Fireworks Anxiety in Pets: Helping Dogs, Cats and Horses Cope

If your dog, cat or horse struggles with fireworks, the single most useful thing you can do is start now rather than on the night. Fireworks anxiety in pets responds far better to preparation — a familiar safe space, gradual sound work, an early conversation with your vet — than to anything you can improvise once the first rocket goes up. That is not a soft opinion. It is what the research repeatedly shows, and it is the part most owners miss.

Fireworks are loud, bright and completely unpredictable, and animals experience them differently from us. Redwings notes that horses hear at roughly ten to twenty decibels more sensitively than people do; dogs and cats hear well above our upper range. A bang that makes you flinch can be genuinely painful, and there is no warning and no pattern to learn from.

There is a second reason to act early this year. A government consultation on firework noise limits closes on 7 October 2026 — the first real opportunity in years for people who keep animals to be counted. More on that further down.

What fireworks anxiety in pets actually looks like

Animals do not all show fear the same way. The obvious ones — the pacing, panting dog, the horse circling its stable — are easy to spot. The quiet ones get missed, and an animal that goes still and silent is not necessarily calm.

Dogs

Dogs Trust lists panting, drooling, trembling, pacing, hiding, clinging, whining, barking, tail tucking, dilated pupils, loss of appetite and attempts to escape. Some dogs also lick their lips repeatedly or simply cannot settle. Others shut down completely and lie very still, which is often mistaken for coping.

The scale is significant. In a 2025 Savanta poll cited by the RSPCA, almost two-thirds of dog owners said fireworks had negatively affected their dog — which the RSPCA puts at around 60% of UK dogs in distress. A large 2019 study published in PLOS One found that 52% of dogs showed at least some fear of fireworks, with almost a third scoring at the highest severity level.

Cats

Cats Protection describes hiding or becoming withdrawn, eating and drinking less, tense or fearful body language, pacing, circling and restlessness. You may also see startling at ordinary noises, fleeing, house soiling or over-grooming.

Cats often simply disappear during fireworks — absence itself is the sign. Let them choose where they hide, and never pull them out

Cats often simply disappear, so absence itself is the sign. Do not pull a cat out of a hiding place, and do not shut them into a single room — let them choose where they feel safest and move if they want to.

Horses, ponies and donkeys

Equines may become alert and unsettled, call out, sweat, pace or box-walk, fence-walk, refuse feed, or try to escape. Because the flight response is so strong, fear creates a real risk of injury to the animal and to anyone handling it.

The exposure is close to universal. Redwings surveyed more than 5,000 UK horse owners and found that over 90% said fireworks are let off close to where they keep their horse. The British Horse Society cites a 2020 Blue Cross survey in which 69% of horse owners said they were concerned for their horse's welfare because of fireworks.

Over 90% of UK horse owners say fireworks are let off close to where they keep their horse

Donkeys need a specific mention. We keep three donkeys and a horse on our smallholding in mid-Wales, and the thing that catches guardians out is that donkeys mask distress and pain far more effectively than horses do. A donkey that has knocked itself in the night may show almost nothing the next morning. Check them properly, physically, in daylight — not from the gate.

The evidence says preparation beats reaction

The 2019 PLOS One study is worth knowing about because it answers the question owners actually have: does any of this work?

Dogs that had been given gradual noise-desensitisation work as puppies scored a median of 1 on the study's firework fear scale — minimal impact. Dogs with no such training scored a median of 4. Preventative training started in adulthood, before fear had developed, also helped, with a median of 2. Owners rated counter-conditioning (pairing noise with high-value food) and relaxation training as the most effective approaches, each working in more than two-thirds of cases.

The study also found that firework fear is not inevitable and not permanent. Among affected dogs, roughly 39% improved or greatly improved over time, 33% stayed the same and 28% worsened. In the researchers' words, firework fears do not have to be a one-way road. Yet only 45% of owners had sought advice from anyone.

The British Small Animal Veterinary Association advises owners to speak to their vet several months before fireworks are expected, precisely because behavioural programmes need runway and because nothing should be trialled for the first time on 5 November. It also notes that repeated exposure does not reliably desensitise animals — a significant proportion become more sensitised instead. Waiting it out is not a strategy.

If you do one thing this fortnight, do these:

• Book a vet appointment now if last year was bad, so there is time to try something and adjust it.
• Start sound work quietly — recorded firework noise at a level your animal barely notices, paired with something they love, building up gradually. Dogs Trust also publishes a free Soft Sounds for Dogs playlist for masking on the night.
• Check identification — microchip details for dogs and cats, collar tags, and up-to-date equine passport and yard records.
• Check the physical things — fencing, gates, stable fittings, window catches and the cat flap. Frightened animals get out through gaps that were fine yesterday.
• Find out what is planned locally — event listings, neighbourhood groups, and a word with neighbours and the yard. In RSPCA impact surveys gathering over 14,000 responses between 2021 and 2024, 93% of respondents had no prior warning of the fireworks that affected them.
• Plug in pheromone diffusers early — Cats Protection recommends starting a couple of weeks before the season, in the room your cat actually uses.

Setting up a safe space your animal chooses

A safe space is not somewhere you shut an animal away. It is a familiar, comfortable option they can take themselves, and it only works if it has been available and pleasant for weeks beforehand. Building a den on 4 November builds a strange new box.

A safe space only works if it is already familiar — set it up weeks before the first bangs, not on the night

For dogs, a quiet room or a covered den with bedding, water, favourite toys and something that smells of you — an unwashed jumper or blanket works better than anything you can buy. Close the curtains and, as Dogs Trust suggests, turn the lights on: a lit room reduces the contrast of flashes outside.

For cats, choose a room they already like rather than one you have decided is suitable. Offer covered options — a cardboard box, a bed with a blanket over it — and high ones, because some cats settle better with a vantage point. Food, water and a litter tray in the same space, curtains closed, cat flap blocked and windows secure. Also block off tight gaps where a panicking cat could get stuck.

For rabbits, guinea pigs and other small pets, bring hutches indoors or into a shed or garage for the season, add extra bedding to burrow into, drape blankets over enclosures to muffle the noise, and keep companions together.

For horses, ponies and donkeys, the honest answer is that there is no single right call. The British Horse Society states plainly that there is no evidence either way on whether stabling is safer than turnout — it depends on the individual animal and on how secure the field is. What is not optional: clear combustible material from the yard, check fire equipment, go over stable fittings for anything a frightened animal could catch itself on, secure gates and fencing, and agree in advance with your yard who is checking, when, and how.

What to do on the night

Keep the evening as ordinary as you can. Most animals take reassurance from your presence, but none of them should be made to play, eat, come out of hiding or accept being handled.

• Walk dogs in daylight and be home before dark on likely evenings. Supervise garden trips closely.
• Bring cats in before dusk and let them hide wherever they choose.
• Mask the noise with music, radio or television at a normal volume — not loud enough to be its own stressor.
• Stay with your animals if you can. Never leave one outside, tied up, or in a vehicle.
• Never punish or scold fear-based behaviour, including house soiling. It is not disobedience, and telling an animal off makes the next occasion worse.
• For equines, follow the plan you made. Check them safely and do not put yourself between a frightened horse and where it wants to go.
• The next morning, check every animal properly for injuries, and check fields, troughs, paddocks and gardens for firework debris before turnout.

Thinking about going somewhere quieter?

For some owners, a few days away from the busiest areas is a reasonable part of the plan. Rural locations, small villages and low-density areas do tend to be quieter than towns and city neighbourhoods — but no destination can promise a firework-free weekend, and any host who does is guessing.

I should declare an interest. Alongside Guudpet, my family lets Graig Fawr, a stone barn on our forty-acre smallholding in the Cambrian Mountains, and dogs come with their owners. It is genuinely quiet out here. It is also, like everywhere else, at the mercy of whatever a neighbouring farm decides to set off.

So ask any host the practical questions before you book:

• Are there organised displays, pubs, village events or neighbouring properties likely to use fireworks nearby?
• How far is the property from main roads, event venues and built-up areas?
• Is there a secure garden or enclosed area for dogs?
• Can you keep your animal comfortably indoors — curtains, a quiet room, somewhere to hide?
• Are there livestock or horses nearby who will also be affected, and will you be asked to manage your dog around them?
• What is the cancellation or rebooking policy if a local event is announced after you book?

Take the things that make home feel like home: their usual bed, blankets, familiar food and bowls, any medication your vet has prescribed, and one favourite toy. Arrive before dusk so dogs and cats have daylight hours to settle into an unfamiliar space. A quieter location supports a plan. It does not replace one.

The law is under review, and you have until 7 October

Most owners do not know what the current rules actually are, which makes it hard to argue for better ones.

• Fireworks may generally be used between 7am and 11pm, extended to midnight on 5 November and to 1am on New Year's Eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year.
• Consumer fireworks can currently be as loud as 120 decibels.
• You must be 18 to buy category F2 and F3 fireworks, and it is an offence to set off any firework, including sparklers, in a street or public place.
• Government guidance says fireworks must not be set off close to livestock or horses — but no enforceable distance is defined, a gap Redwings has specifically flagged.

On 16 July 2026 the Department for Business and Trade opened a twelve-week consultation on fireworks and pyrotechnics, closing on Wednesday 7 October 2026. Among the proposals: reducing the maximum noise level for consumer fireworks from 120 decibels to 110, 100 or 90, and moving the loudest F2 and F3 products onto the banned list for general sale so only professionals can use them. The RSPCA is campaigning for the 90-decibel limit, sales through licensed retailers only, and designated firework-free zones.

If you keep animals, this is the window, and it closes a month before Bonfire Night. Redwings' advice to respondents is worth following: be specific rather than general. A sentence like "my mare turned circles in her stable during the display, then stood sweating and shaking" carries far more weight with officials reading thousands of submissions than "fireworks upset horses". Mention the knock-on effects too — vet bills, cancelled plans, distressed family members. Keep it short and concrete.

You can respond through the fireworks and pyrotechnics consultation on GOV.UK before 7 October 2026.

What to write down, so next year is not a guess

The most useful thing most owners can do this season takes about ten minutes, on 6 November, while it is still fresh.

Write down which nights were bad and roughly what time. What your animal actually did, in plain words. Whether the covered den got used or ignored. Whether the diffuser was plugged in, and for how long beforehand. What the sound work had reached by then. What your vet suggested, and whether it seemed to help. Any injury, however minor.

Do that and next September you are working from a record instead of a vague sense that she wasn't great last year. That difference is the whole game, because it tells you what to repeat and what to change — and it is exactly the information a vet or a behaviourist will ask for.

This is the kind of thing Guudpet is built for: a care record you build and own yourself, from the day an animal comes home, held against each animal by name alongside vaccinations, worming, farrier visits, weight and vet appointments. Behavioural notes are welfare records too, and they are the ones most likely to be lost between one November and the next. You can see how it works at guudpet.co.uk.

When to call your vet

Contact your vet the same day if an animal injures itself, tries to escape, refuses food for an extended period, has difficulty breathing, or becomes distressed in a way that does not settle once the noise stops.

Book a non-urgent appointment — ideally now, not in November — if fear is severe, getting worse year on year, or spreading to other noises such as thunder, gunshots or traffic. That spread is a meaningful signal and worth acting on early.

Two things are worth asking directly. First, what licensed options exist for your specific animal, and how far in advance they need to be trialled. Second, the difference between genuinely reducing an animal's fear and simply sedating one who is still fully aware of everything happening around them — they are not the same thing, and it is a conversation better had in September than at five o'clock on the fifth of November. Your vet can also refer you to a suitably qualified behaviour professional.

Never give an animal medication prescribed for another animal or for a person.

A calmer season starts early

Fireworks season is one of the few welfare problems where the timing of your effort matters more than the amount of it. A safe space set up in September is familiar by November. A vet conversation now leaves room to try something and adjust it. A note written the morning after is worth more than an hour of trying to remember next autumn.

Your animal does not need to get over it. They need you to notice, plan ahead, and write it down.

*Paul Stenning • Founder, Guudpet*

*Guudpet provides intelligent care guidance and does not replace professional veterinary care. For specific advice about your animal, always consult a qualified veterinarian.*