How to tell if your dog is stressed

The first thing to do if you are concerned about your dog’s reaction to fireworks is to watch him for signs of stress and anxiety. These can include:

• pacing
• panting
• whining
• barking
• trembling
• restlessness
• attention seeking
• shaking
• destructiveness
• hiding
• escape behaviour
• loss of house training

Any of these types of behaviour could indicate that your dog has developed a noise phobia. And unfortunately, once he has developed a phobia relating to one sort of noise – fireworks, for instance – he may begin to display similar symptoms on hearing other sudden sounds.

Early experiences are very important for the development of puppies and if dogs are exposed to a variety of sights and sounds from an early age, they’re less likely to have adverse reactions when they grow up. However, there’s no guarantee that even the soundest of dogs won’t display an unexpected reaction later in life – it only takes a single scary event to induce a fear response.