The Weekly High Five 🐾

Hey Reader,
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Think back to last year. Somewhere around the first boom, your dog vanished. Wedged behind the bed. Shaking under the kitchen table, ears flat, not touching the treat you slid over.

You stayed close and waited it out until the last one faded near midnight.

Now it's almost here again, and the thought lands in your stomach. I should have started months ago. Too late now.

Here's the deal. You didn't blow it. You're mixing up two different jobs.

Training a dog out of fireworks fear is real work. It takes weeks of slow sound work, built long before the season. That ship has sailed for this year.

Essentially, though, the night of the 4th was never a training problem. It's a management problem. And management doesn't take months. It takes minutes, set up before dark.

The shaking, the hiding, the refused treat. That's not your dog being difficult. It's the clearest sentence they have for "I don't feel safe and I don't know what to do." You don't owe them toughness. You owe them a safe night.

So here's the night, start to finish. None of it fancy.

If your dog has a rough history with this (full-body panic, clawing at doors), call your vet first thing tomorrow. Ask what they can do on short notice, and whether there's even time to try a calming med safely before Saturday. A brand-new med on the loudest night can backfire, so if it's too tight, that's the thing to lock in now for next year. Everything below still carries the night.

Run them hard that morning. A tired dog has less fuel to panic on.

Set up a den before dark. An interior room off the windows, their crate or bed, a fan or the TV for steady sound.

Start a frozen Kong before the first boom, not after.

Check the doors, the ID tag, the microchip. More dogs bolt on July 4th than any other night of the year.

Be the calm one. Your dog reads your body before they read the room.

I watched this play out with an English Lab puppy named Nova. Different trigger, same principle. She lost it every time a guest walked in. The fix wasn't calming her in the moment. It was structure set up before the moment. A frozen Kong fifteen minutes ahead. Tired out before the door even opened. She settled, tongue out, choosing the Kong over the chaos.

Calm on the 4th works the same way. It comes from a room you got ready, not from a dog gritting through it.

Two days is plenty of time to set up a safe night. You're not behind. You're right on time.

Happy training,

Pam,
CPDT-KA

Find me on IG: @down4paws

P.S. Fireworks are the one-night version of a dog who's overwhelmed. If yours is the dog who barks, lunges, and pulls on every walk, not just the 4th, I'm running a free online workshop next Wednesday, July 8 at 7 PM ET. Save your spot here.