opinion
My old wardrobe in my parents' house is a bunker again. The lower compartment cleared, its walls upholstered with thick ceilings. On New Year's Eve, my dog Juri will sit here with the first firecrack, trembling and with a wildly beating heart, first lick his lips nervously and then pant in panic. This condition will continue for hours after the last rocket howl.
For a week, Yuri will not dare leave the house to go for a walk. I will carry the 20 kg dog into the car to drive him into the forest. Only there does he relax enough to be able to pee quickly, then quickly back into the house and into the closet.
Of course I'm for a ban on fireworks. And I would like to believe that even the most euphoric firecrackers think similarly, if they could see for themselves what effect the riot on New Year's Eve has on many dogs, cats, birds, squirrels (but that will remain an unfulfilled wish).
As far as one can generalize that, prohibitions are a horror to me. Neither do I rate how childish it is to get such great pleasure from a loud bang, shrill howl and a few colored lights that you can not do without it. I too am sometimes overjoyed at silly things that other people cannot understand. But for me the fun of one ends exactly where it deprives the other of freedom (read a pros and cons on the topic of firecrackers).
Guaranteed bang-free, dog-compatible apartments? Booked out for years
Yuri has been living with me for four years. Since then I can no longer decide myself where to spend the turn of the year, but drive until the Epiphany into moderate Böllerexil to Franconia - measured by the madness of Berlin. There it only pops a few hours around midnight and not days before and even days later. After all, that's enough to traumatize my dog every year. Guaranteed bang-free, dog-compatible apartments are fully booked for years.
A New Year's Eve at my home in Berlin has become completely unthinkable - once, in the first year of acquaintance with my dog, I tried it, after all, Yuri was not afraid of police sirens and subway rumors. A child threw a firecracker in front of his paws during New Year's Eve on New Year's Eve, after which he did not dare to leave the house for two weeks.
Anja Rützel
Yuri, the author's dog
I had to carry the fidgeting, terrified animal to the door, where Juri even stood there in sheer panic. I was actually afraid that my empty dog would eventually burst. Only a dog trainer could help. Even after four years, Juri does not dare to go to the meadow where the child threw him the firecracker.
It is clear to me that Juri, with his extreme reactions, is one of the most sensitive dogs. But from conversations with many other dog owners, I know that he is not alone with his fears on New Year's Eve.
Every year I expand my New Year's preparation activities. I have already put on tight Thundershirts that are supposed to exert light, even pressure on the dog's body and so calm it down. I played special dog calming videos for hours, in which actor David Tennant talked to the trembling "goooood booooooys" to fireplace crackles and meditative chime sounds with a cuddling voice - it didn't help.
Already in the afternoon on Böllertag my parents started playing loud music to drown out the arsenals fired ahead of time. Juri gets rescue drops that help moderately days before. This year I am also trying hemp oil for the first time, the CBD content of which is not supposed to roar my dog, but should possibly relax.
With every portion of liver sausage I mix with it to cheer him up with the oil, I get a little angry that I have to do all this effort just because others want to have fun. I do not like to see that their fun is supposed to take precedence over my undisturbed walking pleasure with a dog.
With a dog, one occasionally experiences restrictions in the city, which I do not always understand, but accept: I do not lead him through forbidden parks, and of course I collect his poop piles. And that is why I think it is a good idea to use the designated free-running areas for dogs to determine limited areas of free firing where people can pop and who wants to pop. So that New Years Eve may not have to take place in the closet forever.