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Bonfire night is one of our favourite times of year, but unfortunately for a lot of pets, it is their worst!
Follow these tips to keep your pets happy during firework season.
1. Keep All Of Your Pets Indoors
The best and most obvious tip is to keep your pets safe and sound indoors.
This will mean that you will have to walk your dogs earlier than normal so that they don’t hear any fireworks on their walk which may spook them.
Make sure you get your cats inside before it gets dark and then don’t let them out again until the next day and make sure to lock your cat flaps. It may even be a good idea to keep the cats in permanently for a few days during fireworks season. Cats can get spooked by fireworks and could end up running off, or in the worst case scenario, could run in front of a car so it is better to be safe than sorry even if they do look bored!
2. Put on the tv or radio to mask the noise of the fireworks & close your curtains
This is a simple but very effective tip!
If you are going out then leave the tv or radio on to drown out the noise of the fireworks. If you are staying in, then consider turning your tv up louder than usual.
Close all of your curtains so that your cats and dogs can’t see the flashes.
It will help to keep your pets minds off the fireworks and hopefully reduce their distress.
3. Avoid Conditioning fearful behaviour
It may be tempting to reassure your pets when they seem scared, but unfortunately you need to resist doing this as it will condition the behaviour and make them think it is the right way to react.
Try to ignore your pets when they display fearful behaviour and instead, reward them when they display calm behaviour. This will condition the calm behaviour rather than the fearful behaviour.
So if a firework goes off and your pets don’t react, give them a cuddle or a treat and you will find that they will soon catch on that if they remain calm when a firework goes off, they will get rewarded!
4. Consider Using Pheromone Diffusers Such As Feliway or Adaptil
If you know that your pets react badly to fireworks then consider buying a plug in pheremone diffuser or spray such as Feliway or Adaptil. These work by infusing calming pheromones into the air which make your pets feel safer and calm.
Make sure you plug them in a few days before the fireworks will be starting through as it takes a few days for the pheromones to diffuse their way through the house.
We have covered pheromone diffusers in more detail here –
http://www.animalsitting.co.uk/feliway-settled-cats-dap-calm-dogs/
5. Condition Your Pets To Fireworks With Noise Conditioning
Another great idea is to condition your pets to the noise of fireworks by buying a special noise desensitising cd or finding firework sounds on Youtube.
Start off by playing the noises quietly and reward your pet if they show calm behaviour and then slowly raise the volume, rewarding your pets whilst they continue to act calm.
You will soon find that you can have the noises playing very loudly and your pets will act completely normal as you have conditioned them to relate firework noises to rewards rather than to fear.
This same technique works for all sorts of noises, eg. Thunder, Cats etc. etc.
Have fun during Firework & Bonfire night but make sure your pets are safe & sound too!
Adam & Laura xx
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