Introduction: Dogs and Fireworks - With Ulrike and Lizzie

A few years ago, during the midst of a particularly self indulgent and riotous session of firework frenzy, Ulrike came up with this brilliant idea for passivizing the dogs against the noise created. Ever resourceful and not one for tablets or injections, Ulli looked to her own household supplies for an answer to a problem that recurs every November the 5th in the UK.

Our dogs are mortally fearful of fireworks or anything else that makes a loud bang, like my old van for example. They lie in their beds shaking like the very end of the universe is just around the corner and need comforting with strokes and reassuring words like 'it'll be ok' or 'it's only a firework', none of which seems to help very much.

November the 5th. For some completely bazaar reason, every year, us Brits feel totally compelled to celebrate a failed plot by 15th century terrorists to blow up the houses of parliament and I never quite worked out what we were celebrating - was it 'discovering the plot' or the fact that somebody 'had a go'? I put it down to one of those famous British eccentricities and no doubt if the 'Gunpowder Plot' had been successful it would have been a different matter! (Think 9/11).

So how did Ulli stop the dogs being so fearful and calm their poor shaking bodies? What is the secret to Ulli's revolutionary remedy? Please proceed to the next step!

Step 1: The Answer Is Whiskey!

NO! NO! NO! I hear all you pet lovers shout - But I promise you that the whiskey is very carefully administered.

It's not that Lizzie knows how to undo the bottle or anything although, after Ulli went away for a few days, her house sitters blamed the poor dog for the loss of contents of one bottle of particularly good single malt.

Step 2: A Spoon Full of Medicine

Ulli first tried giving Lizzie whiskey in a spoon and, as you can see, she turned her nose away from it. Then, in a moment of supreme enlightenment she came up with the final piece in the puzzle - bread !

Step 3: The Recipe

  1. Weigh your dog.
  2. If for example your dog weighs 10kg, measure out 5ml of whiskey in a teaspoon.
  3. Carefully pour the whiskey onto a piece of bread.
  4. Next, apply a generous layer of butter over the bread.
  5. Now carefully feed the bread to your dog without getting your fingers bitten off.
  6. Lay your dog down in it's bed and read it a storey, preferably something with rabbits in it, and the dog should slowly doze off to sleep.
  7. Go outside and join in with the rocketry.

If your dog weighs 20kg, give it 10 ml of whiskey. If it weighs 1500 kg, give it the whole bottle!

The results are truly amazing. The dogs do wake up when the noise starts, but they just lie there, slightly sozzled, all their pains and problems swept aside in an alcoholic oblivion.

Be careful that your dog does not become physically or psychologically dependant on the whiskey or else, if it does learn to open the drinks cabinet, it could start to seriously deplete your strategic alcohol reserves !

Thank you for reading this Instructable. All comments are welcome. More dog and firework tips can be found here: CLICK HERE

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