4th

Hey dogs! This is a modified Mama's Monday - it's Pooka's Saturday instead!

We hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July - we didn't have too much fun because our people kept leaving us at home and going to see fireworks displays. But it wasn't all bad.

Speaking of fireworks, we know a lot of you pups are scared of big booming noises in the sky. That's not one of our phobias. Nanook doesn't like people blowing raspberries on his tummy, and I, Pooka, hate trains - but we don't mind thunder and fireworks at all. I USED to be when I was a baby newf though, but my people and Nanook got me over it and we're here to tell you our secret.

We think for this to work it's important for the entire pack to be involved, not just one member of it, so if you've got a family everyone needs to join in. Here's what we did: during the biggest, baddest thunderstorm of the summer, we all went outside and played lots, and lots, of fun games. We chased balls, we played tag, we played hide and go seek and chase the rope and who's got your tail. It was awesome. I started off becoming distracted by the noise, hiding, barking - but when I realized that no one else was stopping the game, and that I was missing out by being scared - I decided that maybe the noise was not so important after all. After all, everyone else was totally ignoring the noise.

Now we don't think this would work with an adult dog, and it's important that you don't endanger anyone so don't play if there are lightning strikes nearby, but if you've got a puppy and you want to make sure that he or she doesn't grow up hiding under the nearest bed during storms, give it a try. Make thunder a POSITIVE thing however you can. Maybe feed a really special treat during bad thunder, (although be sure you're not rewarding barking or fearful behavior with the treat - give it to the dog before the thunder starts to distract them, or use it to reward calm behavior). Whatever you do, don't encourage fearful responses by reacting to them in a placating manner - the worst thing you can do is pet your dog and say, "it's okay, it's okay, poor thing..." or pick them up etc - this is reinforcing their fear, and not helping it. Ignore the thunder, and reward your dog when he or she ignores the thunder and is relaxed.

There are three main strategies for helping dogs over fears like these:

1. Ignore
2. Distract
3. Desensitize

I've already mentioned the first two. Desensitizing your dog means exposing the dog to small, quieter doses of the fear stimuli - like playing a recording of thunder when your dog is feeling calm.

In my case, the Mama says I must soon start going for visits to the train station where she will keep me through several train arrivals and leavings. She hopes that the distraction of being petted and admired will help me get over my fear of the train, and that repetition of the visit several times will also help. If necessary she'll take me to a distance at which I don't react and then gradually move me closer.

More on this later!