This year the 4th of July celebrations in my neighborhood did not disappoint.
wallaceandsamuel wrote:
The selling of fireworks to the general public is actually banned in South Africa but that doesn’t stop people buying them illegally. We obviously don’t celebrate the 4th of July but New Years and the end of Eid (a Muslim feast day) are big fireworks days here.
A lot of my neighbors are originally from the Middle East so we are treated to fireworks on those days as well as on the 4th. I have come to the conclusion that my Middle Eastern neighbors love their fireworks.
I think the neighbors started shooting them off at about 1pm and they lasted until after midnight. Outside the air smelled of sulfur and some of the fireworks were extremely loud. We had the air conditioning off and the windows open in the morning because the weather was so beautiful and cool. Once the fireworks started, we shut our windows and flipped on the air.
As predicted, the fireworks did not phase Storm. In fact she decided that she had to go potty during the loudest part, but she thought the bright lights and large booms were kind of cool.
Then there was Thunder and Freighter. They were a bit nervous.
Some of you may remember this product which was part of a Bugsy Box that I reviewed in March.
Canine Calm Spray is a mixture of essential oils that you spray on your hands and rub onto the dog’s ears, chest and stomach. I had planned to pass this item to a friend because my dogs are pretty calm for the most part. Fireworks and loud thunder are the few exceptions. I never did find anyone to pass it on to, so I figured I would give it a try.
I used it on Thunder and Freighter earlier in the day on the 4th and it seemed to help. I should have re-applied it to Freighter in the night but I didn’t. (By nighttime Thunder was so tired he didn’t care too much about fireworks.) The next night when we were treated to more neighborhood fireworks, I tried it again on Freighter and after about 5 minutes or so, he was visibly calmer. To be honest, I am surprised it worked as well as it did.
I took Freighter on a walk around the neighborhood the morning after the big doing’s on the 4th. We had to dodge the leftovers from the fireworks of the previous night. Freighter wanted to sniff and investigate each piece that we came across.
Here is a small sample of what we saw.
The weekend wasn’t all fireworks though. The dogs did some training and sampled some yummy frozen treats, (more about training and treats in future posts). They also got to spend some time playing in the sprinkler.
How was your 4th?
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I’m skeptical about calming sprays too so nice to hear it helped. Our fourth was uneventfull except the fireworks of my closet falling down.
LOL I saw about your closet. I guess your clothes wanted a different view of the closet. 🙂 I understand the skepticism. I had used that spray on Thunder with the first thunderstorm of the season. It worked then, but I figured maybe the storm just moved on. I don’t understand it, but it does seem to work and I like the smell. 🙂
We’re glad to hear that your 4th included ice cream and water games and not just fireworks!
Wally & Sammy
Thanks you two. 🙂
I’m glad we only have a public firework and there are not much neighbors who buy that firecracker-stuff. It’s great to see how much fun they had with the sprinkler!
Seems the fireworks get worse every year. As far as I can tell only one person died this year from fireworks…
Good Morning! Glad y’all had a great 4th! We did, too. It was uneventful; but the older I get, the more I appreciate peace and quiet.
The one thing I hate about any “holiday” — but especially the 4th of July and Halloween — is the trash left ALL OVER by people who refuse to clean up after themselves. Those metal containers in the street can be hazardous.
I hope they went out later in the day to clean. I did see one guy with a broom. 🙂
Our dogs have never reacted badly to the Fourth but we lived in the country. I was not prepared for the mass amount of fireworks and the lenght of time they would be going off here in the city. Nadie was a mess pretty much all day but after dark it was terrible. I promised myself the morning after to get some type of calming product to have around immediately. I will try this since it helped your two. Like your neighborhood, there are still reminders of the big night of fireworks everywhere. I really wish people would learn to pick up after they are done having fun. I have had to clean up my own yard several times from the wind blowing remnants into my yard and we did not let off a single thing.
Your neighborhood sounds like ours. As kids, my parents would set off a few fireworks, Roman Candles, and these things that whistle and spin. Those were nothing like what they had in my neighborhood. Some of that stuff was very big.
Thunder and Storm in the sprinkler = awesome!
We had hours of fireworks here. Phoebe did not care. Thank goodness. She’s a nervous-nelly sometimes!
That is Storm. Take her to a dog show and she is a mess. Fireworks…louder the better!
Phoebe forgets how to hold herself upright at a show. I quit paying entry fees so my dog could drag her belly around the ring. My backyard champion.
I love the new look of your blog, it’s very fresh and crisp looking.
It rained on the 4th so absolutely no-one lit anything off, which was kind of nice. Saturday there was a bit going on down the street a ways, but it wasn’t too bad. LAST night they decided to celebrate. Thankfully it was only a short time and I kept Delilah inside as she wanted to stand and bark at them. LOL
Glad you found something that worked for the dogs. I should suggest that to a friend whose dog is afraid of thunder storms.
You were lucky to have rain. That would have quieted things down here. 🙂
My whole last week was so super busy… We usually do fireworks too. They don’t bother Shiner too much, but she will try to bite them if she’s outside. So she stays inside!
LOL don’t want to bite fireworks!
Bailie and I could care less about fireworks, Katie is a bit nervous. Mom worries more about the day after when the stuff is all over the street. She is scared something might still be live and we might step on it.Had a great weekend and are happy to nap today.
I could use a nap. Stayed up way too late all weekend due to the noise!
Good to hear the calming spray worked! Luckily Rita doesn’t mind fireworks, but we only have the big “show” type fireworks – not the little neighborhood kind. Not sure what she’d think of those. Very rude of those folks to not clean up after themselves! I have a real pet peeve about that!
I was out early. I hope they got out to clean. 🙂
glad it helped as big city pups we are pretty used to LOUD noises so we are pretty unphased by fire works
retro rover
Our dogs are hunting dogs, but the stuff they were setting off was way louder than any shotgun. I am just glad nothing landed on our roof. One year someone’s house burned down when a rocket landed on their roof. Wasn’t even them setting it off, was a neighbor.
Very interesting, Chase does not like fireworks either, I had never considered a calming spray before! He is pretty good though as long as he is inside with me 🙂
Looks like a lot of fun!
http://chasethesheltie.wordpress.com/
Our Fourth was noisy, I didn’t get to sleep until 2am, but the dogs did great!
Running under the sprinkler is one of the best things about summer! Luckily it is illegal to have fireworks domestically … we have amazing fireworks over our gorgeous Harbour a couple of times each year so thankfully no extras. Beary wouldn’t cope. Can you share with me what blend is in the oil? I’ve tried all sorts of things for him and nothing seems to work so would be keen to mix up a batch of that to see if it worked. As we are all curled up in front of our fire, we’re thinking of you guys in the summer heat 🙂
This is from their website: Mist ingredients: Pure essential oils of bergamot, tangerine, lavender, geranium, marjoram, and ylang ylang in water with polysorbate 20 (emulsifier) and potassium sorbate (preservative). It doesn’t give the percentages on the website or on the label.
Thank you!
It will take all week for us to recover from WW3 (fireworks) in our very rural neighborhood. So far 5 nights of kabooms from all directions, lasting until almost midnight. Poor Rudy is now afraid to venture outside in the daylight alone. Thundershirt and the various calming sprays, etc, do nothing for him. Sigh…
Love the pic of the dogs playing with the sprinkler. As we expected, Daisy barked at the first few fireworks just like she would if she heard a knock on the door. After that, she got bored with the sound and went back to being Daisy. Thankfully!!!
What a mess! It’s a good thing the 4th only comes once a year! We got off pretty easy this year, and the dogs didn’t seem bothered by the little bit of noise we did hear, thank goodness.
Sheba was more bothered by the strong wind we had over the weekend!
Luke likes to bite at the hose when I’m filling their pool, so he might like a sprinkler too…I’ll have to see if I can find an old one.
Goodness, that’s a lot of fireworks! Luckily, Maya and Pierson are not scared of them. I use Travel Calm, which is from the same company that makes the Canine Calm, for Maya because she gets so excited on car rides. Works like a charm.
Fireworks used to make my last Lab, Sabokka, run around looking for birds to retrieve – I guess he thought there were a lot of people out there hunting. This year our neighbors had a number of illegal rockets and Elvis spent the nights sleeping in our closet, his safe haven. Doc and Mia clearly didn’t like them but the Labs ignored them altogether. At night we put fans in the windows and turned them on high, which pretty much drowned out the noise.