06/11/2025
⬇️ Excellent advice as always from The Mutty Professor…
I talk about this so often and it’s not just after something like fireworks.
Dogs need time to decompress, to rebalance after anything they find stressful and it can take longer than you think 💙
If your dog is stressed out by fireworks, then keep things quiet for the next few days!
Not only can stress affect behaviour in the moment, it can lower thresholds in the days that follow a significantly stressful event.
Take extra precaution, especially within social contexts:
🧒 Around children
🐶 🧍♂️ Unfamiliar dogs and people
💉 Visiting the vet visits
🍖 Even interactions between familiar dogs can be at more risk of conflict, especially around resources.
🪮 Stress can make dogs more sensitive to touch. For dogs with existing sensitivities, extra caution should be taken within contexts such as grooming, administering topical medications, putting on walking equipment etc.
🗣️ If your dog is reactive on walks, their threshold will likely be lower. Increase your distance from triggers initially, so you can observe if your dog’s tolerance is where it was prior to fireworks. This will help prevent you accidentally setting any progress back.
🔉 If your dog particularly struggles with fireworks, you may see sound their sensitivity generalise to other sounds.
This can commonly include the sound of building works or car doors shutting on walks or outside of the home, as examples.
🎶 Play back ground sound at home and consider walking your dog somewhere more quiet as often as possible for the next few days.
