How do I calm my dog during fireworks and thunderstorms?

It is 23:40 on 31 December. Your dog has been under the desk for two hours, shaking. He is panting with his mouth wide open, he won't touch even a piece of meat, and with every bang he wedges himself further into a corner he stopped fitting into long ago. Or it is July and a storm is building: he knew half an hour before you did, and now he is pacing from room to room, whining, pressing himself against the bath. The problem has two sides, so this page has two parts. One is about the noisy evening itself. The other is about the rest of the year, so the next one goes differently.

Why are dogs scared of fireworks and thunder?

The bangs are extremely loud, they come without warning and from nowhere he can see, and he has no way of making them stop. A large UK survey of owners found around half of dogs showing fear at loud noises, with fireworks top of the list, ahead of thunder and gunshots. It is one of the most common behaviour problems and one of the least treated, because most people wait for it to sort itself out. Noise fear does not sort itself out. It gets worse with age, and every season left alone adds another layer.

On top of the noise itself, a few things about your particular dog decide how bad it gets for him.

His hearing. He picks up frequencies you cannot hear, and sounds from distances where you hear nothing at all. A banger going off three streets away has, for him, gone off in the garden.

Once is enough. A noise fear can lock in after a single bad experience. A two-year-old dog caught out in the street at midnight on New Year's Eve may carry that fear for life, with no repetition needed.

Age. The fear appears and grows over the years. A dog who startled a bit at three and panics at seven has not been "spoilt". The fear has spread from fireworks to thunder, then to car doors slamming, then to gunfire on the television, and it has deepened along the way.

Pain. A study from 2018 compared dogs with noise fears. In the ones whose fear started late, around 6 to 7 years old, undiagnosed musculoskeletal pain turned up in most cases. The mechanism is simple: he flinches at the bang, the tense muscle hurts, and he links the noise with pain. Fear that appears out of the blue in an adult dog is the main reason this page has a medical section.

Storms play by their own rules. The dog reacts before the first clap of thunder. He feels the pressure dropping, sees the lightning and hears thunder from miles off, and some dogs seem bothered by static in their coat (which may be why they press against the bath or the pipes, surfaces that discharge it). Storm fear is harder to work on than firework fear, because storms do not come on a fixed date.

Breed and temperament. In surveys, guarding breeds and gundogs show noise fear less often, small companion breeds more often. A dog who is anxious in general is also more sensitive to bangs.

Whether you are there. Forget the idea that you "pass your fear on". A dog left alone on New Year's Eve, with the windows rattling, goes through the whole thing with no support at all, and that is the worst possible way for him to learn about it.

What does not work (and why it looks as if it does)

"Ignore him so you don't feed the fear." That advice did the rounds for decades and it is wrong. Fear is an emotion. You cannot make a dog more frightened by stroking him, any more than you make a child more scared of thunder by sitting with them. That advice left generations of dogs to get through their panic alone. If he comes to you, stay with him. If he wants to be under the bed, leave him under the bed.

Taking him out to the fireworks "to get used to it". Trainers call this flooding: dropping him into the middle of the thing he fears, with no way out. With real fear it makes things worse. A dog does not get used to something he cannot control or leave; all he learns is that he is not safe even with you.

Punishment. A dog who howls, scratches at the door or wees with fear is not playing up. Telling him off adds one more fright on the very evening he needed you most.

Leaving him on his own with the telly turned up. The sound covers very little of the bangs, and being alone is what does the real damage.

A sedative that just knocks him flat. Some older products quieten the body and leave the fear untouched: the dog cannot move, but he hears everything and is just as scared. In effect he is stuck in a nightmare he cannot run from. Your vet knows the difference between a sedative and a medicine that lowers anxiety. If you have got as far as medication, that conversation belongs with your vet, not at the pharmacy counter.

A pressure vest on its own. It settles some dogs a little. The evidence is mixed, and on its own it is not enough.

Obedience practice on New Year's Eve. That night is not for "sit" or "stay". A panicking dog learns nothing except panic. On firework night you just help him through it as gently as you can; the learning happens in February.

The plan, step by step

Part 1: the noisy evening (start the day before)

1. A long walk in daylight. On New Year's Eve do the big walk at lunchtime, not in the evening, on lead, with a collar or harness he cannot back out of. Plenty of dogs go missing on 31 December because they slipped their collar at the first banger. Put an ID tag with your phone number on him and check that his microchip is registered with your current details.
2. Last toilet trip before dark. After 5 pm, only the garden or a short trip out on lead.
3. The house. Blinds down, windows shut, the lights on in the room, because with the lights on you see less of the flashes. A steady background noise that does not stop: a fan, the washing machine, music with no gaps, at medium volume. White noise masks better than the television, which goes quiet between lines.
4. The den. If he has a hiding place of his own (under the desk, in the bathroom, in a wardrobe), get it ready: his blanket, water, a clear path to it. A windowless bathroom is often the quietest room in the house. Do not drag him out of it.
5. You, at home. Do not leave him alone. If there is really no other way, someone he knows stays with him. Stay close and calm and carry on with whatever you would be doing anyway, a book or a film. If he comes to you, stroke him slowly, long strokes on the chest and shoulders. If he does not want to be touched, just being nearby is enough.
6. Something to lick or chew, if he will take it. A lick mat spread with cottage cheese or meat paste, a stuffed and frozen toy. Licking settles him, and a dog who is still eating is not yet in full panic. If he turns it down, leave it.
7. The "bang means treat" game. This works when the fear is mild to moderate and he is still eating: every time there is a bang, in a cheerful voice, he gets a piece of meat or cheese. No commands, no "quiet". The Swiss researchers who have studied firework fear found that, done consistently, this helps most dogs, even when you start late. Keep a bag of his favourite treats to hand.
8. Medication, if your vet has prescribed it. Give it at the time you agreed with the vet, usually before the noise starts, not once he is already panicking. Have that conversation with your vet weeks ahead, with a trial run on a quiet day, not at 8 pm on 31 December.

Part 2: the rest of the year (start in January)

Getting him used to recorded sounds, bit by bit. Trainers call it desensitisation. There are free recordings of fireworks and thunder online made for exactly this.

1. Play the recording at a volume he barely notices (ears flick up, nothing more), while he is eating or playing. Five minutes. If he stops eating, it is too loud.
2. Stay at the same level for a few days running, then nudge it up. Never go past the volume at which he is still relaxed.
3. Within a few weeks you reach a loud volume and he does not even lift his head. Then change the speaker and the room, because a sound from one speaker is not the same as the sound outside.
4. The whole thing takes 2 to 3 months, in sessions of 5 to 10 minutes. Start in January or February and you have time before the summer storms and the next New Year's Eve.

Noise followed by something good. Alongside that, every real noise in everyday life (a car door slamming, drums on the TV, kids with bangers in the park, well away from you) is followed by something good from you. Gradually he learns that a bang means cheese is coming. It is the same kind of learning that taught him the rustle of the food bag means dinner. Behaviourists call it counter-conditioning.

A safe place, set up in advance. On quiet days, the bed in the bathroom or under the desk becomes the place where good things turn up: something to chew, a stuffed toy. When the storm comes, he already knows where to go, and the place reminds him of nice things.

Your vet, from the autumn. If the fear is severe (panic, howling, things destroyed, escape attempts), talk to your vet in the autumn about medication for the risky days. There are treatments that bring the fear down without knocking him out, and for a severely frightened dog they can be the difference between New Year's Eve with teeth marks in the door and one he sleeps through. You would ask for the same for a person who has panic attacks.

The first week, from January

When it is a medical problem

• the noise fear appeared or got suddenly worse in an adult or older dog who used to ignore bangs: treat it as pain (joints, spine, muscles) until shown otherwise;
• in the days after a fearful episode he moves stiffly, limps or avoids the stairs;
• the fear arrives together with other changes: he no longer jumps into the car, no longer gets on the sofa, hides more often;
• an older dog starts at sounds he used to ignore or, the other way round, stops reacting when you call him (his hearing);
• after an episode he has diarrhoea, vomits, refuses food for more than a day, or has hurt his mouth or nails trying to get out;
• he started a new treatment in the last few weeks.

Tell your vet exactly when the fear started and how it has changed from one season to the next. An orthopaedic check can change the whole plan.

When to call in a specialist

• he goes past fear into panic: howling, drooling, scratching at doors, hurting himself, trying to get out of a window;
• he has bolted, or tried to, during an episode;
• the fear has spread to ordinary sounds (doors, cars, voices) or to going outside after dark;
• in summer, storms put him in that state several times a month and you can no longer predict it;
• you have worked properly with the recorded sounds for two months and made no progress at all;
• he has bitten or growled when you touched him during an episode.

For severe noise fear, the team that gets results is your vet together with a behaviour specialist: the vet deals with medication and pain, the specialist with the plan. We do our assessments in the quiet months, not in season, and we start from what an episode looks like in your home.