FIREWORKS and DOGS Help your Pets | Fan Friday 160

Roar! ... the snow dog! I just wanted to tell you all, that it's time for Fan Friday! Is it time for Fan Friday? Say, it's Fan Friday! Not only is it Fan Friday, today is the fourth of July! So, we're going to do a special Fan Friday episode today! We are going to talk about dogs and fireworks. First off, we want to tell everybody, Happy 4th of July! For those of you that aren't from the United States and aren't celebrating 4th of July today, Happy Independence Day and whatever day your Independence Day is! Of course, because it's 4th of July in the United States, we have a lot of people asking us questions about dogs and fireworks and if we have tips. Things like that and keeping your dogs calm during fireworks. We are very fortunate that none of our dogs are afraid of fireworks. Actually, none of them. Even Shiloh was never afraid of fireworks. We're very lucky that none of our girls are afraid of fireworks. Yesterday, our veterinarian, the one that we actually take our girls to, posted some amazing tips on their website about how to keep your dogs calm during fireworks. Since today is 4th of July, there's going to be a lot of fireworks going off all weekend because 4th of July falls on a Friday. We thought that we would share all of these tips with you guys. Whoa! You got her tail! You got her tail! Yeah! First tip I have for you guys, since we know there's going to be lots of fireworks going off tonight and we have a little bit of time to prepare. It's a good idea to go ahead and walk your dog. Get your dog tired out. Give them a lot of exercise. Maybe even some extra exercise today so that, you know, it'll be a little bit easier on their brain. They'll be a little bit more tired and probably won't react as badly to the fireworks. That would be the first thing I would do. Second thing I would do is... Second thing you can do is, make sure you feed your dog a really good meal. Sometimes you may have to feed them a little bit earlier in the day. That way, they'll also have a full belly and if the fireworks start going off when you do feed your dog, they may be too fearful to eat. You want to make sure that they get a good meal in and that... Make sure you also take them outside and let them go to the bathroom before all the chaos starts. Once the chaos starts, they're probably not going to want to go outside either. Another good tip... You can place your dog in a room with black... Like a blacked out room. Like a basement room or in a bedroom with all your curtains and shades closed. Do that before the fireworks even start. Make sure you shut all the windows, all the doors. Make it nice and dark in there. That's going to deaden a lot of the sound and... It'll remove that strobe light, the flashing effects of the fireworks. Hopefully they won't be able to see it. While they're in that room, you should turn on the radio or turn on the television to provide some background noise. Radio or TV, whatever one you choose. Some dogs will pay attention to things on television, so the television is always a good option. Something with a consistent beat is what they usually suggest. Some type of rock music. You don't have to play it really loud. Just something to kind of distract them. Rock music kind of has the same beat as fireworks. If they're hearing that and the fireworks are going off, they're not going to realize it's fireworks. That's the hope anyway. Another thing you want to do, is make sure you remain calm. Because if you start to panic, your dog is going to start to panic. Try to not be real anxious. Don't worry about the fact that your dog might be getting upset. As soon as you're worrying about the fact that your dog might be getting upset, your dog is going to sense that. Your dog is going to feed off your body language. It's going to feed off your anxiety and they're going to become anxious. You yourself, need to try to stay calm. If your dog wants to hide, if they feel more comfortable hiding. I know some people say their dogs go and hide in the bathtub. Go ahead and let them do that. Don't try to pull them out of their hiding spot. If they're comfortable in the bathtub or they're comfortable hiding in the closet while these things are happening. Go ahead and let them do that. You don't want to try to pull them away from that. Because that may increase their level of fear and anxiety. Another tip would be to try to involve your dog in some type of activity before the fireworks begin. Kind of like I said, taking them for a walk. Maybe going and playing in the backyard. Filling a Kong with peanut butter and freezing it for them. Letting them play with that. If you have a friend that has a dog that is not fearful of fireworks. Maybe have them bring their dog over and have them stay there the whole time through the fireworks. That may help. The other dog will provide a distraction to your dog. So, that could help too. Another really awesome tip from Switzer Veterinary is make sure that your dog can't harm themselves. They said that they've had dogs that have come in that have broken through windows and been injured. Keeping them in a dark room, in one room is probably the best thing for them. Somewhere... Hopefully if your room has high windows or in the basement. That way they can't try to escape and jump out of a window if they are panicking and freaking out. You can use... There's different collars and pheromone sprays that you can get from your vet. Sometimes they will help out a lot if your dog has anxiety from the fireworks. I know when Memphis was a puppy and she was crying so bad in her kennel. We actually got one of these pheromone collars from our vet. It actually worked. You could always try that. Thunder shirt is another option. I know some of you have tried that. If you don't have a thunder shirt or don't have access to a thunder shirt, try putting just an actual shirt on your dog. I have talked to people who have said that actually works. That's something else you could try. In really extreme cases, make sure you talk to your vet because you may be able to get a medication, a sedative. Something to help calm them down. Some dogs, no matter what you do, they're not going to calm down. Hopefully some of these tips will help with some of your dogs. I know you guys, we get asked this every year. When I saw our Switzer Veterinary posted on their Facebook page, I knew this was going to be what I would do for Fan Friday today. They're awesome and these were amazing tips from our doctor. We got some mail! We got some mail! We got a letter and a package of goodies from Mel in England. We're going to have to open these in a second and give you girls a treat. Mel wants to know, when Oakley slipped her collar, was it because she got spooked by something or is that just something Huskies do? She didn't actually slip her collar when she got away from me that time. It was actually more like this. See how I have a hold of Shelby's collar like this? I had a hold of her collar to get her up into the car and it was my mistake. I didn't have her leash on her. I went to let her jump up in the car and when she jumped away, she twisted my arm all the way around. It just like literally ripped out of my hand. Was she spooked by something? Yeah, she didn't want to get into that side of the Jeep. She wanted to get into the normal side of the Jeep. The girls say, thank you very much for the awesome treats. They'll be noming on those for a while. We got a letter from Crystal and Matt with some photos of their puffy Anzor. Who you guys may recognize was in one of the Fan Friday intros. Their question is, do you guys use anything to repel spiders and centipedes from getting into your house? We use, it's called Andy's Lawn Spray. It's one of the ones that I've read about that's a little bit safer for pets than some of the bigger companies. I'm pretty sure Adam's Yard Spray is what it's called. You spray it in your yard and then you have to let it dry completely before you can let your pets back out. You have to use it a little bit more than some of the other sprays because it doesn't have as many harsh chemicals. That's actually what we use and it works around here. I don't know, hopefully that helps you. We don't do it often, maybe once every two months. I don't like to use sprays either. We only do it when the bugs are getting really bad. We got a letter from Patrick and Patrick wants to know, how much can Huskies weigh? Usually between 35 pounds and 55 pounds. Males are usually the ones that are a little bit bigger. How long do they live? Their average life expectancy is 12 to 14 years. Can they live in an apartment? If you go back and search through our Fan Fridays, we've answered this question many times. Is it possible? Yes. Is it advisable? Not really, because they can be noisy. We got a letter from Evan. Sorry about the lawnmower background noise. Evan wants to know, is it hard to train a dog? Is it hard? Yes. There's a lot of work involved in training a dog. I believe, with time, patience, love and effort, anybody can do it. That's all we have for Fan Friday today you guys. I hope these tips will help you. These should also help with thunderstorms. Fireworks and thunderstorms are very similar. Memphis is chasing bugs. Fireworks and thunderstorms are very similar. You can also try these same tips to use during thunderstorms with your pets. Let us know if any of these help you. If you guys have any tips that have worked with your dogs, post them in the comments below. Maybe, one of your tips will help somebody else with their dog. We hope you guys have an awesome Fourth of July. We're getting ready to head out. We just went to the parade. We're going to go to dinner. We're going to go to fireworks. We got all kinds of stuff going on today. We just wanted to share this video with you guys. Wish you all a very happy Fourth of July. Stay positive! Dream big! We'll see you soon! Thanks for watching! Goodbye! Oakley, you were like hiding over there the whole time. Now, you're going to come out and sit there. There's Oakley! Is that your new favorite tree? Your new favorite tree? Hi pretty girl! I love you! I love you all! ♪ Turn around and roll over, Snow Dog! ♪ ♪ Sing a song with your sweet voice! ♪ ♪ I know, You've been a good little girl! ♪ ♪ Come and join our adventure! ♪ ♪ Lots of fun and lots of walks, once you come into our Siberian world! ♪ ♪ Gone To The Snow Dogs! Gone To The Snow Dogs! ♪