Fireworks and dogs

When you are outdoors with your dogs, how bothered are they by the sounds of the season?

I am finding our long daily walks to be less fun, and more like an ordeal for both of us the closer it gets to Halloween.
Might just have to limit him to short walks around the block for now.( He is a senior dog, and a toy breed...doesnt need much)

Percy reacts badly to all unexpected noise - car backfire, loud truck, etc.
He throws on the "brakes"..and refuses to walk. I cant "drag" him.. so I pick him up, carry him (Lucky for my back he weighs only six pounds)

Sometimes he will get "over" this but not always - winds up with more of a ride than a walk. This was not the idea of our outing.

I can understand loud noise up close, - its startling and scary - but anything that goes bang in the night even off in the distance affects him.

And there is a whole lot of that going of - screeching, banging and assorted other unusual noises to frighten him.

Is my dog just a scaredy-cat? I always tell people he is quite fearless.
Well, he used to be..
But then...so did I ;)

well, if if makes you feel any better, Tucker (my 7mth old pup) is scared to death of kittens. yes, itty bitty 3-4month old kittens. they're BOOGY-KITTENS, who might eat him.

my neighbor recently had a pair of kittens, while waiting for a new home, and they wandered on over to my house - well, Tucker was outside with me, and these little guys were the friendliest little kittens I've ever seen - they purred when you looked at them - they came right up to Tucker, and what did he do? RAN, crying, in the other direction (dragging me because he was on leash). from a kitten. rediculous.

Sights and sounds interest him, occassionally startle him, but so far, only the kittens have scared the **** out of him.

Gabby is a goofball. We actually took her to watch Seattle's 4th of July fireworks. She watched for a few seconds, then laid down and chewed on her tennis ball. Even the really large bangs that set off car alarms and shook windows didn't faze her.

However, if we're on a walk and a leaf blows by and startles her she goes crazy barking at it. She's even barked at bags of trash sitting on the sidewalk! She has even run into my legs a couple times running from these types of scary things! :rolleyes:

How old is the dog? IF its only a pup, it might be a fear period thing. If its a full grown animal, it might be an exposure thing. I once heard a trainer say that if the dog is afraid of noises, anticipate the noises and have really great treats ready, noise hits, treats gets droped in mouth, all the dog remembers is how good the awfull sound tasted.

My pup is going on 9 months and has just dicovered how to use his nose... Now, anything that smells funny/different in the house he growls at in a keep away from me manner. Sunday it was a bowl of salad on the counter with a new dressing on it. Charley wouldn't go near the counter until I put the bowl on the ground and ate some of the lettuce. Only then did he very slowly, very closely to the ground, come over to investigate. If I can show him that I, fearless leader in charge person, isn't afriad of, or hurt by, the offending smell, he gets over it too. In the case or mystery smells who's origines I can't find, we take out the treats, get as close to what ever he's afraid of as possible and treat as soon as he's not panicky any more.

Tucker doesn't like lawn mowers ride on or push ones, he was scared the other week when a friend of mine was sighting in his guns. The first big bang did it, actually it scared me too, I knew what he was doing but I couldn't see him as he was a distance away, the boom made me jump and my knees went weak. Tucker just wanted to get in the house, smart dog I guess he won't be going too far during hunting season and that is a good thing.