National Day fireworks: How to manage pets' anxiety over sudden, loud noises
Dogs may be spooked by loud noises caused by fireworks.
SINGAPORE – Fireworks displays are crowd favourites during National Day celebrations, but the loud bangs can be terrifying to pets.
The National Day Parade, which includes massive fireworks, will be held at the Padang on Aug 9, but the festivities will continue the next day in the heartland, including a mobile column, fighter jet flypasts , drone shows and, yes, more fireworks.
Pet owners need to take precaution as many dogs are sensitive to sudden, loud noises.
There had been incidents of dogs getting spooked and bolting from their leash due to panic, says Ms Chong Qi Ai, an animal behaviourist at Pet Coach Singapore.
Ms Chong, who holds a master's in animal behaviour and welfare from the University of Edinburgh , adds that while other animals like cats and guinea pigs can also be affected, cases of lost dogs or dogs getting injured due to fireworks displays are more common as they can occur during walks.
She shares some ways dog owners can manage their fur kids' fireworks anxiety.
1. Know where the fireworks will be
Fireworks will light up the sky at five sites – Bishan, Punggol, Yishun, Geylang and Bukit Gombak.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore Despite bag checks and warnings, young partygoers continue to vape in clubs in Singapore
Singapore Ong Beng Seng to plead guilty on Aug 4, more than 2 years after trip to Qatar with Iswaran
Singapore LTA, Singapore bus operators reviewing Malaysia's request to start services from JB at 4am
Singapore NDP 2025: Veteran Red Lion says each leap 'feels like 5km run'
Business Decoupling to save on tax? You may lose right to property if ties go awry
Singapore Lessons learnt from Singapore's love-hate relationship with e-scooters
Opinion At UN's Wipo, Singaporean Daren Tang strives to create an equal music for haves and have-nots
Asia Mass grave with over 100 skeletons in Sri Lanka brings up old wounds
If the locations are near your home, consider taking your dog to the home of a relative or friend in calmer areas. Stay inside and avoid taking your dog outdoors.
This approach is called management in dog training – by controlling your dog's environment, you help reduce its stress and lower the risk of panic and escape.
2. Desensitisation and counter-conditioning
While it is difficult to simulate the fireworks display at home, you can prepare your dog in advance.
Test its reaction to the sound of fireworks by playing it on a speaker at home. Start at a low volume and play the sound for a few seconds. Pair the sound with a treat, repeat and gradually increase the volume.
3. Consider short-term anti-anxiety medication
For dogs with severe noise sensitivity, consult your vet about short-term anti-anxiety medication. This is given some time before the stressful event and its effects typically last a few hours, providing relief during the fireworks display.
This form of management uses medication to keep your dog calm before a known trigger, similar to how vets often recommend it before vet visits or travel. Calming supplements may help for milder cases.
4. Create a calm, secure environment at home
Keep exit points such as doors and windows closed, draw the curtains and play music or white noise. This can help to muffle the offensive noise and also prevent your dog from escaping if he panics.
Make sure hazardous items such as fragile objects are out of reach, so your dog stays safe if it becomes frightened. Always allow your pet to retreat into an enclosed space it may feel safe in and stay with it to offer comfort.
You can offer your dog a treat or chew if it is calm enough to eat to help it feel better as well.
5. Avoid stressful procedures around this time
Avoid scheduling stressful procedures like neutering, surgery or dental cleanings. Changes in hormones during neutering can increase fear sensitivity and the added stress from any procedure may affect your dog's recovery and behaviour.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
July quake appears to have damaged Russian nuclear sub base, NY Times reports
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A powerful wave washes past a building located near the shore, after a powerful earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Russia on July 30. A nuclear submarine base in Russia's remote Far East region was damaged last week following one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit the area in decades, the New York Times reported on Aug 4, citing satellite images. Photos captured by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite imaging firm, show damage to a floating pier at the Rybachiy submarine base on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the newspaper reported. One section of the pier appears to have broken away from its anchor point. Aside from the damaged pier, the satellite imagery does not show any other major destruction. Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate response from Russia's defence ministry outside business hours to a Reuters request for comment. A very powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka coast on July 30 triggered tsunami warnings as far away as French Polynesia and Chile, and was followed by an eruption of the most active volcano on the peninsula. The Rybachiy nuclear submarine base, a strategic hub for Russia's Pacific Fleet, serves as a facility for the maintenance, deployment, and operations of the country's nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific region. REUTERS
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
1.5 million loans, 840,000 visitors and counting, NLB's mobile libraries keep reading accessible
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Over the past decade, the mobile library service has chalked up nearly 1.56 million book loans. SINGAPORE – Every other Saturday, Ms Hirma Sheeryn and her children like to take a walk – not to the mall, park or playground, but to visit Molly. The National Library Board's (NLB) mobile library, affectionately called 'Molly', has since 2022 become a regular sight in the 35-year-old homemaker's Punggol neighbourhood, where it stays for half a day. With four children in tow, Ms Sheeryn appreciates that it takes them just under five minutes to get to Molly, compared with a journey to her nearest library, Punggol Regional Library at One Punggol lifestyle hub, which is about five LRT stops away from her home. She and her two daughters, aged seven and nine, who are the more frequent visitors in the family to the mobile library, enjoy the variety of books among the 3,000 titles carried by the bright blue bus. The two girls have been more interested in reading since visiting Molly, she said. They are among 840,000 users who have visited Molly since it first hit the roads in 2008. The places include pre-schools, special education (Sped) schools and voluntary welfare organisations. Over the past decade, the mobile library service has chalked up nearly 1.56 million book loans. In 2024 alone, it lent more than 116,000 books. Ms Hirma Sheeryn's two daughters have been more interested in reading since visiting Molly. PHOTO: HIRMA SHEERYN It is among initiatives in Singapore to boost access to reading for underserved communities. Since Molly's inception, the fleet has grown to three vehicles – besides the bigger one, two smaller ones were launched in 2014, said Ms Tan Chui Peng, director of public libraries at NLB. Big Molly visits two locations daily, holds up to 15 adults or 25 children, with space for up to five wheelchairs, and carries 3,000 books. The mini Mollys were set up to bring the library experience to younger children aged six and below, and were built to navigate smaller roads near pre-schools. They operate on weekdays, and can each accommodate 12 to 15 children and two adults, with a collection of 1,500 books. Molly visits Sped schools and social service agencies monthly, and the mini Mollys visit pre-schools at least twice a year. Since April 2014, the mobile libraries have made at least 8,000 visits to various sites, said Ms Tan, with the most visited being Pathlight School, which has three campuses. They have also recently been visiting primary schools that have a high number of pupils who receive financial assistance, Ms Tan said, as well as nursing homes, which they hope to visit more. A 2025 study by the National Institute of Education (NIE) and NLB, which focused on low-income families living in rental flats, looked at the reading resources of 37 families. Over six months, it sought to find out whether children who visited a mobile library experienced reading enjoyment, frequency and proficiency. The households in the study had limited books at home and little exposure to reading in either English or mother tongue languages. Of the families surveyed, 43 per cent were found to have never visited public libraries at all owing to a lack of time, concerns about book damage and unfamiliarity with borrowing books. They were also unaware of the mobile library service's existence, or did not know they could borrow books from the bus. The National Library Board's mobile library service is among initiatives in Singapore to boost access to reading for underserved communities. ST PHOTO: HESTER TAN For families who did start visiting a mobile library regularly, the study found that the children became more excited about reading, showed improved vocabulary and print recognition, and made book-borrowing a part of their routine. Parents said they appreciated the convenience and less intimidating atmosphere compared with public libraries. Associate Professor Loh Chin Ee of NIE, the study's principal investigator, said that Molly brought books and library resources to neighbourhoods in a friendly and cosier setting, which can help to address the literacy gap in low-income communities. 'Molly has the potential to help families become more familiar with library resources,' said Prof Loh, adding that regular use over some time builds routine. Still, even with better physical access to books, psychological and social barriers – like potential costs or unfamiliarity with library systems – still deter some families. Simple outreach efforts, such as placing Molly's schedule in lift lobbies or sending WhatsApp reminders, could boost engagement, the study suggested.
Straits Times
20 hours ago
- Straits Times
80 years on, Korean survivors of World War II atomic bombs still suffer
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor Bae Kyung-mi posing in front of a traditional structure holding 1,172 wooden plaques bearing the names of deceased victims. Hapcheon, South Korea - Bae Kyung-mi was five years old when the Americans dropped 'Little Boy', the atomic bomb that flattened Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Like thousands of other ethnic Koreans working in the city at the time, her family kept the horror a secret. Many feared the stigma from doing menial work for colonial ruler Japan, and false rumours that radiation sickness was contagious. Ms Bae recalls hearing planes overhead while she was playing at her home in Hiroshima on that day. Within minutes, she was buried in rubble. 'I told my mom in Japanese, 'Mom! There are airplanes!'' Ms Bae, now 85, told AFP. She passed out shortly after. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Recap: Ong Beng Seng convicted, to be sentenced on Aug 15 Singapore Ong Beng Seng pleads guilty to abetting obstruction of justice in case linked to ex-minister Iswaran Singapore Electric car-sharing firm BlueSG to wind down current operations on Aug 8 Singapore Smooth traffic after Tanjong Katong South Road fully reopens following sinkhole incident Singapore ICA to roll out new group feature in electronic change of address service from Aug 15 Asia Nearly 1,500 Singapore drivers fined for entering Johor without VEP tag since July 1 Singapore The past and future of Choa Bungalow, a 'last reminder' of Marine Parade's former shoreline Multimedia How Singapore is rethinking nature in the city Her home collapsed on top of her, but the debris shielded her from the burns that killed tens of thousands of people – including her aunt and uncle. After the family moved back to Korea, they did not speak of their experience. 'I never told my husband that I was in Hiroshima and a victim of the bombing,' she said. 'Back then, people often said you had married the wrong person if he or she was an atomic bombing survivor.' Her two sons only learned she had been in Hiroshima when she registered at a special centre set up in 1996 in Hapcheon in South Korea for victims of the bombings, she said. Ms Bae said she feared her children would suffer from radiation-related illnesses that afflicted her, forcing her to have her ovaries and a breast removed because of the high cancer risk. A burning city She knew why she was getting sick, but did not tell her own family. 'We all hushed it up,' she said. Some 740,000 people were killed or injured in the twin bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 10 per cent of the victims were Korean, data suggests, the result of huge flows of people to Japan while it colonised the Korean peninsula. Survivors who stayed in Japan found they had to endure discrimination both as 'hibakusha', or atomic bomb survivors, and as Koreans. Many Koreans also had to choose between pro-Pyongyang and pro-Seoul groups in Japan, after the peninsula was left divided by the 1950-53 Korean War. Mr Kwon Joon-oh's mother and father both survived the attack on Hiroshima. The 76-year-old's parents, like others of their generation, could only work by taking on 'filthy and dangerous jobs' that the Japanese considered beneath them, he said. Korean victims were also denied an official memorial for decades, with a cenotaph for them put up in the Hiroshima Peace Park only in the late 1990s. Ms Kim Hwa-ja was four on Aug 6, 1945 and remembers being put on a makeshift horse-drawn trap as her family fled tried to flee Hiroshima after the bomb. Smoke filled the air and the city was burning, she said, recalling how she peeped out from under a blanket covering her, and her mother screaming at her not to look. Korean groups estimate that up to 50,000 Koreans may have been in the city that day, including tens of thousands working as forced labourers at military sites. Stigma But records are sketchy. 'The city office was devastated so completely that it wasn't possible to track down clear records,' a Hiroshima official told AFP. Japan's colonial policy banned the use of Korean names, further complicating record-keeping. After the attacks, tens of thousands of Korean survivors moved back to their newly-independent country. But many have struggled with health issues and stigma ever since. 'In those days, there were unfounded rumours that radiation exposure could be contagious,' said Mr Jeong Soo-won, director of the country's Hapcheon Atomic Bomb Victim Center. Nationwide, there are believed to be some 1,600 South Korean survivors still alive, Jeong said – with 82 of them in residence at the center. Seoul enacted a special law in 2016 to help the survivors – including a monthly stipend of around US$72 (S$92) – but it provides no assistance to their offspring or extended families. 'There are many second- and third-generation descendants affected by the bombings and suffering from congenital illnesses,' said Mr Jeong. A provision to support them 'must be included' in future, he said. A Japanese hibakusha group won the Nobel Peace Prize last year in recognition of their efforts to show the world the horrors of nuclear war. But 80 years after the attacks, many survivors in both Japan and Korea say the world has not learned. 'Only talk' US President Donald Trump recently compared his strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 'Would he understand the tragedy of what the Hiroshima bombing has caused? Would he understand that of Nagasaki?' survivor Kim Gin-ho said. In Korea, the Hapcheon centre will hold a commemoration on Aug 6 – with survivors hoping that the 2025 event will attract more attention. From politicians, 'there has been only talk... but no interest', she said. AFP
