets don't want to be left alone and they need to be comforted. "They do better if you're there with them. Just not everybody wants to be there with them because they want to go watch the fireworks and that's sort of hard," he said.

If owners are away during the fireworks, Abernathy suggests loud music.

"If you can have music that's really, really loud, and it has a not straight beat. So the beat is wandering, that seems to help because then they can't tell what the beat of the music is and what the fireworks are. But usually it has to be so loud that it's not something you can stand to be in the house with. But that can sometimes help them just tone them down so they don't really realize how now if you have a really loud fireworks," he said.

"So something where the beat goes faster than slower so they can't predict and when they hear something besides the beat and 'Oh, that's fireworks I'm gonna get scared.' So wandering beat, something that changes and it has to be loud and has to drown out the noise," Abernathy explains.

Abernathy also notes two drugs that can be used for dogs to calm them down, Acepromazine and Sileo. These two drugs can be prescribed depending on the dogs age and if they have any heart conditions. If the drug is prescribed, Abernathy recommends giving the drug to the dog before the fireworks start. Once they do start, they will be harder to calm down.