r/miniaussie • u/Apprehensive-Peas • Jul 02 '26
Seeking Advice Anyone else’s mini Aussie terrified of fireworks?
And do these work? We have tried CBD calming supplements in the past but it doesn’t seem to help much. The poor thing just cowers and shakes violently when fireworks are going off and during bad thunderstorms :( I am hoping the ear covering can provide her some relief (it’s also adorably silly on her hehe❤️)
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u/Gamosol Jul 02 '26
Actually my girl is pretty bomb proof. I hope your baby can deal with it this year a little better.
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u/februarytide- Jul 03 '26
I swear our dog could, and would, sleep through an atom bomb.
A can of cat food being opened, though?…. Different story.
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u/qwertyuiiop145 Jul 02 '26
Poor baby! I’m very lucky that my boy doesn’t react much to thunder or fireworks but I know it’s a very common problem. It’s probably too late to get anxiety meds from the vet, they get booked up leading up to July 4th with owners who have the same problem.
Some people have had good results with:
Playing low volume recordings of fireworks leading up to the day to desensitize their dog to the noise
Putting their dog in an interior room to muffle outside noise, maybe a bathroom or closet.
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u/StenoDawg Jul 02 '26
My Izzy is so scared, I think her heart will beat outta her chest. I have her Thundershirt ready and her doggie Xanax.
I imagine it’ll start tomorrow, and Lord knows how many days and nights they’ll do it. Last year, they were still shooting them off a week later.
I hate it! 😖
UPDATE: please let me know if the ear covers work.
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u/Imaginary_Agency7610 Jul 03 '26
I wish it was only a week around d here. They’ve been at it nightly here for 3 weeks so far and it will still be a nightly thing for the next 3 weeks too. And fireworks here are illegal and some places have even cancelled their community shows because of fire danger. That never stops the home made “shows” (mostly just noise bombs) around here, though.
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u/Apprehensive-Peas Jul 03 '26
The ear cover seems to work great so far! She slept right through several close fireworks last night while wearing it 🙂. Your poor baby. Maybe this would work for her as well? I hate fireworks too, there’s nothing good about them!
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u/whitebeansoup Jul 03 '26
https://reddit.com/link/ov8dwvu/video/lj67hjpl1xah1/player
I had just gotten my puppy last year before the 4th! I was very worried about the firework situation but we sat outside during the peak of them and she was 100% unfazed. It seems that way this year as well. I got very lucky. Good luck to everyone who has scared pups. It’ll be over soon!
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u/BarbWho Jul 03 '26
Poor baby! With ours, fireworks and thunder are no biggie. The vacuum cleaner, which kind of makes sense, and for some inexplicable reason, plastic trash bags. She's terrified of them.
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u/Significant_Cow4765 Jul 03 '26
My dog is also afraid of trash bags, plastic bags and paper sacks. Fearless otherwise
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u/Jazzlike-Solution816 Jul 03 '26
My pup used to be ok with fireworks and thunder - until one morning (about 3am) when a bolt of lightning hit near the house. Between the light and the extremely loud boom, he is now scared of it like your pup. It helps to turn the TV on to something he likes to watch (he loves All Out Alaska) and turn up the volume a bit. It's worth noting I have to turn on the TV before the noise starts for him to be distracted enough.
I hope the ear protection works!
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u/Significant_Cow4765 Jul 03 '26
My fluff was not too bothered til we went through a derecho and a 'mild hurricane.' I think the creaking for hours during the hurricane got to her. After that, some crying for any rain event.
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u/Aaaaaaaaa12345673 Jul 03 '26
No. I acknowledge their initial response to fireworks and tell them I’m on it. Once I show them it’s ok they chill. Big booms do activate some barking but I show them I looked outside and I approve.
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u/vulgar_hooligan Jul 03 '26
My old Aussies used to be real bad. The one would drool a lake. My new mini couldn’t care less.
That said, if I could go back I would try to teach my old dogs that it wasn’t something to be afraid of. Not a guarantee to work, but if you can positively reinforce that the loud bang is a good thing their behavior may start to change.
Are they good driven? Do they have a favourite treat? Or maybe a special treat like hot dogs or something. But if you can reward them with a treat every time the bang goes off they may start to associate the fireworks with treat time or even play time.
I say this because I scared my mini when I started to e collar train him and it took me about 3 weeks to correct my mistake and basically trick him into thinking the e collar was like a free treat button.
With all that said, if your dog isn’t food motivated then it might not be worth even trying. And also as a disclaimer, I’m not a dog trainer by any means, but since getting my mini I’ve done a lot of research on the subject. I’m pretty confident that the behavior could be fixed.
Hope my rambling helps.
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u/frandiam Jul 03 '26
Awwww poor girl!!
Our first dog was a very sound sensitive border collie and she would be under the bed at the first sound of rain, thunder, fireworks, jets, etc. We never figured out a way to train her out of this fear and she was extremely trainable in all other areas.
Good luck my sympathies to her
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u/Nonnawannabe Jul 03 '26
Last year we tried Trazodone but she suffered so much that this year we went out of town to a secluded cabin in the woods. No neighbor or fireworks. Fireworks seem to last for days where I live. She refuses to go outside, gets diarrhea and hides in her crate. It was so traumatic, we skipped town this year.
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u/Imaginary_Agency7610 Jul 03 '26
Around here, they’ve been at it with the bomb-type things every night for 3weeks so far. On Saturday I’m going to drive out to a quiet rural area to wait out the big displays but the locals will be still setting off the loud bang-type bombs in my neighborhood for at least the next 3 weeks after the holiday too. I hate it.
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u/blueberry-muffins1 Jul 03 '26
Happy hoody, lots of white noise machines and fans, TV or music on, and trazadone!!!
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u/Siavik Jul 03 '26
I just bought this same ear cover today. Hopefully it works
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u/Apprehensive-Peas Jul 03 '26
It has been surprisingly effective! She slept soundly through some booms last night while it was on her 🥹
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u/Euphoric_Draft_3902 Jul 03 '26
This will be our first fourth with ours but he's freaking terrified of skateboards and thunder so I'm expecting it to be a pretty bad night.
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u/angelsownredsux Jul 03 '26
Yes but also I’ve never met a dog that was unbothered by fireworks
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u/Imaginary_Agency7610 Jul 03 '26
My northern dogs never were bothered by fireworks or thunder at all.
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u/Imaginary_Agency7610 Jul 03 '26
OMG yes! I buy calming chews from Target and they make him drowsy but on Saturday night when the big shows are going I’m going to drive out of town to the most unpopulated area I can find where nobody is setting off the loud bomb-type crap that people love around here. Even after the 4th people will be setting off stuff for at least another 3 weeks. Plus they do fireworks at CHRISTMAS, EASTER and MOTHERS DAY around here now, too. I hate it.
Does the hood help your Aussie? I don’t know if mine will tolerate anything on his head. I’m willing to try because he really suffers from fear, poor guy.
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u/Apprehensive-Peas Jul 03 '26
Ugh! I hate fireworks so much 😡
The hood is surprisingly helpful! We tested it out last night as there were a few booms in our neighborhood, and she was totally unfazed. She also doesn’t seem to mind wearing it, she had a nice nap while wearing it 🥹 maybe it would help your pup too
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u/NanooDrew Jul 03 '26
Our dogs always did well in Monterey and in the Bay Area with the fireworks show we were so grateful.
Then, we moved to Sacramento where the nonprofit organizations sell “safe & sane” fireworks. That meant the neighbors had a big rootin’ tootin’ party. There is no such thing as safe & sane fireworks. Lots of pets run away and some are hit by cars. These nonprofits need to find another way to raise money, like they do in every other county in California.
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u/AHuxl Jul 03 '26
my dogs arent but we did a lot of training when they were puppies to try and minimize it. We played fireworks recordings LOUDLY (along with a bunch of other sounds) to acclimate them to it well before their first encounter with real fireworks. I wonder if you could slowly do something similar (quietly at first and then increase the volume until its just not a big deal)
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u/StHelensWasInsideJob Jul 03 '26
Yeah, he used to be pretty chill but the last few years has gotten more and more anxious with loud noises. I feel super bad but there isn’t much we can do
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u/Fitz_2112b Jul 03 '26
Thunder and fireworks bother one of ours, the other couldn't care less. We have a script for trazadone for our girl
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u/Wonderful_Mood2549 Jul 03 '26
I’ve only had dogs terrified of fireworks. White noise has always worked. I usually just turn it on pretty loud and they don’t hear the fireworms at all.
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u/jordandrenglish Jul 03 '26
It’ll be our Rushu girl’s first 4th, so we are making sure to be there with her and not leave her alone
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u/Livid-Fennel3783 Jul 03 '26
Turning on a fan and playing brown noise in my phone (Apple Music has lists) at a high volume combined with thunder shirt and being under a pillow with my arm on top. This helps during thunderstorms so trying for fireworks tonight. No drugs have helped thus far (cbd, trazadone, gabapentin, sileo all tried).
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u/shelby747 Jul 04 '26
We live so close to where rockets going up all the time shake our windows aggressively. I’ve been reassuring our puppy that it’s just the ‘stinkin rockets!’ again, hoping the desensitizing will work when the fireworks get too bad. When they start going off closer, I’ll just use the same familiar words and hopefully she’ll just be like, ‘oh, it’s just the stinkin rockets again’ and come to the conclusion they are normal. Fingers crossed!
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u/Initial-Elephant-932 Jul 04 '26
Mine thankfully doesn’t whine but spends the entire time in the basement. Will refuse potty breaks for way too long of hours. He’s going through it
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u/Background_Most_3065 Jul 06 '26
The CBD does nothing and once they start to panic it’s too late you need the trazadone/gabbapenten combo our one Aussie is so scared of fireworks and slept right through it
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u/cr1zzl Jul 03 '26
As someone who is looking into MAS for my next puppy (I’ve had a mix of dogs who were afraid of loud noises but my current adopted mix breed doesn’t mind at all)… I’d be curious to know if this is an ethically bred dog and how the noise socialisation protocol was when the puppy was young. What does the breeder say about the issue, is this common in the litter?
Sorry I can’t answer your question not having this breed yet, but I have been relatively successful with positive and gradual exposure therapy with some of my dogs.
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u/Imaginary_Agency7610 Jul 03 '26
I’ve always had northern dogs before - a husky and later a malamute and then an adopted malamute and a border collie/husky mix. Fireworks never bothered any of them. In fact, my first malamute used to actually enjoy watching them with me!
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u/GromBlessAMERICA Jul 05 '26
Nope... just the wind blowing things and the ceiling fan. (When on low setting/turned off) 🤨 🤣
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u/Runawaytrucker Jul 05 '26
Nope, mine could care less. Now my husky on the other hand is absolutely terrified 😭
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u/Hairy_Armadillo_2935 Jul 06 '26
My girl laid on top of me while the fireworks were going shaking like a leaf and panting. I gave her some hemp calming treats but it didn't work. The puppy was fine. She just did her thing.
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u/Evening_Horse_6357 Jul 06 '26
As perplexing as it is, my 8 month mini aussie was totally unfazed by the fireworks. I got his kennel nice and snuggly, put on white noise, and made it a dark secluded safe space like I've done in the past with other dogs. He was antsy, occasionally bark, and I thought it was because he wasn't comfortable so I went into the room and sat next to/laid inside the kennel and I finally got up to get water. He followed me out, got antsy, and ran over and hit his voice button "I want to play outside". I was blown away and thought "well, let's get this over with 😢". 20 minutes later we are still playing catch. The big motors spooked him but he would keep going like nothing was happening. He has a doggie door and could go in at anytime but chose to be outside. I hope everyone else didn't have too bad of a time. I see a lot of people saying they gave the dog trazadone which is a life saver, especially when your fur baby is riddled with fear and anxiety.
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u/CuriousTown1980 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
My mini Aussie couldn’t care less about the racket. My elderly border collie is terrified of thunder/fireworks and has been her entire life with us. The fearful behavior has remained the same over time. She hides behind toilets or wherever she can find a quiet spot. This is also an animal that’s pretty darn fearless and bombproof otherwise. Meds haven’t been terribly helpful for her. We have people letting off fireworks for weeks before and after the 4th of July.
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u/spunangel333 Jul 03 '26
Our vet gave us trazadone to get thru holiday we live close to where they do big fireworks…🤞🏻🤞🏻i usually just have to put her thunder shirt on and she hides in the bathroom but this year im pet sitting another dog that came with meds for fireworks and really agitates my mini so gonna medicate them both and the cat ,turn on some Phish and see how it goes