The resounding BANG, BANG, BANG of fireworks welcoming in the New Year can create much fear in dogs and in some cats.
Did you know that nearly one of every two dogs react in fear and run from loud noises? Such as fireworks, gunshots, and thunder? And for some dogs this fear remains alive in them for several days. In the animal communication and emotional healing work I have done many sessions that I did focused on resolving the fear of thunder and unexpected loud noises. However, this is the topic for a future article.
With New Year’s Eve almost here, let me share some helpful tips with you to help your canine fur baby feel safer when the jubilation and noise begins.
1. The most important thing that you can do is to keep your dog, or cat, indoors. Especially as dusk falls be sure that your fur babies as safely inside your home. A few neighbors may be tempted to start celebrating well before midnight.
Once when visiting a friend with my dog Dash, after returning home from a movie we discovered that Dash, a 40 pound Staffordshire Terrier mix who had access to an open dog door, had climbed the 5.5 foot tall wooden fence and run away. Research told us that a neighbor had been firing off a shotgun. It took us 3 days before a neighbor, only a few streets away, had convinced Dash that he could trust her and let her read my phone number off of his ID tag.
2. Have an ID tag, identification tag on your dog’s collar that has your phone number. Then when found, the person can immediately contact you.
3. If you’re having friends over, situate your dog or cat in a room away from the party. If you’re going out, prepare a safe place for them. I always encourage people to crate train their dogs. Then the crate becomes a dog’s safe haven. Before closing your dog or cat in their safe room be sure to talk with them as if you were speaking with a young child. MORE INFO IN THIS ARTICLE. This link will take you to the Best Bird Food Ever! website that is one of our Emerald Ark income sources.
4. Items to include in your dog or cat’s safe place can be their favorite toys, fresh water, a comfortable bed or hiding place and a few treats. To help muffled loud and abrupt sounds put on some calming music, or turn the TV on at a volume that is loud enough to mask any BANGS, POPS or gunshots from outside.
5. If you’re having an outdoor barbecue be sure to keep common household items that are a hazard for dogs and cats, away from them. These items can include alcoholic drinks (beer, wine, etc), insect repellants, sunscreen, BBQ grills, glow jewelry and citronella candles.
While many of us look forward to a fun-filled New Year’s Eve, what’s a happy time for us can be stressful – or even terrifying – for your dog or cat. Studies have shown that for about 15% of dogs the fear they embody from the fireworks of New Year’s Eve can persist in them for several days. And in about 3% of dogs these fears can alter their personalities and cause them to behave fearfully for weeks or even months.
Fearful Behaviors
Sometimes it’s helpful to recognize that fear-based behaviors in a dog can appear differently in each animal. These can include:
Trembling, tail tucking, yawning, barking, pacing, freezing, whining, compulsive repetitive behaviors, being destructive (digging up the carpet, eat the wall by the door), panting, licking lips, drooling, avoidance behavior (refusing to come near you or be touched), avoiding eye contact, urinating or defecating, fear biting, growling, mydriasis (abnormally dilated pupils), aggression, ears back, predator aggression (best to have your cats in a separate safe room), confusion (aging and cognitive dysfunction behaviors) and eating disorders.
It’s also equally important to prevent yourself from broadcasting your fears as your dog and cat can pickup this from you. Dogs and cats can smell our fear pheromones.
It’s important for you to mentally program thoughts of your dog or cat feeling safe and protected. Visualize them sleeping soundly or relaxing quietly.
Plan Ahead
If you know that your dog has a fear of loud noises, and reacts adversely to thunder, you can buy and try using some Bach Flower Remedies. Bach Flower Remedies are not herbal remedies, nor are they homeopathic remedies. Flower Remedies are in a class all of their own. These days there are many unique companies that make and sell Flower Remedies, however, the Back Flower Remedies are the most well known and many health food stores and local herb shops will have them for sale.
In Reno you can support our local small businesses and buy Bach flower Remedies at Truckee Meadow Herbs on Wells by Vassar and the Great Basin Food Co-op on Court Street near Wingfield Park.
Also available at Natural Grocer’s (former Bed, Bath, Beyond store location) and Sprout’s locations.
Bach Flower Remedies
Bach Flower Remedies You’ll Need
There are three specific Bach Flower Remedies that you can get and use. These are Mimulus, Aspen and Rescue Remedy. Two of them will be used proactively, to help your dog remain calm while the fireworks, gunshots, or other unexpected loud sounds are going on outside. While the third one, Rescue Remedy, can be used after the noise has passed if your dog or cat is demonstrating residual fear-based behaviors.
The two to use to help prepare your dog or cat for the New Year’s Eve fireworks noise are Mimulus and Aspen. Mimulus is for known fears, while Aspen is for unknown fears.
The third Bach Flower Remedy, Rescue Remedy, is a combination flower Remedy used afterwards if your dog is showing residual anxiety behaviors as previously described. Rescue Remedy is only intended for short-term use, as a first aid tool in greater or lesser emotional emergencies. Rescue Remedy should not be used as a routine treatment. If your dog or cat’s fear-based behaviors persist, please consider contacting me for an Animal Emotional Healing and Communication Session. MORE ON THIS CONSULTATION HERE. This link will take you to the Best Bird Food Ever! website while our permanent Emerald Ark website is being built. Consultation can be done with dogs, cats, parrots and other animals species.
Bach Flower Remedy Formulations
When you buy your Back Flower Remedies be sure to look for information in the ingredients area regarding what is used as a preservative. These Flower Remedies will be preserved with either glycerine (a non-alcohol formulation) or with brandy (alcohol). If the remedy is preserved with glycerin you can give this directly to your dog or cat. If preserved with alcohol you will need to prepare it for use.
Preparing the Remedy
If the Back Flower Remedy is preserved with brandy (alcohol) then you will need to make an alcohol-free ‘stock bottle’. Alcohol is toxic to dogs and cats. This is why I am suggesting that you create a ‘Stock bottle’. This is simple and easy to do.
You will need:
1. A one ounce dropper bottle with a glass eye dropper (pipette) – For the ‘stock bottles’ being described here you will need two glass dropper bottles with glass eyedroppers (pipettes).
2. Some good quality spring water for each preparation. NOT distilled or reverse osmosis (RO) treated water. Good quality spring water is alive and helps maintain the healing energy of the Flower Essences. RO treated water has had everything removed and because of this purity is it dead.
For the three flower essence remedies suggested here you will want to prepare one alcohol-free stock bottle for the Mimulus and Aspen (these two can be used together in the same ‘stock bottle’). And another alcohol-free stock bottle for the Rescue Remedy IF it has been preserved with brandy (alcohol). Remember, if the Rescue Remedy has been made using glycerine as a preservative then this can be given directly to your dog or cat. However, if you make a ‘stock bottle’ you can make this original Rescue Remedy bottle last a very long time.
First boil some water and pour this into your glass dropper bottle to sterilize it, pull up some of the hot boiled water several times into the eyedropper pipette to sterilize this also. Let the bottle cool, then pour some of the good quality spring or well water.
With Flower Remedies using a good quality spring or well water is important because this type of water is ‘alive’. And this ‘living water’ helps hold and maintain the energetic healing properties of the Flower Essences.
Now with your sterilized glass dropper bottle containing some of your good quality well or spring water add several drops of the Mimulus and several drops of the Aspen. Affix the dropper bottle top and shake well. Label the bottle with the date, and the names of the Flower Remedies. Without a preservative this ‘stock bottle’ will hold it’s energy for a few days. If you want to add a preservative fill your ‘stock bottle’ 3/4 full of spring water and top it off with either brandy or organic apple cider vinegar.
After mixing this and before each time the ‘stock bottle’ is used success it vigorously: bang it firmly against the heel and your opposite hand or place a hardcover book on a table or counter top and bang it against the book. After first mixing success the bottle 100 times. Before each use success it about 10 times. This helps activate the energetic qualities of the Flower Essences.
How to Use Back Flower Remedies
Bach Flower Remedies are very flexible and be be used in a variety of ways. Remember that the frequency of how often the dose given is what will produce the best results. Using your ‘stock bottle’ that you made, the Flower Remedies can be put in your dog or cat’s water bowl, then every time your dog or cat drinks he will get a dose of the Flower Essences. You can put it in the food, you put put a drop on a treat, you can spread the fur and put a drop directly onto the skin.
You can also use a mist bottle, fill it with good quality spring water (to help maintain the healing energy of the Flower Essences). Then add several drops of the desired Flower Essence. Shake the mist bottle well. Adjust the mist setting so that the spray bottle only sprays a fine mist. Then you will want to mist ABOVE your dog allowing the healing mist to gently float down over them. NEVER spray your dog directly in the face or another part of their body. This may create a fearful reaction towards the mist bottle. When the Flower Essence is misted ABOVE the animal the mist gently floats down and be naturally inhaled creating a calm sense of inner peace and well-being.
If you have received useful information helping you with your dog or cat please consider making a donation to Emerald Ark to support our work, our mission and our goals.
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