Fear of Fireworks

What the dog surveys found

An online survey of 1,225 dog owners found 52 percent of the dogs at least partially affected by firework fears. Most affected dogs developed the fear in their first year of life, with new cases becoming less frequent up to about seven years of age and few appearing after that.

Recovery is usually quick and occasionally is not. Almost three quarters of fearful dogs had recovered by the next morning after exposure. Recovery took up to a day in 10 percent, up to a week in 12 percent, and several weeks or months in more than 3 percent.

Modelling with multiple predictors left only age, breed group, health problems and an interaction between health problems and age as significant. Mixed breeds were the most affected group, which the authors note may reflect underlying differences rather than genetics, since mixed breeds are more often acquired from shelters and more often neutered. Firework fear correlates highly with fear of gunshots and thunder, slightly with fears of other noises, and not at all with other behaviour problems.

The early onset and the breed differences point at a genetic contribution. The same data show that training puppies or non-fearful adults to associate the noise with something good is highly effective at preventing the fear from developing later.

Which treatments actually worked

A second analysis of the same 1,225 respondents, published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior in 2020, separated four management strategies used during exposure:

• environmental modification: a hiding place, closed windows and blinds, and music
• feed and play: chews, food and games, both generally and in response to bangs
• alternative products: nutraceuticals, pheromones, herbal and homeopathic products, Bach flowers and essential oils
• interaction: body contact, petting and talking to the dog when a bang came

Of the four, only feed and play was statistically associated with an improvement.

The treatment figures are starker. Among owners using prescription medication, 202 of them, 69 percent reported improvement, with alprazolam at 91 percent and Sileo at 74 percent. Pressure vests were judged effective by 44 percent of 300 respondents. Pheromones, herbal products, nutraceuticals, essential oils, homeopathic remedies and Bach flowers, each with between 183 and 316 users, all reported success in the range of 27 to 35 percent, which the authors note is no higher than a placebo effect would produce.

Why cats habituate less than dogs

A Dutch survey gathered reports on 3,009 dogs and 622 cats, in a country where firework regulation has been heavily debated. It found the exposure is not a single night: 64 percent of owners heard firework noise from September onwards.

Suboptimal early life factors, such as not being habituated to noise as a young animal, came with a higher prevalence of firework fear in dogs but not in cats, and habituating kittens turned out to be rare, practised with only 4 percent of them. Owners sought advice for 54 percent of affected dogs and 23 percent of affected cats. For both species, lasting effects from intervention were uncommon, with under 30 percent of the most frequently applied interventions reported to have a lasting mitigating effect.

Affected animals freeze, hide and flee, and also stop eating, eliminate indoors and withdraw socially.

Why the human fear has no name

There is no established clinical term for a fear of fireworks in people. The nearest is phonophobia, also called ligyrophobia or sonophobia and occasionally acousticophobia, which covers fear of or aversion to specific sounds and is treated both as a specific phobia and as a form of auditory hypersensitivity.

The definition explicitly excludes the ordinary case. Loud sounds and sounds that signal threats are feared by most people, and that does not count as phonophobia unless the fear and anxiety are disproportionate. The sounds involved are often soft and harmless instead, such as kitchen noises or a door closing. Watching somebody inflate a balloon past its capacity is the standard example, because the distress comes from anticipating the bang rather than from hearing it.

That last mechanism is the one fireworks use, and it is also why avoidance is counterproductive: staying away from contexts where a feared sound might occur risks making the auditory system more sensitive.