Ear plugs for dogs??? help please

[devilsofdarkness]

Hi all.....ive been researching ear plugs for use on dogs but as usual there are a lot of conflicting sites so i womdered if any one on here had used them on thier dogs or even had any experience with them....

My parsons jackie is almost 11 months old so this is gonna be his first bonfire night and already where i live there has been a few fireworks going off and he has gone totally bananas about the noise.....barking non stop, running around...weve tried calming him and all sorts but he is more preoccupied with the noise.....He calms right down once it has stopped but with nov 5th coming up I wonder if theres anything I can do to make the night eaasier on him

Any advice would be greatly appreciated..
deb

[mask-of-sanity]

problem is if you pet him ect when they are going off then he will think that the noise is bad ....mine hate fireworks also but after trying various things that didnt work all i do is put some music on a bit louder than normal and just carry on normally i dont make more fuss of them at all

[Evie]

I hate this time of year!!!!
Just ignoring your dog and hoping he gets over it is unlikely to work. You need to be more pro active in dealing with the problem as it has a tendency to get progressively worse each year.
The best way to get him un phased by the noise is to play with him during noise. You can also get sound cds (although I haven't heard many success stories with these). Pheromones and herbal calming remedies may well work if started early enough and with a young dog.
Unfortunately some dogs are more sensitive than others. A friend of mine has a 10year old border collie who has become so bad that she spends most of the winter in a highly stressed state. She has developed sensitivity to the slightest noise - even rain on the roof. Her owner is now having to ask himself if it would be kinder to put her to sleep because she spends so much of her life being terrified. Non of his other four dogs are bothered by freworks.
So, people with puppies/young dogs - do something to make sure you work your dogs through this time of year and don't let them get too old and conditioned to change their mind set.

Haven't come across dog ear plugs but I have often wondered about an mp3 player to drown out the sound.

[Schip]

He's a puppy and you are teaching him there is something to be worried about by attempting to calm him.

Dap in his bed area should help as long as you don't make any fuss about his response. Brewers yeast is another good one to help him and his body cope with the stress as its full of the B complex vitamins.

[Vicky12]

2 of my dogs hate this time of year. I do find that if we just act normally that they go and settle down.

Ive never fussed over them, if it gets really noisy then I might turn the tv up a bit but otherwise we dont do anything.

They do get used to it as they get older.

[Evie]

Originally Posted by Vicky12

2 of my dogs hate this time of year. I do find that if we just act normally that they go and settle down.

Ive never fussed over them, if it gets really noisy then I might turn the tv up a bit but otherwise we dont do anything.

They do get used to it as they get older.

Some dogs are simply never bothered by noise at all, BUT if a dog has a fearful experience associated with the sound, the next time he hears the sound he will remember the fear he felt, so it becomes worse. There is real potential for things to get really bad. I have had dogs that are badly upset by fireworks and dogs that don't bother about them. My reactions don't influence the behaviour, or they would all exhibit the behaviour.
Gun dog people have to get their dogs to cope with bangs, as do the police, and working trials handlers. Sometimes dogs fail in these disciplines because they can't cope well with sounds. When I did working trials, we put our dogs into a play drive when training them to be steady to gunshot.
I know of guide dogs and hearing dogs that have had to retire because fireworks have upset them to the point that they can no longer function in their jobs. Sadly it isn't always as simple as turning the telly up.

[Vicky12]

Originally Posted by Evie

Some dogs are simply never bothered by noise at all, BUT if a dog has a fearful experience associated with the sound, the next time he hears the sound he will remember the fear he felt, so it becomes worse. There is real potential for things to get really bad. I have had dogs that are badly upset by fireworks and dogs that don't bother about them. My reactions don't influence the behaviour, or they would all exhibit the behaviour.
Gun dog people have to get their dogs to cope with bangs, as do the police, and working trials handlers. Sometimes dogs fail in these disciplines because they can't cope well with sounds. When I did working trials, we put our dogs into a play drive when training them to be steady to gunshot.
I know of guide dogs and hearing dogs that have had to retire because fireworks have upset them to the point that they can no longer function in their jobs. Sadly it isn't always as simple as turning the telly up.

Out of our 4 dogs our Springer and shih-zhu are the two that hate fireworks. Their ages are 9 and 12 and they still hate them, even at their ages we find the best way to deal with their fear is to not make a fuss.

We find that after 10 mins or so that they lie down and dont bother about the noise. We dont always turn the tv up.