Tis that time of the year again..........

FranknFurter

Idiots setting off bangers and fireworks everywhere in the city.
Just some basic ideas that I follow in case anyone needs some.......

• Its a good idea, if you can, to keep dogs as much in the house as you can for the moment, and if thats not possible, make sure your garden is secure and provide them with as quiet and warm a kennel as you can.

• Keep a bucket of water handy in the garden in case of something alight flying in.

• Cats in general *hate* bangs etc, maybe consider making kitty a "house cat" for a little while, if you provide a litter tray and show her where it is, this shouldnt me much of a problem.

• If your cat *is* outdoors, please please try to make sure she / he is in by the time it starts to get dark, even if it means a lot of calling and a tin of tuna.

• When your animals are inside try as much as possible to make sure they are not alone, its amazing how scared even the most "independant" of them can get.

• Lots of re-assurance.

hope some of that helps, and anyone got any more ideas to add??

b

Tabitharose

health shops & some pet shops sell animal essences - similar to the flowerr remedies etc for humans - and they have one which should help calm your pet at stressful times like these - I bought a bottle the other day and they only cost €5.... a small price to pay - and I have it on good authority from several people I know that use it for their pets that they work

boneless

I just wish the Garda would be as quick to tackle the little bo##ockses with the bangers as they are to call on me to tell me that there were complaints about me dogs barking!! And why were they barking? Because of the fu#king bangers!!

And I thought fireworks were illegal!!

BTW, I tried that animal essence last season and it did help.

Arcadian

I'm lucky in having cats that aren't bothered by fireworks/bangers at all, in fact some of them will sit looking skyward in case they miss something

threebeards

boneless wrote:

I just wish the Garda would be as quick to tackle the little bo##ockses with the bangers as they are to call on me to tell me that there were complaints about me dogs barking!! And why were they barking? Because of the fu#king bangers!!

And I thought fireworks were illegal!!

I agree 100%.

Gazza22

I pity the owners of dogs who are nervous of fireworks, or those dogs that go crazy barking ect.

If your pet is sensitive to fireworks then basically make sure they are treated well over the next month or so, and keep them instead as much as possible

Thankfully fireworks don't affect my dogs at all

peasant

Our three cats *thankfully* are not bothered by bangers at all.

The dogs are a different matter. While two of them are sort of allright with it, the last one barks like mad. Once he starts, the others join in of course.

We have tried different approaches ...nothing really helps. He just sees it as his "job" to announce and repell these noisy intruders.

Only when the concentration of bangers gets a bit more (i.e. more or less constant / regular) we have found one thing that helps. We take him out into the garden, totally ignore the bangers (make them "normal" so to speak") and tell him that everything is alright and calm him down. That usually does the trick.
Once back inside he then only "wuffs" at the next banger and looks at us ...once we tell him its alright he then settles down and ignores them (more or less for the rest of the season).

Unfortunately this doesn't yet work for the solitary bangs that you get early in the year (like now) or the hunters that insist on shooting right outside our back garden.

Hagar

The little f'ers like putting bangers in letterbox so block up your letterbox in the evening and unblock it in the morning.

If you can't or don't want to do this make sure that there is nothing flammable on the floor just inside the door.

kestrel

my dog is okay around bangers as long as she's kept inside and can look to me for reassurance. (god help her if i wasn't there!) she does get a little stressed, but nothing too major.

the main thing i'm worried about is the people who call to the door dressed up. my dog likes to sit looking out the window, and the sight of the various strangely dressed people coming up the driveway freaks her out! (and no, i can't take her away from the window-it's where she runs to whenever the doorbell rings. routine.)