Hope you are all having a wonderful 4th July!

[josie&holly]

and the Cairns are enjoying the day too apart from the fireworks that is!

[jimnconnie]

Thank you, Holly&me, for the good wishes from England. Our family can't get together until next weekend, so DW & I are spending a quiet day with the furkids, before the fireworks start tonight. Actually, they have been going on in our neighborhood for the last few nights, despite the annual promises by the police dept. to crack down on illegal fireworks. We will probably put a movie on the "telly" tonight and turn the volume up a bit so the outside noise isn't too bad. Happy Independence Day to everyone!

Jim

[Tracy A.]

Well, a glimmer of hope here in Cincinnati. It's been raining...hopefully it will be raining hard enough to cut down the fireworks..... that's our survival plan!

[Autumn & Lola]

It's Molly's first 4th with us, and the fireworks are going on right now. So far, we've just had a few barks from her. She is not scared at all, thank goodness. Our last dog, Mandy was terrified. It was awful those first 2 weeks of July, when people would set off fireworks all the time (quite legal here and we have huge fireworks stores here!) She'd shake uncontrollably and there was no comforting or distracting her, no matter what.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

[Malcolm's Dad]

Happy 4th everyone. I'm surprised, the fireworks don't bother Malcolm at all. We were out in the yard watching the fireworks and Malcolm would just bark at the really loud ones. Then he came in like nothing happened at all.

[Autumn & Lola]

Malcolm just helped catch a bad guy last week. He's a hero! He's certainly not going to be afraid of some silly fireworks!

[BetsyNoodle]

We live on the crest of a hill and have a beautiful view of the city fireworks, so I took Murphy outside to watch. He was very focused on them until the pretty little Bichon who lives next door came out with her mom to watch them. Well, her presence started another type of fireworks for the Murphster. He was smitten!

[Hawkeye]

Happy 4th to everyone! It's Bailey's first 4th of July with us too and he did really well. It was just the neighbor fire works and the town fire works was off in a distance, but still he was fine although a little side tracked when it was time to go out and do his business in the evening. The noise doesn't bother our westie which I feel is helpful for Bailey.

[jimnconnie]

Oddly, Bailey, who used to get really upset with the fireworks, was a lot better last night. On the other hand, Sophie who didn't get too upset the last 2 years, was terrified and shaking for most of the night. At about 11:00pm when I went outside with them for their last potty, there were some noises off in the distance, and both of them ran to the door without doing their business. I took them out again at about 12:15am, and it was quiet enough for them both to go potty before going to bed for the night. I expect more of the same tonight since it's the weekend.

[Sandi16]

Our first 4th with Louie and it was AWFUL. He just couldn't settle and barked and yelped all night at the fireworks until the wee hours.

[Idaho Cairns]

Took ours to the fireworks show. No problem, old one got bored after five minutes of the air bursts and the puppy was just a bit nervous but she had been watching the kids in the campground setting off little displays all evening so she was excited enough with the excitement to grind it out.

It also helped that we had a torrential rain and hail storm with lots of lightening three hours before the fireworks--if you've ever been in a motorhome during a hailstorm, you know the noise is incredible.

[rtherapy60]

Ours had the same response as Sophie and Bailey. Cooper was afraid and wanted to go hide under the bed while Jezabelle was indifferent to the noise. But, during a thunderstorm, Jezabelle is terrified and hides in the closet panting and shaking.

Thunderstorms don't phase Cooper but the fireworks did....we found this kind of odd because it didn't bother him at all last 4th of July.

I wonder if they're feeding off of each others fears? It's strange.

[avlsarah]

This was Maxwell's first Fourth, and he was such a trooper!

Fireworks started on the night of the third. He had some interest in them, mostly curiosity over what was making all the racket. He got a little anxious, but we were all sitting together out on the porch and he was pretty snug and secure. We went to bed early to the sound of fireworks no problems.

Then last night, on the Fourth, he had played so hard all day with his cousin Roxy the black lab that he didn't even hear them! He was out cold. Maxwell and Roxy had a great time chasing each other around the yard and then diving into the pool. He sure does put that big dog in her place! We sat out on the porch again in the evening and he woke up to watch a few of the sparklers in the neighbors yard before he passed out again.

[sheila and Misty]

same to you and we did -well a day later we watched fireworks on tv the dogs barked at every audible one outside . they went to grandma carries today and saw fireworks close up from uncle Jeff. scared Toby right out of his collar The halter kind but Misty was real interested. sooo yep we had a good time.

[beccadiane374]

This was my first 4th with Tanner and he, quite simply, had a very stressful couple of days! Fireworks have been going off around our house for weeks & will probably continue to do so. He doesn't get the shakes, but he does bark & look frantically around & when they are going off constantly, on our actual street, it's not so much fun. The solution we finally came across seemed to be simply holding him in our laps, not sweet talking to him or even petting him, just holding him. It didn't help much that I ran the vacuum cleaner on Saturday~poor little guy was so exhausted at one point that day, he was laying in his kennel (I had put him in there in an attempt to settle him down), his head laid down & everything & he was still letting out the occassional bark.

Other than that, it was a great holiday!!

[ppipho]

Charlie just went nuts--barking and panting. I could not calm him down for anything. Glad the big ones only lasted about 20 minutes. They shoot them off about 4 blocks from my house, so it was incredibly loud. He barked at the window unmercifully, but calmed down as soon as the main ones stopped. The little ones that were going off around the house bothered him some, but he eventually calmed down and got a good night's sleep.