01/11/2025
🎆Some real time firework training with Phoenix🎆
This is Phoenix's second year of fireworks. The first year, she wasn't even 3 months old, she just toddled around in the back garden - totally oblivious to anything unusual. No big deal. Perfect.
Fast forward to this year, and she's now an adolescent German Shepherd. Her natural defensiveness is coming in and she came into her first season on Monday. Hormones are everywhere, she's a completely different dog 🫠
She goes to bed in her crate at the same time every night, and I was careful to try and settle her before the local display started. Yes she has a bedtime, totally her choice 🤣
She managed to stay asleep until the second firework (very close to our house). She gave out a deep meaningful bark. A good defensive bark, no insecurity or spookiness. I checked the camera that covers her crate and she had stayed led down.
I reassured her from afar for a few minutes without going near her crate, or the dining room she sleeps in. She was settling and then getting disturbed again when they restarted.
Suddenly, her bark changed to something between fear and frustration. Not as confident as it was, wavering and higher pitched. That was my cue to properly intervene.
So, I put my dinner down (seafood pasta in case you're wondering 😆), and knelt in front of her open crate to give her a cuddle. Not an unusual routine if I've been working late and she hears me coming home.
She wasn't particularly stressed, so I opened the patio curtains so she could see where the noise was coming from. She barked. A serious big girl bark that meant business. The kind you hope would scare off potential intruders 😂
So, I grabbed a few treats and fed her whenever the fireworks banged and exploded from a few doors down. No cues to do anything, just a quite treat. After a few reps of this, a firework lit up and banged through the window, I waited, and she looked at me. I said YES! And treated her. Great, now I have your attention 🧐
This is where I progressed to asking for something. We did a few little tricks I know she enjoys - sit, chin etc and then casually asked her to go into her bed. Off she went...
We did some of the same in her bed while the fireworks continued: lie down, chin targeting, a silly little paw game we play where we try and put our paw or hand on top of the other's 🥹 When I was convinced she was no longer registering them, I gave her a last cuddle, closed her crate and told her 'night' (I'm such a millenial dog mum 🙃)
Very long story short, I managed to finish my now cold dinner and she's fast asleep while they continue on.
Its possible I'll need to repeat this over the next couple of nights, but I'm 100% sure it'll be a quicker and easier process as the nights go on. And so worth the effort 🧡
Hopefully this will help give you some ideas on how to help your dog, and point out how useful positive training can be to recondition something such as fireworks 🐾
This won't help all dogs, though, especially those who go into panic mode 😔 If you think that could be your dog, please chat to your vet or a reputable behaviourist, because there is so much that can be done to help ✨️
