my hubby, our 3 month old english cocker spaniel puppy and I are going to be leaving the north of italy (in the car) and going to the south of italy for the month of August.

I'm concerned about some really extreme noise issues that I think might just freak our puppy out in a really bad way.


there are all kinds of festivals traditionally celebrated in the tiny southern towns. We are going to be staying in a house that's exactly next to where they set off FIREWORKS in numerous sets that open from early in the morning (like 7 or 8 am) and are randomly produced in spurts until the evening.

these things are LOUD. They sound like DYNAMITE going off with these huge explosions right next to the house (I mean about 20 feet away) and they soar into the sky with a fierce whistle, and burst into huge, noisy explosions again in the sky. There might be 10 or even 20 to a set.

it's loud enough to startle me right out of a deep sleep, and I'm a human adult who knows what fireworks are.

I am afraid that this noise is going to instill permanent fear in our tiny puppy, and I want to know what the best thing I can do to help him might be.


so should we pick him up and soothe him? Or will this just make him think that he should feel afraid of the noise?

should we sit next to him and pet him through it?

should we pretend like it's nothing and ignore it?

or should we celebrate and cry "yaaaay!" and clap our hands and pretend that we're having a party? (I'm not kidding - I read something once that made me think of this)


aren't all dogs afraid of fireworks? That would really not be good, since he is going to be around them so often.

and then there's this, too: there are also incredibly loud bands that range from guys walking around playing drums the whole entire day through the through the whole tiny town, and there is this 40 member marching band that passed right in front of us, right in front of our doors, window and balcony. It's like having all of these things IN your house.

oh, and it's really hot and there is no air conditioning, so all of the windows are wide open, which makes it feel like there's absolutely nothing standing between you and the noise.

I can't stop thinking about this!

what on earth am I supposed to do?

I would honestly suggest having someone watch your dog for you while you are on vacation. Especially if there is going to be endless noise. He's just a pup, he needs plenty of sleep.

If this were a shorter trip, I might agree, but we're going away for the whole month. Northern italy shuts down for all of August.

We are going to be staying in our very quiet beach house for most of the trip.

The fireworks that I'm talking about take place where my hubby's family lives (we have to go, and there's absolutely no one we can leave our puppy with while we're there), and will probably take place for a maximum total of 4 or 5 days, dispersed during different parts of our time there.

Aside from the bursts of fireworks (maybe a total of 20 minutes on those days, divided into smaller parts), and aside from the pretty church bells, it's the quietest and calmest place on earth.

The drums and the marching band are going to be active for probably 2 days total. The noise at those times will probably last for about 5 minutes at a time, maybe 5 times per day for the drummers and 2 or 3 times for the marching band.

Long, long naps are a religion there, so the whole afternoon is also totally silent.

He will have lots and lots and lots of time to rest, relax and sleep. My worry, though, is in those bursts of loud noises.

I'm sorry, that's the only advice that I have to offer. I try to keep my dog away from loud noises (other than the ones that she is creating :P).

There are tapes that you can purchase to help your dog get used to loud noises, sorry I don't know where you can buy them, but you can probably find them online. We got a thunder tape for our dog because he's terrified of thunder, he actually climbs into the bath tub to hide when it thunders. These tapes might help, I'm sure they have one with fireworks, start of with the volume low and then work your way up, it's to desensitize him to the noise. One bad thing, no matter how much you play the tapes, or how loud, the real thing is always louder, and a dogs sense of hearing is much better than ours.

Good luck, I hope you find a solution.

That's a good suggestion. I've never heard of anything like that, and I certainly wouldn't have come up with that on my own. I'll see what I can find online. If I can get him used to the noises first, maybe we can prevent a potential phobia from happening.

The fact is that we go there every single year, so it's important that we take care of this in the right way.