Desensitisation is totally achievable if you take it slowly and do it for a really, really long time.
What you need to do is really simple, just play firework sounds (VERY QUIETLY AT FIRST!) and then feed your dog their normal dinner. Turn the sounds off when your dog has finished eating.
The aim of this is to change the emotional reaction in your dog’s brain from fireworks = scary, to fireworks = good things are about to happen.
I’m sorry to tell you, but doing this for a few weeks is not long enough. You need to do this all year round. I’m going to post this video again in February, May and August to remind you to stick with it!!
You might think that volume one is having no effect on your dog. If so, that’s great! Remember that dogs have MUCH better hearing than us. Stick with it, only increasing that volume by ONE INCREMENT every fortnight, and hopefully they will continue to have no negative reactions. This is like cooking a frog; you want the volume to increase soooo slowly and gradually that your dog doesn’t notice.
Conversely, if your dog won’t eat their dinner or is visibly scared even when the volume is at one, then it’s too loud. The aim of this is NOT to scare them further. You need to find a volume that they’re comfortable with, and work up extra slowly from there. It might be initially just playing the video on mute and letting them watch it.
If you’re unsure about any of this or unsure about your dog’s reaction, please send me a DM and I can help ❤
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