June 25, 2021 · 37 min
How to help your dog not freak out about fireworks (with Cheryl Gfrerer, KPA-CTP, of Giffy Dog)
Some dogs really freak out about loud noises. Unfortunately, too often, new dog owners learn this on a day when scary sounds abound: July 4th. Annie talks to fellow trainer, Cheryl Gfrerer of Giffy Dog in St. Paul, MN, about her personal experiences dealing with a sound-sensitive rescue dog, and together they discuss protocols and practical approaches to helping dogs who are triggered by fireworks and the like. Find Cheryl Gfrerer online at giffydog.com and on Instagram @giffydog
Thundershirt
Through A Dog's Ear (on Spotify)
Karolina Westlund blog post on fireworks and thunder phobias
Partial Transcript: Annie: Hello humans. In advance of the 4th of July, which is coming our way next week, I wanted to do an episode on preparing dogs to deal with fireworks and other auditory related stressors. And I was about to record an episode with all the protocol that I would suggest for preparing a dog for the 4th of July. And then I thought, I don't think I've worked specifically with dogs who have fireworks phobias and I've never had a dog like that, since I've been a trainer at least. And so I thought, it would be nice to talk to a trainer who has dealt with this issue in a more firsthand way. And because I'm also always happy to not have a podcast that's only my own voice, I decided to invite my colleague, Cheryl Gfrerer, who is a fellow Karen Pryor Academy graduate on to talk about how she has been working both with her own firework phobic dog, and helping rescue dog owners with their dogs who have similar phobias where she is based in St. Paul, Minnesota. So what you are going to hear is my conversation on this subject with her. Full Transcript
Transcript
Annie
Hello humans. In advance of the 4th of July, which is coming our way next week, I wanted to do an episode on preparing dogs to deal with fireworks and other auditory related stressors. And I was about to record an episode with all the protocol that I would suggest for preparing a dog for the 4th of July.
And then I thought, I don't think I've worked specifically with dogs who have fireworks phobias and I've never had a dog like that, since I've been a trainer at least. And so I thought, it would be nice to talk to a trainer who has dealt with this issue in a more firsthand way.
And because I'm also always happy to not have a podcast that's only my own voice, I decided to invite my colleague, Cheryl Gfrerer, who is a fellow Karen Pryor Academy graduate on to talk about how she has been working both with her own firework phobic dog, and helping rescue dog owners with their dogs who have similar phobias where she is based in St. Paul, Minnesota. So what you are going to hear is my conversation on this subject with her.
As always you can support the podcast by subscribing and rating and leaving a review on iTunes. I really appreciate it. You can get there if you just go to schoolforthedogs.com/listen. We do mention a couple of products together, Cheryl and I, in this episode that we do carry in our online store also at our store in Manhattan in the east village on first avenue and seventh street.
And if you go to our online store, you'll also find we have a whole suite of on-demand courses there that we've worked really hard to put together over the last year or so. You can get a really good education at your own pace by doing our online courses. You can check those out at Store for the Dogs or just go to schoolforthedogs.com/courses.
You should also make sure you follow us on Instagram @schoolforthedogs, because we're always posting fun stuff, but also because every Friday we do a product giveaway, and, this Friday, or this weekend starting today, Friday, we're giving away The Revol dog crate by Diggs. If you are a frequent listener to this podcast, you know that I think this crate is the best and it's actually going to be featured on CBS tomorrow night at I believe 7:30 PM on the show America by Design.
They are featuring the crate in the episode and they actually shot the segment at School for the Dogs. So make sure to check that out and you can enter to win one by going to at School for the Dogs on Instagram this weekend only. Alright. Without further ado, here is my conversation with Cheryl Gfrerer.
[music and intro]
Cheryl Gfrerer
Hi, Annie. My name is Cheryl Gfrerer and I am a dog trainer in Minnesota. My business is Giffy Dog. I also run a nonprofit called Spencer group, which offers free training to dogs and rescue. My interest in dog training began with rescue dogs. As a person who was fostering for a local rescue group, I became interested in fostering and then ultimately training. And I became a Karen Pryor academy trainer in 2015.
My business focuses primarily on working with rescue dogs and helping them adapt to their new families and helping their new families adapt to them and prepare for the types of challenges that they have with a new family member.
Annie
Are you in a pretty rural area then, or like an urban area?
Cheryl
Im actually in St. Paul. So I'm in the cities, I'm within 20 minutes of our two most major cities.
Annie
So are most of your dogs urban dogs? Suburban?
Cheryl
That is a great question. Actually, I work with a combination of dogs because I do travel for some of my sessions. I work a lot with in-person training and I often go where the rescues direct me. Having said that I would say the bulk of my clients are in urban environments and many times they're dogs that have moved from very rural environments to urban environments. And so they do have some trouble adapting to busier city lives and the noises and the number of triggers they encounter on a daily basis. So that is a very common client for me to work with.
Annie
And tell me about your dogs.
Cheryl
Well, my dogs are rescue dogs [laughs] that just happened to show up here. Two of them are very comfortable with fireworks. One's an older rat terrier cross, one is a Border Collie cross, but the dog that I'm having the biggest challenges with is a three-year old Akita golden retriever cross, who I adopted as a puppy.
And when he was almost exactly a year old, it was the 4th of July. And in my neighborhood, people do fireworks probably for a month. And in anticipation of that, because I didn't have the forethought to prepare him for that day, I just made a decision to bring him out early in the evening to go to the bathroom for the last time. And as luck would have it, the minute that he squatted, somebody lit off a firework in my alley right behind my house.
So he panicked and I brought him back inside and fed him food to make as positive an association with that moment as I could retroactively, because of course I didn't have the food with me when I went out there. And then I brought him out about a half an hour later, one more time to try it again. And that second time that I brought him out, the exact same thing happened.
Annie
Oh no.
Cheryl
So I now have a 12 month old dog who is, he's not 12 anymore, but at the time he was just a year old and he had developed this terror of fireworks and I'm talking, he wouldn't come downstairs for at least 24 hours for the next three days. I had to pick him up and carry this seventy-five pound dog to my car to bring him somewhere else to go to the bathroom, like drive him somewhere else to go to the bathroom.
And that led me to a journey of discovery for what do you do when you have a dog that has severe anxiety with fireworks. And it's definitely been a journey.
Annie
Wow. So tell me about what you've done? Now, as I mentioned before, I don't think I've actually personally trained dogs who have this issue. But I certainly I'm aware of what can be done, although I haven't done it firsthand. And it seems to me, one of the hardest things about this problem specifically of dogs who -- I mean, noise phobia is one thing. Firework phobia is another thing in that it's quite hard to predict when fireworks are gonna go off. Certainly we have the day of the 4th of July. But like you found out, there might be the odd firework that might not be a part of a display.
And the other thing is that, it's certainly inconvenient for you to go ahead and start set up fireworks yourself, or even do them at -- if you're gonna start acclimating your dog to them at a low volume, for instance, you really should be starting a couple of months ahead. And often it's something people don't think about until like July 3rd, am I right? Do you think?
Cheryl
I completely agree. And all of the things that you've just talked about are things I've had to deal with. And so I think, for me, the first step was bringing him to a veterinarian. Because his behavior was so severe that he would lie upstairs in my bed trembling for minimally six to eight hours at a time. Fur was falling off of him. It was pretty severe.
And so the first thing I did when I realized how severe the problem was call my vet, and we developed a plan of medications for him to take, both prior to exposure and in some cases, if he was exposed without me being prepared for that, we did come up with a couple of medications that I could give post-exposure to reduce his stress after the fact.
Annie
Now, did it generalize to things other than fireworks?
Cheryl
He has shown a little bit of anxiety with thunderstorms and sudden noises, but it isn't as pronounced as I would have expected. And so I'm thinking it may not have generalized. I think those are just, he does have a startle reflex.
Annie
Okay. And what are the medications that you ended up giving him? When do you give it to him?
Cheryl
Oh my gosh. I'm trying to remember all the medications. I think I'm typically giving him trazodone, and I was prescribed Gabapentin ahead of time. This is something I just want to add a note that, don't attempt to medicate your dog without your veterinarian’s input. And so this was a lot of going back and forth, both with my veterinarian and a veterinary behavior resident to choose the options that would be best for my dog.
So we started with a combo of Tramadol and Gabapentin beforehand. And I believe alprazolam can be given ahead of time as well. So with Owen, we discovered that the Gabapentin made him a little bit too lethargic. And so I usually give him the Trazodone and the Alprazolam on days that I anticipate there may be fireworks. So Juneteenth, the 4th of July, the weekend before the 4th of July, when there's a nearby sporting event, things like that.
If he happens to be exposed to a sound, I also add in propranolol, and that is a drug that has been given with some success after exposure, within 20 minutes of exposure. So that is Owen's combination of medications.
Anne
What kind of training work are you doing if any, then, in preparation?
Cheryl
Honestly, with Owen, because it's such a severe reaction, if I hear a firecracker in any way within about a mile of my house, he will have a response. So during random times throughout the year, that may happen on days that I haven't given him medication. And when that does happen, I tend to pair it with food as rapidly as I can.
We've also developed a bizarre practice that I haven't tested with any other dogs, but what I did discover very early on was one night when he was having a panic attack, for lack of a better word, when he was having full on shaking trembling, fur falling out, panting, I decided to, I ran some water in the bathroom and I thought, I'll just go sit in the bathroom with him. And as I was running water in the bathtub, he actually stepped into the bathtub and stood there for a few minutes. And then he stepped out of the bathtub and lied down on the rug and slept.
Annie
Hmm.
Cheryl
So when I notice he is having a little bit of trouble, or if I notice that there are some things happening in the distance that are starting, he’s starting to show a response to, I will take him up to a safe room and we will do this bath ritual and he will sleep down. But during those random exposures during the year, I absolutely pair them with food.
Annie
Okay.
Annie
You can use sounds prerecorded on your phone or on the computer to expose your dog gradually to some of those sounds. I'm assuming your listeners are familiar with desensitization, but just pairing the presence of a mildly stressful thing with food, for the duration of that mildly stressful thing being present.
You can definitely work on that with prerecorded sounds, but I haven't really discovered a perfect simulation of a firecracker or a random sound. And so my plan has really been more to introduce him to random sounds in the environment and pair those with food throughout the year. Does that make sense?
Annie
Yeah. Yeah. Rather than doing like concerted training sessions?
Cheryl
I think you, yes. I think you can and should do concerted training sessions. With Owen, I haven't figured out the best way to do that with the exception of, when environmental sounds arise, be ready at all times to pair those things with food,
Annie
Let’s talk about like antecedent arrangement, sort of how we can help dogs, all the stuff we can kind of do from the outside in with clients, that I'm sure you've done some of. And I have done some of, like I said, not so much with fireworks, but in other situations, to help them exist without stress, if you know what I mean.
So growing up, for example, I mean -- and these sort of management type situations always seem to me like the ones where I think somebody would be like, oh my God, I can't believe I had a dog trainer come in to tell me this, because it seems so patently obvious.
But, for instance, my childhood dog Mabel was terrified of fireworks or, well, firecrackers, I guess. We lived in Chinatown and so she would go bananas during February, like during Chinese New Years and would go hide in the closet. And I don't think my dad really did anything particularly to help her. And it is something that some dogs will do, they'll go find a comfortable spot and enclosed spot. And that is something we can certainly encourage.
I know with thunderstorms, sometimes they're reacting to the change in like the barometric pressure. And some dogs actually feel better around like metal pipes or in the bathroom for whatever reason, going into the tub, going into the basement. But for a dog like Mabel, I think if I could retroactively help her and advise my father, I would probably say, let's find somewhere else where she can go stay for the month of February!
If not, give her medication every day and try and acclimate her to those sounds over the course of the year. Possibly the easier route would be to find somewhere else for her to be. Are there other sort of types of management solutions that you have suggested to dog owners who are desperate to, especially with rescue dogs when we want to keep the rescue dog, who might have had experiences they don't know about before they got the dog?
Cheryl
Yes. And I think you're also raising a really important point about dogs that are having a reaction to fireworks may respond pretty subtly. And so the dog that goes and sleeps in the closet, it's pretty easy to disregard that dog, but I don't know that that's the best option for that dog.
Because what we do know is that that regular exposure over the dog's lifetime is likely to lead to a more pronounced response over time. And so addressing it as soon as you start to see it, I think is really vital. And unfortunately, most of us don't really think about that until we start hearing fireworks in our environment. So the time to think about it might be September after the season has ended and start to introduce your dog to those random sounds.
But from a management perspective or an antecedent arrangement perspective beforehand, I typically start by looking for the quietest room in my house, ideally one without windows and potentially heavier walls. Like you mentioned, the basement or the bathroom are two of my go-to choices.
And because we do have a little bit of time before the 4th, you would have time to go in, bring your dog's favorite bed into that space, take your dog there each evening and perform some activity with your dog that is likely soothing. So it might be some training or a licky, well, training might be engaging, but not necessarily soothing, but a licky mat or a massage. Reinforcing your dog for just lying on their bed. So just giving your dog treats when they're on their beds. So we want to create a positive association with that space that you're choosing as that retreat space.
Then I like to look at, what can we do to make that space more soundproof and more pleasant. And I always think of the three auditory, visual and olfactory. What can we do to make it sound calming? What can we do to make it look calming? What can we do to make it smell calming?
For the sound, I usually look at anything I can do to add a barrier to sounds outside. So first you could, if you wanted to go to a pretty extreme level, you could hang up fabrics around the room to create some sort of a barrier for sound, like moving blankets. If you just got a kennel in a room with the door open, you can drape blankets over that kennel. Again, anything you can do to create a little bit of soundproofing in that space is beneficial.
And then I couple that with a combination of white noise and music, so white noise might be an actual white noise machine or a box fan. And I typically put those items nearest to any sources of sound. So if the doorway is closest to sound, I would put those near the doorway. And then I couple that with music, for example, Through a Dog's Ear, which you can stream through Amazon to create that soothing sounds in the environment. I've seen people use reggae, you can use audible books that are really calming. So I think more of a textbook or a cookbook versus an adventure book.
From a smell perspective, I usually look at things like dehydrated lavender, or chamomile tea steeping in the space just to create that olfactory calming. And then from a visual standpoint, like I said, we want the room to be a little bit darker. If there are windows, they should have blackout shades on them or something to really prevent any source of light coming in and any ability to see flashes.
Annie
There's also dog appeasing pheromone. Do you ever recommend that?
Cheryl
That's a great choice and I definitely talk about that. Do you sell Adaptil?
Annie
And then the sprays. Spray is probably the one I think we recommend the most because you can spray it on a dog's blanket. You could spray it on the dog's collar. You could put it on a bandana and put that around your dog's neck. It's a pheromone that mimics the pheromones in dogs’ mother's milk. And it can have a very calming effect. Thundershirts, is that something that you recommend?
Cheryl
You know, I personally have stopped using Thundershirts and I'm not entirely sure why. I didn't have bad outcomes with that. I just haven't used them as much, I think partially because you oftentimes have to help have to help a dog adjust to wearing a thunder shirt, but it certainly is something you could try.
Annie
Thunder shirts for those listening who don't know are basically very tight fitting shirts that, for reasons that I'm not even sure are totally understood, can have a very calming effect. Temple Grandin in her books talks about the hug machine she created for herself based on what she realized was calming for cows. There's something about being squeezed in a certain way that can be calming for many animals. And the Thunder shirt kind of mimics that.
And I've actually found, I have a one-year-old or almost one year old dog. And I haven't used a thunder shirt with her, but I have used just putting her in a tight sweatshirt. And I do find, not for sound sensitivity, but just in general, I find when she seems a little anxious, it does seem to calm her down. Have you heard of the storm defender?
Cheryl
I have not.
Annie
I was just reading about the storm defender again, I don't know. This is more about maybe thunderstorms than about fireworks. But this is from, I'm looking at the book called decoding your dog by the American college of veterinary behaviorists. And it was talking about the storm, I'll just read this part:
The storm defender is a Cape like wrap, has a light metallic lining that reportedly protects against the charge of an electrostatic electrode static change in the atmosphere. There are no studies identifying which dogs are better candidates for the storm defender, but dogs who seek out hiding places, like I was just talking about, may be helped by it.
There was a study in 2009 with two groups of dogs, those with the storm defender cape, and those with the placebo cape, similar cape, but not the storm defender. There were 13 dogs in the storm defender group and 10 dogs in the placebo group. Both dogs, both groups had similar anxiety scores, pretreatment, and both groups showed improvement while wearing these capes. But the group with a storm defender showed a higher percentage of improvement.
Anyway, I hadn't heard of the storm defender previously, but that was interesting. Interesting to me. Have you had some dogs then that you've worked with who've improved?
Cheryl
Yes. I think we've definitely had dogs that have improved, but it has been -- and I think this is something I would want the listeners to remember, is that it's a process. So it's it's really something I think of as a three-step process. When we're looking at the end of this season would be the time to start thinking about adapting your dogs or preparing your dogs for fireworks next year. Exposing them to mild sounds over time and pairing those sounds with good things.
And then the actual event. So right now we're in that stage of just get your dog ready for the upcoming event. And for that, I would say, this is the time to practice every night, every day, between now and the 4th of July to see what we can do to make your dog comfortable for that event. And then go with your dog to that space the night of the fourth, and spend time with your dog, doing the things that you've been practicing so that they're comfortable with that.
Annie
Or get the hell out of town or get the hell out of town. [laughs]
Cheryl
I actually, in a moment of panic, there was a night where I sent a note to our local training group to say, what am I going to do with my dog? And I was taking videos of him and somebody suggested renting a hotel room near the airport where there's a lot of sound protection.
Annie
Ah, okay.
Cheryl
So that's a cheat. And then obviously you've got all of these things in place. Don't be surprised if your dog has a moment of challenge where something happens that you didn't anticipate. And then I would say the really vital thing is that you're on hand with something good to follow that. So that's where my dog is right now, is that in the event he gets exposed to something a little bit stressful, I'm ready there with food to follow that stressful experience with good things.
So I think most of my clients for the duration of the dog's life have some level of management dogs that have had experiences with noise phobia with fireworks, always have in my experience, a certain level of management. In my experience, they never get to the place where there is no response, but where you see a much more subtle response. So instead of bolting out of the room and hiding under a bed, they might look at you and come closer.
And so I have seen the progress from a dog that couldn't stay in the room, or couldn't really function to a dog that had tools to resume more normal behaviors going over near their person and getting some comforting activity at that time. That's the level that I've seen it change too.
Annie
Right, right. Great. Well, is there anything that we haven't hit on that you think is worth mentioning here?
Cheryl
I can't think of anything else that we've missed. Can you?
Annie
No. I feel like we've gotten to all the major points here. I guess the bad news for people listening is that it might be too late to start.
Cheryl
Yeah. But it's not too late to call your vet.
Annie
That's true. Not too late to call the vet. And it's also not too late to go to YouTube. Find some recordings of fireworks. If you have like a new dog, for example, play them at a low volume while you're giving your dog a meal. See how your dog does?
Cheryl
That made me think of one more thing. For people with puppies and people with newly adopted dogs who don't know if their dog has anxiety related to fireworks, rather than finding out the hard way, I would recommend that they implement this protocol of going to that safe room and creating that safe room now. Because if a puppy is exposed to fireworks during its fear period, it's more likely to have a higher reaction to those fireworks throughout its life. So this is not the time to find that out.
Annie
Good point, good point. It’s a good reason to have like a, I call it like a sticky spot or like a mat where you've done a lot of sort of relaxation protocol type work, or having a crate that your dog is very comfortable being in. And also to focus on training that's fun for your dog and easy for your dog as opposed to approaching training as like these are things that we must learn.
I love like trick training and that kind of thing, because I think it could be so fun for both humans and dogs and kind of a way to give your dog a bit of a hobby so that they're not just like a stress mess, and something that you can work on during those during those moments of high anxiety. Like, I don't know, like doing a crossword puzzle at the doctor's office, rather than doing your taxes or, or something that's more required but difficult.
All right. Well, Cheryl, thank you so much. And, if anyone listening wants to find you, what's the best way to get in touch or to follow you?
Cheryl
My address is giffydog.com, but I am spelled with a G. So it's G as in George, I F F Y dog dot com.
Annie
I guess that's like your last name, huh?
Cheryl
It's part of my last name. And Annie, I want to thank you so much for having me here. I think this is an incredibly important topic, and I think this is a great time for people to start establishing that safe space for their dogs. Now.
Annie
Well, I guess one last question, that's just something I like to ask people who have become trainers, who weren't trainers, for whom it might not have been their first career, which it sounds like it wasn't for you. What would you suggest to someone who's interested in maybe becoming a professional dog trainer as like a first step?
Cheryl
I am really passionate about positive reinforcement training. And I personally think that anybody interested in exploring training should start by observing positive reinforcement trainers, people who are using rewards for the dog, doing what they want versus corrections. And following them, talking to them, and obviously enrolling in a program. I personally would recommend Karen Pryor Academy as the first place that I would direct a person who's interested in working with positive reinforcement training to go.
But there are so many great resources out there online with Kiko pup and different locations where people have access to great positive reinforcement training. If they're trying to understand what that looks like as well,
Annie
What was your entree into that world?
Cheryl
Oh my gosh. That's such a good question. My onboarding was a dog who was terrified of people, and it took me three years to get her to get a treat, and one local trainer who wasn't positive reinforcement. She was a balanced trainer, offered me--
Annie
You have to explain what balanced is for people.
Cheryl
Oh thank you. She was a balanced trainer, which basically means you're using a combination of positive reinforcement and corrections. And so when a dog didn't do something she wanted, she would say uh-uh and she might give a tug on the leash. So she was a balanced trainer. She used a combination of both, and she asked me to assist her with classes. And so that's how I found my way into the training world. But really my interest was fearful dogs and how can we help them adapt and feel more comfortable with us?
And so, as I worked with her, I found myself more and more drawn to this other community of people and their dogs. And I developed Giffy Dog as a direct response to this particular dog that eventually became a therapy dog with four handlers, but it took me a very long time and I wanted to be able to share that information with others.
Annie
Wow, that's so interesting. Well, Cheryl, thank you so much. I would love to have you on sometime in the future, and I appreciate you taking the time. But I really I think it's, there's some good information here, so thanks a lot.
Cheryl
Well, thank you so much, Annie. And I would love to come back any time. So thank you for having me. I think this is really important work you're doing.
Annie
Just a quick addendum to this conversation. Afterwards, Cheryl emailed me to say, I've also been thinking more about your question of what the prognosis for these dogs looks like. And, generally I find that being able to function is satisfactory for most people. What I don't know is whether people quit working with their dogs at that point. With Owen, he has shifted from being unable to function, to being able to make choices, to come to me when something startles him, which essentially becomes a start button for our bathroom, relaxation and medication protocols. I hope that makes sense.
And then she says, I tend to share this wonderful blog post about noise phobia by Karolina Westlund, which I'm really psyched that she shared with me because it is substantial, very informative. I will put a link to it in the show notes. You should absolutely check it out.
[outro and music]
