Friday, January 4, 2019

Best New Year's Eve in several years

New Year's Eve is one of my least favorite holidays.  Of my last 6 dogs, four have been freaked out by fireworks.

And boy does my neighborhood like fireworks.  This year they started around 7 and went to 12:15.  Last year they started at 5:30 and went to 1:30.

Yeah, I don't get much sleep on January 1st.

Currently I have two dogs.  Angel is the Belgian Malinois/Great Dane mix and is almost 12.  Bogie is a Great Dane and is 7 1/2.

In year's past, I've had to hold Angel (all 100 pounds of her) and reach to pet Bogie.

For some reason, in 2018 Angel decided fireworks no longer bothered her.  Yay!  Going deaf?  I don't think so.  She can still hear the pantry door open from outside.

I don't know which of the several things I did helped Bogie this year, but he did better than he has since I got him.

1. I increased his evening dose of CBD oil in the hopes it would calm his anxiety.

2. I kept the door closed to keep him from running outside to bark.

3. I put a series of movies on with the volume louder than usual.

4. I sat on the floor with him most of the night, petting him, and holding him tight when he tried to jump up in response to an extra loud boom.

Mostly I think the solution was 1 and 4. 

There were definitely fireworks.  I could hear them, even over the TV.

But Bogie was a lot less stressed.  And that made me a lot less stressed.

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