It’s nearly the 4th of July! Every training session with your dog, conditioning him to sudden, loud “Bangs!” will help him tolerate fireworks a little better. However, it’s too late at this point to expect the change in response that you want for your dog during the upcoming event.
This Year’s Fireworks
For the upcoming holiday with your current fireworks-fearful dog, prepare to sit with him quietly in an interior room. Provide blankets and a white noise background, diffuse lavender essential oil, and use all the comforting, relaxing tools you have. Thundershirts, herbal calming supplements, and massages can be helpful. Treats, Lick-mats and stuffed Kongs may help if your dog is able to eat during the explosions outside.
New Dog or Puppy?
Now is your chance to prevent anxiety related to fireworks for your new dog or puppy. This can help prevent thunderstorm anxiety, too. If you’ve had a dog with this distressful challenge, you know how awful it is for dogs and yourself.
In a recent blog post, you can read about Maggie, my childhood dog. She was terrified of both thunder and fireworks. You’ll see that she “failed” a “test” given to all the puppies in her litter. These “tests” usually consist of firing a gun over the puppies: Bang! (While I don’t know the details of this particular incident, I know about other, similar “testing” procedures.)
Traditions in raising puppies are not always based on best practices. When we brought Maggie home, my parents didn’t know what might help her. She spent her entire life as a happy-go-lucky dog other than during storms and fireworks displays. Luckily, neighborhood fireworks use was mostly limited to New Year’s Eve and the 4th of July in those days.
Conditioned Fear of Fireworks
These days, in my neighborhood, folks celebrate nearly every holiday, even Christmas and Easter, with fireworks! Dogs who are conditioned to fear these super-loud events have to manage it many times throughout each year of their lives.
Notice that I said, “conditioned to fear” fireworks. It’s true. This response is learned. As I’ve written here before, genetics certainly play a role in how easily learned it may be for an individual. But it’s important to recognize that we have the power to use Pavlovian conditioning to create a different response.
Conditioning Dogs to Their Jobs
Dogs who work in police and military operative positions love explosions! Loud bangs mean they get to do the tasks they were trained to do. Their jobs lead to wonderful reinforcements like treats, toys, and playtime. You’ll see a similar response from a competitive agility dog when he is walked onto an agility course. You can imagine the dogs thinking, “Oh, boy! Let’s get going!”
Purposeful Conditioning to Fireworks
One of my students told me about her sister’s dog who was terrified of thunderstorms. Of course, they didn’t know this when they first brought the dog home. Also, they didn’t think to immediately start conditioning the dog to love thunder. It wasn’t part of the plan, any more than it was for my parents with our dog, Maggie. It seems common that training goals are influenced by what people have seen in other dogs. If you’ve seen a dog behavior that you know you don’t want, you’ll go to some effort to prevent it.
Thunder Relates to Fireworks
My student’s family discovered the new dog’s fear during a thunderstorm. She ran into an interior bathroom and in her fear, accidentally closed the door. The dogwas large and inadvertently laid down against the door so they couldn’t get it open for a long time. The poor dog was terrified. The thunderstorm, the door, and maybe even the people trying to open the door were scaring her. Her humans were scared and concerned for her, so might have called out, pounded on the door, or who knows what? From then on, the dog exhibited fear during storms and fireworks. She would try to escape, hide, and probably show a stiff, tight body and other body language signs of fear.
Distress for Humans and Dogs
My student was so distressed by her sister’s dog’s fear that when she got her own puppy, she immediately set out to prevent thunderstorm/fireworks anxiety. Her puppy’s favorite activity was playing with a soccer ball. (She still loves to play ball – now it’s a basketball!) Her mom grabbed the soccer ball during their first New Year’s Eve together! The two of them played throughout the event. As the puppy matured, she began to look forward to the loud sounds. (OK, I don’t know what she was thinking, but she would appear excited and bring the ball for a game.)
Fireworks = Fun
These days, the dog is relaxed and happy when thunderstorms or fireworks begin. She and her mom play and even relax together throughout these loud events.
Prevention
I try to get across to every student the importance of preventing dogs from building undesirable behaviors into their lives. You have one chance to start preventing things like counter-surfing, blasting through any open door, or peeing in the house. When a dog does a behavior and it “works” for him, it becomes part of his skill set. Every time he does it, he gets better at it.
Conditioned Emotional Responses
This is equally true of emotional responses. Dogs become scared of leashes, cars, people, other dogs walking past them, and the vet’s office. Fears can generalize and become a dog’s go-to response with the introduction of anything new.
It’s All Happening at Once
Dogs often internalize a chase response based on the excitement and arousal that comes over them when they see a squirrel or bird in the yard. The same sometimes happens when they see a cat that runs from them. This is operant behavior combined with an emotional response. It worked for them somehow, so they choose it more often in various settings.
Dogs also learn to exhibit happy, excited behaviors when they see a food bowl, a leash or a favorite toy. How does your dog’s behavior change when you grab a bag of treats and they hear the crackling sound of the plastic as you open it?
These responses don’t go away; they grow and expand. That’s why it’s best to build a positive response to absolutely everything a dog will experience in his lifetime. It’s the basis of puppy socialization and also why that transitional moment when you bring your new dog or puppy home is incredibly important.
A Transitional Moment
When you bring your new dog home, everything in his life changes in a moment! All the previous stimuli that influenced his behavior are gone, and new ones are in front of him. This includes you, your car, your home, your family, they ways you respond to your new buddy. All are teaching him what to expect in those circumstances. This is your chance to create your future together.
Make a Plan
What if you were fully prepared, with a plan in place, the first time your new dog heard thunder or fireworks in your home, with you? Maybe you have a stash of toys and treats ready, with some ideas for starting a game just as the loud bangs begin, like my student had her puppy’s soccer ball ready. It is within your power to set up your new dog’s or puppy’s future to include a positive association with loud bangs, just as those training police and military dogs teach them that explosions are something to look forward to.
Barriers to Success
The situations that make the development of these associations more challenging are those in which the dog or puppy has either already become sensitized to these loud sounds or is under the influence of some other stressor(s) at the time they are introduced to a thunderstorm or fireworks. This is also known as trigger-stacking. We can’t know how many stressors/triggers are influencing a dog at one time. Maggie, as a puppy, could have been experiencing multiple triggers during that gun-shyness “test.” When it happened, the association between her fear and the loud sound was made. After that, she was operating with that learning experience on board.
Pavlovian conditioning is a learning process – and a powerful one. However, Maggie’s experience was only a single association at that point. It would have been helpful to create positive associations to offset that one while she was still within her socialization period. (The socialization period for puppies lasts until they are about 4 months of age.) But my parents didn’t know that, and I was just a kid.
Bringing Home an Adult Dog
These days, adopting mature rescue dogs seems to be more popular than ever, and for good reason. In some cases, these adult dogs were previously someone’s pets. They may come with some helpful behaviors already on board. This can make settling them into your lifestyle somewhat simpler.
Sometimes, an adult dog may come with undesirable behaviors and routine emotional responses that are problematic. These might include multiple bad associations between loud bangs and extreme fear. They might have learned to exhibit fear at the first sign of a storm or fireworks. That means it’s not likely you’ll ever be able to completely reverse that response. But every planned training session, done well, makes things a little better!
Transition to Behavior Change
Don’t forget that transitional moment, when your new dog first meets you, gets into your car, and enters your home as a full-fledged family member! The transition is characterized by a certain openness to change because of the new stimuli the dog perceives surrounding you.
Even if the dog previously counter-surfed in his foster home for instance, you have this moment to create something new. In this completely new place, you can lead him past your kitchen counter as you give him treats, simply for keeping his front feet are on the floor instead of up on the counter! In his first days with you, you can establish a nice place for him to lie down nearby while you cook, teaching him exactly what behavior will get him reinforcers in this home (not counter-surfing!) These simple exercises can produce BIG behavior changes that will benefit you and your dog for years to come.
With you, your new dog can quickly learn that a leash should be loose – IF you are consistent in your teaching. Your new dog can learn exactly which pieces of furniture are open to him for naps – if any! Your careful shaping of the future for yourself and your dog should include the happiest, most positive experiences you can provide during the first thunderstorm or fireworks event that influences him in your home.
Help Offset Previous Learning
Even if your new dog or puppy already has deep-seated trauma related to loud bangs, providing new associations can help. Doing so will offset previous learning at least a little. Some outcomes may be even more impactful because they are related to your dog’s new home and all the stimuli you are making positive for him.
Prevent Association Between Fireworks and Fear
If your new buddy has never been conditioned to fear loud bangs, make sure he doesn’t start now! Your future together can be characterized by cozy evenings snuggling under blankets while a storm rages or 4th of July fireworks boom, instead of terror that even your best efforts can only reduce.
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