Awake

[SuperBuickGuy]

I love the 4th. Great food, friends, cars... fireworks. I like them, the dogs... not so much... I have a yellow lab that can hear a shotgun shell drop in a flannel pocket at 100 yards - and when a shotgun goes off - she's all about finding the duck. Yet even she needs sedatives on the 4th in Washington (outside the city limits pretty much anything goes - not necessarily legal, but unenforced laws). So I get to stay up until the sedatives fully take effect and make sure that the 2 of 3 dogs that are on it are doing okay. I figure the sedatives keep them on the property - they still hear and hate the battle that is taking place outside; they just can't get up to run away.

*rant off*

[pdub]

That's not a rant. Spankie the Dawg, back when he could hear was the other way. Terrified. Somebody's hammering on a roof, he'd go psychotic in fear.

Thunder? Whatta dog mess to deal with.

Okay, I guess it is the same thing, in the other direction.

[Bamfster]

My 'ole boy Rocky is the same. About 7 or so I slip him 4 bendryl and send him downstairs for the evening ... he does ok.

[Thumpin455]

My dogs are lucky, we dont have neighbors who like fireworks within two miles. Our oldest dog is from a shelter, and she is very gunshy. There is someone around here who does some target practice occasionally and it drives her nuts, so does thunder. The other two, not so much.

Me on the other hand, I can deal with thunder and someone doing target practice, but parades and people lighting off fireworks near me without my expecting it, well lets just say I need the sedatives. Between the crowds, the heat, and the noise, its sure seems like a certain part of my past that I dont like to dwell on, so I stay home today. If I know they are going to light them, it doesnt bother me as much, its the stuff I dont know about that gets to me.

I havent bought or lit fireworks in over 20 years. The last display I enjoyed was July 4 1989 while stationed in Frankfurt West Germany. The next summer things went downhill fast.

[JOES66FURY]

living on the base with low flying planes and such...the dogs are used to the noise


I had a Golden when I was a kid and any thunderstorm/fireworks display would send him into a ape shit crazy frenzy...we had to lock him in the root cellar...was the only place we...and he...was safe.

[BluLightning]

I just shut all the windows and put the AC on. He doesn't have a problem with it then.

[gearhead1218]

My yellow Lab is scared of his own shadow. We heard fireworks in the distance and he RAN to the garage and hid.
I had a co-worker over target shooting with his new pistol. The dog was between my legs shaking like a leaf.

On the bright side of that equation, at least he runs to us or the house instead of down the road.

[Brian Lohnes]

Our dog Ted is a big dummy, but we like him lots, and the kids love the hell out of him. The people that had him before used to beat the hell out of him and not allow him to live in the house, so for the first year or so that we had him, he had all kinds of issues. Big noises were one of many. He's calmed down a lot and typically, now when something spooks him, he looks at me first to see how I am reacting before he goes ape shit.

He can be annoying at times, but I think about what the poor dog was put through by the previous owners ( like when we got him, the groomer lady said it was the worst flea infestation she had ever seen) and calm down. Incidentally, we got the dog because my wife worked with the woman who owned him (her asshole husband was the one who hit the dog) and they had too many dogs per their town bylaws. Ted was going to be put down, so we took him in.

Brian

[milner351]

Good on ya for taking him in Lohne's - that's a great thing to do - and your Boys will be forever grateful.

We have friends with the biggest most intimidating German Shepherd you've ever seen - 110lb of big mostly black baddazz mofo of a dog. Did I mention he was big?
This dog turns into a total major whimp when the thunder starts to roll - shaking like the yellow lab mentioned earlier - special drugs and lots of attention from his humans.... the only way to get him through.

Happy Fourth all - God Bless America!

[BluLightning]

The fireworks are going off with gusto now and the big dummy is laying here on the couch without a care in the world!

[SuperBuickGuy]

I started them early on sedatives, hopefully music + sedatives = happier evening. My lab is the one that surprises me the most, she's not scared of anything... maybe it's just age - she's 13. The newest guy is the one who has the most problem, he's been at our home the longest of any place he's ever been and we got him in March (he's almost 2). I'm sure he'll be okay after a few years at the 'shrink house. (then again the shrink is a lawyer so that might erase any good that he might have gotten from the 'shrink)...

[Brian Lohnes]

^^^

[antmnte]

My yellow lab was scared this year for the first time. I love fireworks but we dont do them over here at my house we go over to my parents and shoot them off there but the neighbors here were shooting he got scared, I dont get it never before and now hes scared?

[Lazyman]

Well,
The fireworks are about to start here.
Freeway and Two-lane (the new pup) are about the see what its all about.
Freeway, tears up the house, barking and growling, and Two-lane, so far he
just watch's Freeway go beserk and yawns.

But then again, the fireworks are just starting, we shall see.