Out of the Blue

[Jul 03, 2012, 11:12 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Independence day is upon us tomorrow, so we're braced for fireworks. Here's hoping it's mild this year, we had a few go off somewhere off in the distance and my poor Hudson the wonder dog immediately wet the floor and proceeded to tremble for an hour, so any hopes we've had that she was getting better about this are pretty well dashed.

R.I.P.: Andy Griffith Dead at 86. Thanks nin.

Trembling Links:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Knights War. Portal Quest.
Links:	What Happens if You Die on a Cruise Ship?
Stories:	Trailer hauling toilet paper on I-75 catches fire. Thanks Boing Boing. Prosecutors Allege Dr. Drew Was Paid to Talk Up Wellbutrin.
Science:	Solar Flare's Red Glare: Sun Unleashes Early Fourth of July Fireworks. Study Links Cat Litter Box to Increased Suicide Risk.
Media:	100 Riffs (A Brief History of Rock N' Roll). Thanks nin. I'm Not A Stripper, I'm A Real Policeman. NSFW. Beckham Kicks Ball At "Injured" Player. Provided instant cure.
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21 Replies. 2 pages. Viewing page 1.
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21.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 4, 2012, 08:38

xXBatmanXx

Mr. Tact wrote on Jul 4, 2012, 01:33:
Soccer isn't the only sport this happens in, but they seem to be frequent practitioners.

They have "injury time". Seriously....




In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. / Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder. Playing: RL

20.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 4, 2012, 01:33

Mr. Tact

Soccer isn't the only sport this happens in, but they seem to be frequent practitioners.




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

19.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 4, 2012, 01:19

SimplyMonk

xXBatmanXx wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 21:35: Beckham Kicks Ball At "Injured" Player. Provided instant cure. See how fast he got up? Soccer is lame as hell. So many drama queens. I love GIFs like this so much.

18.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 21:35

xXBatmanXx

Beckham Kicks Ball At "Injured" Player. Provided instant cure.

See how fast he got up? Soccer is lame as hell. So many drama queens.




In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. / Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder. Playing: RL

17.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 20:36

xXBatmanXx

Lorcin wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 19:17:
MadBoris wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 16:58:
Thanks to this discussion...I just had an idea...

I think I'm going to take my 9 month old Golden to a fireworks show, atleast for a while depending on his patience.

I have always tried to expose him to everything I could in terms of environments, sounds, surfaces, as the puppy books suggest. He's definitely been around some loud noises too.

I figure this way, he will get a clear understanding from the onset what exactly these 4th of July noises are. Should set a decent foundation as long as I set him up for success.
I'll give him some plugs though, to lessen the impact.

It's a gun dog so should be fine - my Labrador couldn't care less about fireworks, he just keeps trying to beg food (hates balloons though too).

Just because it is a "gun dog" doesn't mean it will be fine.




In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. / Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder. Playing: RL

16.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 19:17

Lorcin

MadBoris wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 16:58: Thanks to this discussion...I just had an idea... I think I'm going to take my 9 month old Golden to a fireworks show, atleast for a while depending on his patience. I have always tried to expose him to everything I could in terms of environments, sounds, surfaces, as the puppy books suggest. He's definitely been around some loud noises too. I figure this way, he will get a clear understanding from the onset what exactly these 4th of July noises are. Should set a decent foundation as long as I set him up for success. I'll give him some plugs though, to lessen the impact. It's a gun dog so should be fine - my Labrador couldn't care less about fireworks, he just keeps trying to beg food (hates balloons though too).

15.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 18:16

MadBoris

Sir Graves wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 17:45: What's always helped with our cats and dogs over the years on the 4th, is simply having some "background noises" going within the house the whole evening, and also, doing our best to shut out the outside world for a few hours. We have all the doors and windows closed and our air conditioning running (if you don't have AC that might be a problem after an hour or so in this kind of heat, though) which already helps a lot to dampen outside noises, and then we usually watch movies in the evening (home theater system), so we make sure to crank up the sound just a little bit more on nights like this, and that totally does the trick. Also, in the kitchen, away from the main TV room, we put some music on shuffle in the MP3 player and turn it up decently, and that masks anything out in that side of the house, too. But yeah, just do all or a combination of these things (it's only for a couple of hours, really), and it will help a LOT. Just shut out the noise of the outside world for a bit! We actually like doing that quite often anyway. Sounds like a good idea. My 5.1 setup has no problem masking outside noises. Put in a nice Blu-ray, with some deep bass that he's already used to, should mask a lot of the fireworks explosions if explosions are happening in movie. It might make a good fallback since this will be his first 4th, I have no idea how he'll react.

14.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 17:45

Sir Graves

What's always helped with our cats and dogs over the years on the 4th, is simply having some "background noises" going within the house the whole evening, and also, doing our best to shut out the outside world for a few hours. We have all the doors and windows closed and our air conditioning running (if you don't have AC that might be a problem after an hour or so in this kind of heat, though) which already helps a lot to dampen outside noises, and then we usually watch movies in the evening (home theater system), so we make sure to crank up the sound just a little bit more on nights like this, and that totally does the trick. Also, in the kitchen, away from the main TV room, we put some music on shuffle in the MP3 player and turn it up decently, and that masks anything out in that side of the house, too. But yeah, just do all or a combination of these things (it's only for a couple of hours, really), and it will help a LOT. Just shut out the noise of the outside world for a bit! We actually like doing that quite often anyway.

13.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 17:27

xXBatmanXx

MadBoris wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 16:58:
Thanks to this discussion...I just had an idea...

I think I'm going to take my 9 month old Golden to a fireworks show, atleast for a while depending on his patience.

I have always tried to expose him to everything I could in terms of environments, sounds, surfaces, as the puppy books suggest. He's definitely been around some loud noises too.

I figure this way, he will get a clear understanding from the onset what exactly these 4th of July noises are. Should set a decent foundation as long as I set him up for success.
I'll give him some plugs though, to lessen the impact.

Good luck, let us know how it goes. I made some progress a couple years ago, a dog park is by a sporting clay range, and my yellow started to ignore the sounds for awhile. But then the 4th of July came - and it broke everything I had worked on.




In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. / Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder. Playing: RL

12.

What Happens if You Die on a Cruise Ship?

Jul 3, 2012, 17:21

jdreyer

Not sure you'd care. You'd be dead.




Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.

11.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 16:58

MadBoris

Thanks to this discussion...I just had an idea... I think I'm going to take my 9 month old Golden to a fireworks show, atleast for a while depending on his patience. I have always tried to expose him to everything I could in terms of environments, sounds, surfaces, as the puppy books suggest. He's definitely been around some loud noises too. I figure this way, he will get a clear understanding from the onset what exactly these 4th of July noises are. Should set a decent foundation as long as I set him up for success. I'll give him some plugs though, to lessen the impact.

10.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 15:40

xXBatmanXx

NegaDeath wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 15:14:
With my dog we would always coddle her when she got nervous during storms. We then read somewhere that giving special attention during a storm strengthens their belief that it's scary. From that point on we behaved normally during storms and the dog picked up on it and stayed calm.

Never got past her fear of balloons though.

Yea, I try not to do that as well. I just try and give him a place to go, or if I am couch, he jumps up by me, which is normal anyway.




In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. / Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder. Playing: RL

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 15:14

NegaDeath

With my dog we would always coddle her when she got nervous during storms. We then read somewhere that giving special attention during a storm strengthens their belief that it's scary. From that point on we behaved normally during storms and the dog picked up on it and stayed calm. Never got past her fear of balloons though.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 15:07

nin

As I told Blue, Matlock has checked out...




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 14:46

xXBatmanXx

R.I.P.: Andy Griffith Dead at 86. Thanks nin.

GOOD GOIN NIN! HE WAS SUCH A NICE GUY!




In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. / Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder. Playing: RL

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 14:26

nin

Mr. Tact wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 14:19:
Killer Kane wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 13:49:
Try that "Thundershirt" for dogs I sent you, my sister in law says it worked, the dog did not even react to the fireworks.
Never heard of this thing previously -- that is pretty damn interesting.

I'd not heard of that either. Would be awesome if it worked...

edit: Plus Blue can run around behind her screaming "Thundershirt! HOOOOOOOO!"




RollinThundr Apr 17, 2013, 12:25: Eh really tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. If you really want to call that trolling sure. Mr. Tact Apr 17, 2013, 12:33: Pretty sure that's the definition of trolling...

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 14:19

Mr. Tact

Killer Kane wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 13:49:
Try that "Thundershirt" for dogs I sent you, my sister in law says it worked, the dog did not even react to the fireworks.

Never heard of this thing previously -- that is pretty damn interesting.




Truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 14:10

space captain

the only way to deal with the cause of the problem, rather than just the symptoms, is to condition the dog with progressively louder sounds in a fun and happy context.. takes a while to do, especially for dogs who are naturally sensitive to loud noises

helps to do it while playing, you start with claps and slaps and so on, move on to louder bangs and other machine type noises, eventually up to small firecrackers like black cats and all that

the most important thing is to make the sound part of the environment rather than the focus of whats happening




Go forth, and kill!

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 13:51

MadBoris

I don't know if you have time to find something local, but have you tried dog ear plugs? You can even use the foamy human inserts if the size works, like at gunshops, etc. Fireworks Cesar's way petexpertise.com mutt-muffs-hearing-protection-for-dogs.html dog-health-handbook.com Lowering the decibels and muffling the bass probably will not solve the anxiety completely, but I would imagine it would help. The getting used to an ear plug would be far less stressful than fireworks full blast I'd imagine. Some he wouldn't hear from far away, and all of them would sound farther away. The problem with fireworks being so loud, is they sound like they are in the house/room he is sitting in, that's freaky for them trying to find out where the sound is coming from, they think it is real close. Hope you try it if you haven't...Just don't stick anything in you can't get out, including fibers, etc. This comment was edited on Jul 3, 2012, 14:04.

Re: Out of the Blue

Jul 3, 2012, 13:49

Killer Kane

Try that "Thundershirt" for dogs I sent you, my sister in law says it worked, the dog did not even react to the fireworks.

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