It’s that time of year: where across the country, American’s celebrate our independence day with parades, cookouts, fireworks, and general revelry! It’s a wonderful tradition, but for your companion animal, it might not be so much fun. Here are some tips for keeping your pets safe and happy during the celebrations this coming weekend:

• Parades are tons of fun to watch and participate in, but it might be a good idea to reconsider taking your dog along with you to enjoy it. Most dogs are not fans of large, compact crowds of people. Plus, there will be scary noises coming from the bands, firetrucks, etc as well as many children running wild who may not be as respectful as they usually are with dogs. The vast majority of dogs I have seen at parades are demonstrating nervous and overwhelmed behavior – help Fido keep calm and leave him safely inside at home instead of joining you at the parade.
• Fireworks are TERRIFYING for dogs. There are very few that don’t react to noise of the explosions and how can we blame them – they don’t know it’s pretty and not harmful to them. Definitely DO NOT bring your pup to go watch the fireworks and PLEASE keep your pets safely inside for the entirety of the weekend. The loud explosions of fireworks spook dogs, and many will run away due to fear. Shelters across the country have a huge influx of stray dogs during and after July 4^th because so many got out of the yard and ran. Keep Fido safely inside and don’t bring him along for fireworks watching.
• Cookouts are awesome, even for vegetarians like me. 🙂 My main caution for your pets is to make sure they are not getting into the human food and that you keep an eye on them in regards to the grill. It is all too common to see pups with severe burns due to trying to get at that burger on the hot coal grill! And so many human foods are harmful to pets, so it’s best to not chance it and keep Fido away from the picnic tables and ask guests to not put their plates on the ground (helps avoid ants, anyways!). Keep the food away from Fido and have a watchful eye on him with the grill.

The Fourth of July is a great American Holiday – enjoy the celebration, be safe, and Happy Independence Day!