Your Animal Doesn't Have to be Scared of Fireworks

Now that the holidays have come and go, it’s time to start training!!! Every year you dread this holiday, or any holiday with fireworks as a possibility, because your animal is very afraid of the loud noises. You’re stressed, your animal is stressed, it causes for chaos and hatred.

It does not have to be that way. You can positively train your animal to be desensitized to loud noises. Now I’m not saying “take your animal to a loud environment (or create one) and overtime they’ll not mind it” because my god would that be a terrible idea that is not ethical. But, you can desensitize noises slowly, building on their loudness on the animals progress in the training, till you’re banging pots and pans together.

Now, I can already hear people in the comments. “My animal is very old with a long history of fear…” “my animal is super bad, you don’t understand l…” “they had trauma and it’s something that they just can’t get over” in which I say “let’s prove me wrong” but also let’s then manage our expectations to reflect the animal in front of us.

Maybe your animal shakes, paces, vocalizes, hides, and shows other extreme fear responses. Let’s train with the very obtainable goal of maybe your dog can not feel the need to show extreme fear responses, or paces, or vocalizes but maybe still hides. At least you aren’t having an extremely panicked animal, but one that still doesn’t enjoy the experience. Though again, I do like to try to challenge expectations while keeping the animals best interest at the forefront.

Training starts now so you’re ready for the next time. Training doesn’t start a month before the holiday. It starts now in order to work at the appropriate pace your animal needs. Fears do not need to stay fears forever. You don’t have to live with extreme reactions. It’s not healthy for anyone to.