Sun, Jul 5th 2009, 06:38 GMT

Hi Chris! I know it's a day late (or 364 days early) to answer the fireworks question, but I have seen several ways of dealing with them. My trainer keeps her two big dogs with her outside, so they can see the fireworks as well as hearing them. They look at her, and she yawns to show how boring those noises are. This works for them, but her little dog is just too terrified to be around fireworks at all, so he gets a tranquilizer (prescribed from the vet, of course!), and dozes in his crate with new-age music playing (BOL!) Katie watches me closely, too, so for the past two years I've kept her with me at my brother's block party (all his neighbors spend $$$ on big, loud, and possibly illegal fireworks). Last night, we took a break from the street noise and lights and hung out for a while in the back yard with two other dogs. She was calm as long as I was. Regarding the vacuum and lawnmower, it's probably fine to let him hide! Loud noises hurt dogs' ears, so why make him stay nearby?

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Katie

What should I do about my dogs fear of load noises. Answers at Dogster Answers.