How to make dogs less scared of Bonfire Night fireworks

Bonfire Night is usually a time for people to marvel at fireworks. For man’s best friend, though, it’s probably one of the worst nights of the year.

On 5 November, many dogs will be freaking out from their fear of fireworks: panting, trembling, barking, howling, pacing, hiding and even self-harming as random and unpredictable explosions go off near their home.

It can be horrible to watch, not to mention experience for the dogs themselves. Some owners may be thinking about whether medication, such as a prescription of a tranquilliser, might help to relieve their pets of their anxiety.

And this could potentially work. At least for fear of storms, which are pretty similar to fireworks in their effects on some dogs, there are a couple of randomised controlled trials of drug treatments that show promising results.

In one of them, from 2003, a combination of the drugs clomipramine and alprazolam (the latter being the chemical name for Xanax) seemed to reduce dogs’ fearful reactions to a simulation of storm noises played at home. However the owners, who rated their dog’s symptoms, knew they had been given the drugs, meaning there was a potential bias towards thinking they saw an improvement, even if there wasn’t one in reality. Having said that, higher-quality trials of the same drugs for other kinds of anxiety also show benefits.

Better was a study in 2021 that was a proper blinded trial, where owners didn’t know if their dogs had been given the treatment – a drug called imepitoin – or a placebo control. The dogs who had been given the treatment had substantially fewer anxiety symptoms during storms.

What about other, non-drug treatments? Quite often I see mention of those plug-in diffusers that spray a pheromone into the air, apparently calming down your dog. Some vets and charities even recommend them, with one referring to sprays containing synthetic “happy dog pheromones”. Do they work? Well, put it this way: a review of the studies available in 2010 found that there was “insufficient evidence” for effects of the diffusers on dog behaviour in a variety of situations. More recently, a small study in 2020 concluded that “the application of a DAP [Dog-Appeasing Pheromone] diffuser did not markedly influence the behaviour… of dogs”.

Again, those who swear by the power of the diffusers to help soothe anxious dogs might just be mistaken: they’re seeing what they want to see. At least, that’s what we have to conclude until there’s better evidence available.

Is there anything else that’s worth trying? Again in 2020, researchers published results from a survey of 1,225 dog-owners about the sorts of things they did to calm their dogs when fireworks were going off outside, and whether they thought they worked. Obviously, there’s a big potential for bias here too, and plenty of owners might have been misled by hype and exaggerated marketing, but it is worth seeing if they suggested anything interesting.

Three hundred of the respondents mentioned the so-called “ThunderShirt”, a tight pressure vest that wraps around a dog’s body such that they feel like they’re getting a permanent hug while they have it on. A few small studies have tested them and report positive results when using owner-rated, subjective measures of dog anxiety. But when objective measures such as heart rate are taken, the results are much more borderline.

Others in the survey reported using a variety of “alternative” treatments such as homeopathy, herbal remedies and essential oils to calm down their dogs. There aren’t any studies of these but, even in the survey, a minority of owners who had tried them believed they had any effect. There are plenty of websites and online shops peddling these unevidenced treatments for dogs – just as there are for humans.

On the other hand, nearly 70 per cent of the 200 respondents who had tried prescription medications, like the ones mentioned above, were effective. The problem with these, as with any active medicine, is that they have side effects, such as sleepiness and vomiting. Diffusers and pressure vests do not have these negative effects – though, of course, that is related to the fact they might not have any positive effects either.

So what about a solution that, in retrospect, is pretty obvious: trying to block out the noise? Nearly 400 people in the survey said they had tried playing white noise or some other non-scary sound to stop their dog from hearing the fireworks, although only about 55 per cent said this worked. It is easier said than done if your direct next-door neighbour is having a huge firework party.

Nearly 700 respondents said they had tried some kind of training to help their dog deal with firework anxiety, with around 70 per cent (subjectively) reporting good results. That is the opposite of a quick fix: but, as with anything, training is probably the only way to have a long-term impact on your dog’s behaviour.

So as Bonfire Night draws nearer, what is the best way to help our dogs? Try to block the noise of fireworks if you can: turn up the TV or music or use a white-noise generator. If that doesn’t work and your dog is seriously anxious, your vet might be able to prescribe them something.

In the longer term, training with positive reinforcement for calmness around loud noises is worth considering. I wouldn’t bother with diffusers or pressure vests until there’s better evidence for their effects.

Although we’re very used to the idea of “evidence-based medicine” in humans, this concept has only just begun to touch veterinary medicine. For almost any treatment for dogs, we – and our vets – have to rely on tiny, low-quality studies that tell us very little beyond “this needs more research”. Add that to the fact that dogs differ wildly in their personalities and it’s hard to know where to begin to deal with a problem like this.

Perhaps the most reassuring thing is to remember that, until New Year’s Eve of course, it’ll all be over in a couple of days.