Summer brings sunny days, outdoor fun adventure, tasty cold treats, and relaxation. Unfortunately, Summer also brings thunderstorms and fireworks. Some dogs can be frightened by the change in air pressure and loud noises. There are many ways to help your dog calm during these stressful events.
6 Ways to Help Your Dog Calm During Thunderstorms and Fireworks
1. Safe Place: Create a place where your dog feel safe, such as a crate.
2. Distraction: Shift your dog’s focus from the noises by utilizing a distraction, such as providing special a treat in a Kong and/or playing fun games.
3. Music: Studies shows many dogs respond to music. Play some calming music such as instrumental/classical.
4. Stay Calm Too: Don’t add to your dog’s anxiety. Most dogs are highly sensitive to their owner’s energy. Make sure to also use a calm voice when communicating with your dog.
5. Thundershirt: Try a Thundershirt, a natural remedy to alleviate dog’s anxiety. Thundershirt provides constant but gentle pressure on your dog’s body. 80% of dogs who wear a thunder shirt show fewer symptoms of anxiety. Check out Thundershirt’s success stories. Thundershirt from Thunderworks comes in a variety of colors, sizes and the opportunity to embroider your dog’s name.
6. Behavioral Specialist: If your dog continues to be anxious, consult an Animal-Behavioral Specialist. A behaviorist can assess your dog’s body language by how he/she reacts to certain situations.
How do you keep your dog calm during thunderstorms and fireworks?
Golden Thanks to Thunderworks for providing Sugar a Thundershirt. Golden Woofs was not compensated for this post. Golden Woofs only shares information we feel relevant to our readers.
Do you have an anxious dog? Have you tried the ThunderShirt?
i give my dogs some rescue remedy or use spirit essences calming. they can go to their crates if they like or crawl under the covers with me. they do get too bad, the oldest used to get real scared but she has lost her hearing so it does not bother her anymore. the middle child has suddenly become anxious and she just sits right at my feet or wants me to hold her.
At least Bonfire Night is quite a way away at the moment! But anything can scare our dogs, and these tips are great!
sumskersandearlskers13.blogspot.com
Great Tips!! Our Matt is highly sensitive to noises as you may have realized from our blog 😉 He has a thunder shirt and his human brother always builds him forts so he feel protected when a storm comes or someone is shooting off fireworks in our neighborhood. That new shade chair we got also comes in super handy cause he thinks it is a fort too.
xoxo, Ginger, Matt & Matilda’s Mom
Great tips! Our herd leader has alot of noise anxiety and essential oils like Peace and Calming help her too!
Ciara is very bothered by fireworks. Mom has tried most of these tips, sometimes they work, sometimes not. But we are pretty sure she will be wearing a thundershirt next weekend.
Thanks for the information.
Woos – Ciara and Lightning
I try not to react and make the dogs anxious Your tips are very
welcomed though.I have actually learned so many things through your tips.
I had a dog that had thunderstorm phobia, and we used the thundershirt and also a product called Comfort Zone that mimicked pheromones given off by mother dogs. Worked wonderfully when nothing else did. I now have a dog that doesn’t mind the thunder (well, he gets angry at it sometimes, lol) but has general anxiety and reactivity. Thundershirt works great for him!
we try and distract her with playing
Let her cuddle up with us.
Titan has safe spots and sometimes we will use melatonin or Benadryl. However, those are instant fixes. We just had a bad storm tonight and the Benedryl hadn’t kicked in. Poor baby was trembling. I’ve also put one of my shirts on him to help comfort him. But as bad as the storms have been in Delaware this year so far, I’m looking for alternative methods and a quicker fix. I’ve never tried the Thundershirt so I guess it would be worth a try. We also tried Rescue Remedy in the past for quite some time with very poor results.
Thanks for the great post and opp to win a Thundershirt!
My dog sleeps with us so nothing bothers him!
Both of our dogs are scared of thunder, sirens and loud sounds. Even the sound of a loud truck scares them and they hide under our beds. I would love to try this ThunderShirt and see if it works for them.
We try to distract them as much as possible, sit with them and talk to them is a calm voice and act as normal as possible so they don’t get upset.
I have a rescued Boxer Boy who gets over stimulated so easily. He vents his fear and anxiety with incessant loud barking. I think a Thunder Shirt would help him. Nothing else has worked to calm him.
I have to hold Mike tight p on the sofa, I can’t move because (a) the medication that he takes makes him fat, so he might roll off and (b) he has tremendous anxiety if he can’t follow me but the sounds make him cower.
We keep the window shut and turn on the air conditioner and play music or have the tv on. I have a calming rink for them….it just depends on how long the fireworks are going off. They have already tarted shooting off fireworks. We are not far from a fair grounds and they will have fireworks up to midnight on the 4th. Plus we have a neighbors that love to shoot off fireworks weeks before and after the 4th.
Luckily Pippi isn’t afraid of thunder and fireworks. But I’ve had another dog that could not be calmed. I’d love the Thunder shirt for Pippi for car rides. She gets very anxious during those.
I usually give my dog some type of treat that last awhile to help her stay distracted and I usually stay inside with her instead of watching the fireworks.
We try to tire our pooch out on days when we know there will be fireworks. We go on extra long walks, sometimes the dog park & try to keep noise in the house to a minimum (no scary/loud movies playing on the tv, etc).
Our dog, Ella, is terrified of thunderstorms and fireworks so we try to drown out the noise by turning the TV up loud. She also wants to hide so we get her a blanket on our lap and let her hide under that.
Typically, I don’t have problems with fireworks or thunderstorms, it’s mostly gun shots that are a huge issue. My dog is an almost 6 year old golden. Not much really bothers him. However, around the corner from us is complete idiots (that’s putting it lightly!!) and they like to shoot… at nothing… at all hours of the day and night…and no one can seem to stop them… and it sounds like a machine gun half the time. I try to keep him inside and go in one of the bedrooms or sit on the couch with him and he’ll calm down. However, it’s hard to keep him completely calm when the gun shots scare us half the time because we’re not expecting it.
Sometimes it can be a real challenge…. especially because we live in a state where fireworks are legal to have at your own home (some much bigger and more powerful than any regular person SHOULD be shooting off at their own home, mind you). Fireworks can go off all summer long around us… and we try our best to “ignore” the booms and cuddle, focus attention elsewhere, etc. I’m not sure how Penny is going to react yet.
Aww, Sugar looks so cute in her Thundershirt! I’ve found that having extremely highly valued treats can help some dogs remain distracted, but not if their fears are too great. I also try to provide the dog with as much exercise as possible in the time leading up to a potential storm/fireworks. This won’t eliminate their fears but can at least help them remain a little calmer. The less pent-up energy, the better.
We don’t know how Yoda will be around loud noises like fireworks. Bean doesn’t really seem to be impacted at all but we still play a white noise app while the potential stress causing noise is taking place. We will also place her in an area of the home that is nice and quiet.
Amber, my golden, sometimes needs her favorite toy a pink teddy that she has had since puppy hood to help feel better
When I had a dog that was afraid of thunderstorms, I used to keep some special edible bones, and she would ONLY get one if there was a big storm. It worked as a distraction and the chewing helped with relieving the stress.
Our dog usually isn’t too bad with fireworks but if she does get nervous we cuddle with her and pet her.
lots of snuggles to stay calm
We will play with Amberleigh or talk to her. Luckily, at night she sleeps right through them.
We keep her in the house and make a point to give lots of cuddles. We make sure she has a little more exercise than usual in hopes of making her tired. When we go out in the backyard before fireworks start we put her in the kennel with water, toys and a chewy snack.
My dogs don’t like the fireworks and they are really bad here. My least favorite holiday. My oldest dog, is very noise sensitive, and we use rescue remedy, it helps some, and a thundershirt, but she feels she needs to walk around the house barking everytime a big Bang happens. 🙁 My Border Collie, hates the bangs too, but she will go to her crate and wait it out. We try not to change our routine any, so they don’t pick up on any added stresses from us.
Mercer loves his Thundershirt and he would love to win one for his pup who will be joining him soon. 🙂
nothing seems to calm my yorkie mix during thunderstorms. He’s inconsolable.
Just lotsa hugs and treats.
We usually cuddle with our dogs and brush them to help them stay relaxed.
I put Sophie in my lap and talk to her. It seems to help some.
Wonderful tips, especially staying calm and relaxed ourselves. An anxious human’s energy will definitely transfer to their dog(s). I make sure our pups are well exercised to ensure they’re balanced and don’t have any pent-up energy; I also desensitized our pups to the sounds of thunder & fireworks by slowly introducing those sounds (found them on YouTube) and combining them with positive things, i.e. tasty, high-value food rewards 😉
I have a Minn Pinn named Jada. and she’s terrified of both storms and fireworks. She usually gets under the comforter on my bed until the noise stops.
My dog is not calm during thunderstorms and fireworks but we try to help by keeping him in the basement as far away from noise as possible. We stay down there with him, as my husband’s office is down there too.
He calms down as long as he is right next to me and I am petting him
I speak to him gently and pet him to keep him calm.
We thought about getting one of these thundershirts for our medium-sized dog, but haven’t yet. Would love to win one though! She really gets nervous at thunderstorms and fireworks.
Artie doesn’t notice, but Kouga hates storms, No fireworks are allowed in our area, To keep Kouga calm he likes to go to his crate, and I give him a bully stick to chew so he has something to take his mind off the storm.
I give my storm and fireworks phobic dogs Melatonin about 30 minutes before the storm or fireworks begin if I know when they are going to begin. I also play soothing music for them. It puts me to sleep, too! LOL! Thank you!
My dog is terrified of thunderstorms. I have found that diffusing lavender oil helps to ease her stress.
We keep them inside so they don’t get freaked out.
We take turns holding and petting our Little princess. Loud noises just terrify her.
Hugs and holding her ears. She still shakes like crazy 🙁
We try and distract him pet him let him up in the bed with us
We try to keep them focused on other things, play with them, etc.
By giving her lots of extra attention.
I give my dogs lemon balm oil and it takes the edge off. If it is really bad, I let them find a quiet spot where they fell safe and let them be.
My dog is terrified of thunderstorms and runs around the house trying to find a place to hide. I try to keep her calm by giving her a blanket to hide under or keeping her in my lap.
I keep him calm by putting some soothing CD’s on in the house. I also put his favorite blanket on him and snuggle close.