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FirstYorkie · 11-02-2005, 09:51 AM

I thought Joey was cute last night, but then I'm a bit biased!

Here in England Saturday will be Guy Fawkes Day, aka BonFire Night, aka a good excuse for fireworks! Poor little 5 month old Joey was TERRIFIED (shaking, cowering, etc) when the neighbors started celebrating early a couple of days ago. The trainer of our puppy class gave me some tips but told another Mom whose pup was barking to just ignore him, that it's too late to try desensitization. Last night, when the fireworks started again, instead of cowering, Joey was barking his head off. I actually thought this was progress.

When I'd hear a firework, I would try to reassure him that "it's okay" but he would start barking anyway. Figuring that I might be setting up "it's okay" to be a cue for barking, I decided to abandon that & just to cue the barking (since it seemed inevitable anyway).

So there we were, a firework would go off, Mom would go "Bark! Bark!" then Joey would bark. My teenage sons, deciding to see the proof that Mom had indeed totally lost it, came in and soon joined in the barking as did my husband.

Interestingly, Joey then stopped barking and was quiet the rest of the night!

I figure he was thinking one of these:
a) "these people are insane. I'm keeping a low profile because they can't be trusted" OR
b) "these people are terrible at barking and I don't want to hear that racket any more" OR
c) "Hallelujah! The BIG dogs are finally barking so we should all be safe now".

Which do you think?

11-02-2005, 09:51 AM	#1
FirstYorkie YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: American in London Posts: 1,739	Cute Story (at least I think so!) I thought Joey was cute last night, but then I'm a bit biased! Here in England Saturday will be Guy Fawkes Day, aka BonFire Night, aka a good excuse for fireworks! Poor little 5 month old Joey was TERRIFIED (shaking, cowering, etc) when the neighbors started celebrating early a couple of days ago. The trainer of our puppy class gave me some tips but told another Mom whose pup was barking to just ignore him, that it's too late to try desensitization. Last night, when the fireworks started again, instead of cowering, Joey was barking his head off. I actually thought this was progress. When I'd hear a firework, I would try to reassure him that "it's okay" but he would start barking anyway. Figuring that I might be setting up "it's okay" to be a cue for barking, I decided to abandon that & just to cue the barking (since it seemed inevitable anyway). So there we were, a firework would go off, Mom would go "Bark! Bark!" then Joey would bark. My teenage sons, deciding to see the proof that Mom had indeed totally lost it, came in and soon joined in the barking as did my husband. Interestingly, Joey then stopped barking and was quiet the rest of the night! I figure he was thinking one of these: a) "these people are insane. I'm keeping a low profile because they can't be trusted" OR b) "these people are terrible at barking and I don't want to hear that racket any more" OR c) "Hallelujah! The BIG dogs are finally barking so we should all be safe now". Which do you think?