Fireworks and your anxious pet: Here's some tips to help

If you've noticed an uptick in firework usage lately, you aren't alone. According to statistics some retailers have seen a 400% increase in sales compared to last year. Firework noise complaints in New York City, for one example, are up by 4,000 percent. Any pet owner with an anxious pet knows this is a recipe for disaster. There isn't much you can do about the fireworks themselves in our experience, but there are some things you can do at home to mitigate the potential impact they have on your pet's psyche.

1. Try to insulate dogs from the booms outside. This means no backyards and maybe not even free run of the house. Instead, keep the dog in a safe, enclosed area where they cannot hurt themselves if panicked. A quiet, safe space plus a movie! In your home, turn on background noise like TV, fans, or white noise can all assist masking what's going on outside. 

2. Comfort Them. A number of studies highlight that dogs value social support from owners. Like a child afraid of a loud noise turning and running toward a parent, dogs facing stressful situations have been found to turn to their owners as safe havens. 

In a 2013 study researchers found that when encountering a threatening stranger, the increase in dog heart rate was less pronounced when the dog’s owner was present than when the dog encountered the threatening stranger alone. The researchers’ conclusion: Just being there for your dog can help.

3. There are a few natural anti anxiety products available that are documented to help:

- CBD is a naturally occuring compound from the hemp plant that has loads of preliminary studies available showing benefits for anxiety. All our staff is well versed on CBD and it's benefits so if you are looking for personalized questions, give us a call anytime! You can also find more information on CBD and your pets here:

 https://www.leafly.com/news/strains-products/vet-talks-cbd-oil-dogs

-Thundershirts: Thundershirts apply a gentle, constant pressure to your dog or cat’s torso. Research on both humans and animals suggests that this type of pressure can release a calming hormone like oxytocin or endorphins. According to the company, 80% of pets will benefit from this gentle pressure in stressful situations.

- ProgilityMax Calming Aid Chews: Progility Max Calming Aid by Nootie is a natural chew that uses melatonin to calm your dog. Each individual chew has 3 milligrams of melatonin. Melatonin is good for treating anxiety, restlessness, hyperactivity, and fear in dogs. These are perfect to have on hand for any situation that could cause your dog's fireworks anxiety.

Hopefully this can help some of you out there. Best of luck in your experiments!

Any questions on any of the above always feel free to reach out to us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ThomastonFeed/ or call us at 860-283-9661 today!