fireworks! Oh joy

[Fluffy_Flock]

So happy 4th all my usa friends! Anything I can do to help my sheep be a bit calmer for the fireworks tomorrow night? My neighbors tend to go all out and we tested the waters tonight with a Roman candle (no sound really just colors and light) and they were not happy. They were in the corral running as a group back and forth freaking out for a minute after it all stopped. I can't imagine what they are going to do tomorrow with the exploding ones.

 

[Baymule]

My neighbors blow up the neighborhood , they have 4 boys, and dad is the pyro fireworks guy. My Sheep could care less. Out of 5 dogs, 3 are terrified, 2 huddle in the house, 1 stays in her doghouse.

 

[Mini Horses]

I've one neighbor who generally has a 20-30 min personal display. Not terrible. No dogs here now. The goats & horses don't seem to care.

Most of the "company & town" affairs have been cancelled....from what I've heard. I don't expect much here....except the neighbor.

 

[CntryBoy777]

If they are skittish, I would keep them closed in for the night to give them the best feeling of security and less likely to scatter in a larger area with chances to breakout.... ....our german shepherd will be in the window barking and ready to tear apart anyone that comes in the house....the cat will be in one of her hiding spots.

 

[Ridgetop]

Our old Weimaraner used to get super excited! He thought it was a field trial and kept trying to find the dead birds to retrieve! It was o disappointing for him that I had to lock him in the house.

Usually our LGDs are ok with the gunshots and lately M80 being set off after the protests. However, last night there were so many fireworks going off all over the valley it sounded like we were under bombardment by enemy troops! We got home at dusk to watch and see if there would be any fireworks - WOW! We are all under quarantine here so everyone must have gone out and invested in illegal fireworks over the county line. They have not been legal in the city of Los Angeles for years. Every back yard was lit up and we had a good view from our mountain top. The LGDs were very upset but not afraid, just ultra watchful and protective. Never seen the behavior on 4th July before but then never so many fireworks before either. Sheep didn't care but the fireworks were not next door, just very noisy.

 

[Fluffy_Flock]

So what ended up happening is I knew there wouldn't be anything I could do to make them less scared so I spent some time and effort reinforcing anything that could even potentially be an escape point from the corral. We had one weak point that joined to the neighbors unfenced field that I just hadn't gotten around to yet so took care of it and I'm glad I did. They mostly huddled faces together for the night but my one wild girl got the brilliant idea to bash the fence. It was quite the show and I'm just glad the pasture didn't catch fire since its been so dry. More than the sheep my LGD was a total wreck. I gave her a large meat bone and she wouldn't even look at it. She got spooked the next day as my neighbors went out back to shoot too. Poor pup but everyone made it out just fine. ❤

 

[Ridgetop]

Our LGDs were upset too. They knew something different was happening and couldn't figure out what they needed to do to protect us and the livestock against. We put them in the house with a couple pig ears, and then when everyone was sitting to watch the fireworks we let them out and left the door open. They came out and laid next to us which seemed to calm them since everyone was sitting quietly.