Touch wood its been very quiet around this neck of the woods for several years now on the fire work front. Its also been quiet on Halloween. Think most people take their children to organised parties and its become harder for children to buy fireworks
Never had any problems with my old dog and fireworks but then, we made sure she was used to fireworks as a puppy - now she associates them with bonfire parties and (her favourite part) the big BBQ. I do wonder if halfof the problem some ppeople have is down to the dog feeding off their stress levels. Dogs are so sensitive to their owner's emotional state and we've already seen how uptight and cross some of the humans are getting,
Not to do with feeding off my stress. I was totally chilled out last night when there were two huge explosions. They set off car alarms. That scared the dog. He is the same with thunder as well.
heart felt sympathy to those of you with dogs who are afraid of the bangs. So lucky with COmet as he isn't bothered - have even take him to a friework display. Most the will do is look up if there is a particually loud bang and then go back to sleep.
However I have had a dog that had been petrified, and that was in the days before you could get something from the vet to help.
It looked like signal flares this evening. The bang was enough to rattle the windows. An Garda have been pretty scarce. Probably mustering for Halloween to protect the fire brigade.
Well the fireworks in Ireland (Republic) are a Halloween thing. They have bonfires on Halloween. Samhain. For obvious reasons Guy Fawkes isn't celebrated.
The Guy Fawkes thing was a reason to celebrate originally if you look at the politics of the time. The plotters weren't going to blow up parliament and king in the name of democracy......... At that time there was huge religious and political upheaval in Europe and the state's that followed reformed states felt embattled by the larger states. Religious wars in Germany. Plots in England and Scotland. The festival already existed as samhain but the state just turned it into something else and now Halloween and bonfire night are completely separate.
My neighbour took my dogs out with hers this afternoon and came back 20 minutes later asking if Django was back.
There had been some huge fireworks and both my dogs had bolted. She grabbed Lola first, as she's really fast, but Django, usually a proper old plodder, had taken off as if turbo-charged.
We went back out looking for him, and I was terrified he might have been hit by a car as he usually charges straight home if there's thunder or fireworks. We'd only got round the corner and 2 workmen came over the brow of the hill and called out "Are you looking for this?". One of them had Django tucked under his arm, bless him.
They'd been working on an extension round the corner and Django had bolted in and hidden under the joists of the half-built floor.
I was so grateful, I'm going to pop round tomorrow and take them a few tinnies or something. I really thought my lad might have been a goner.