Dogs and Fireworks

Living with dogs is fabulous, but there are some rough patches. Some dogs just do not do well with loud noises. Backfiring cars, loud trash trucks, gunshots, thunderstorms, and of course, fireworks.

Garrett is one of these sensitive hounds. If you are out on a walk and hear a BANG he wants to go right home.

Naturally, the Fourth of July and New Years Eve are difficult times for him, and last night was no different.

Starting about 6:00PM, the sporadic, isolated explosion was going off. It was good to get our evening long walk in before then.

I watched some loud movies to mask the sounds (I got through the first two of the 5 “Dirty Harry” movies, good, action flicks with plenty of gunfire. Good cover.

But as we got closer to midnight, the intensity kicked up to 11. It was getting very uncomfortable. I got Garrett upstairs and in the master bedroom, and worked on soothing him. He was nervous and fidgety. He kept wanting to escape and run, so it was a long night.

At midnight, it was like being at a professional fireworks display at ground 0. All around big (and I mean BIG) fireworks, mortars, and arial bursters, strings of fire crackers, and some damn impressive roman candles. It almost felt like the “shock and awe” of the initial campaign of the Iraq war.

Around 1:15 AM it finally ended, and we were able to get to sleep.

Next year, I think we will need to look at serious sedatives for the Fourth and New Years for the G-bear. I hate to see him so uncomfortable.

Coda: Tate? He barely budged. Didn’t get nervous or anxious, and slept through the climax.