Usually about this time, every newspaper and magazine runs the typical "July 4th and Your Pet" column about fireworks freaking out pet dogs. If you have a pet dog, take heed, but for most of the readers of this blog, your working dog is not immune.
If you have a police dog, don’t forget to protect him from the July 4th celebration too. Many police dogs are gunfire aggressive, rather than neutral, and as such the constant boom of fireworks can agitate him to the point where he rips apart the chain link of the kennel run, and decides to run TO the action giving your neighbors a big surprise when "Draco" comes haulig ass around the gas grill looking for the perpetrator. Or if you decided to keep him inside, he finally learns how to to bust out of a vari-kennel while you aren’t home, and the result wil be the ever loving destruction of the new couch your wife just bought for the downstairs rumpus room.
Suggestions:
1. Do Keep your dog inside….make sure you crate him in the quietest area of the house, where it is nice and cool. Downstairs in the laundry room, or basement.
2. Turn on the TV or Radio to something he will like (all dogs hate Slipknot, so somethig a bit more soothing) and loud enough to block out the noise from neighborhood celebrations.
3. Give him a cow femur to chew on, so if he does get a bit agitated he will have something on which to take his frustration out.
4. Enjoy your 4th of July. but if you are like most of my friends, your partner will be right behind you barking in your ear, because you are not getting July 4th off from work!
On a serious note:
Here is some Text from the Declaration of Independence that we would do well to recall this weekend. Many of our ancestors died for the principle that government serves the people, and that government is only a referee ensuring individual rights to live our lives as we so choose, without interference from the same. That it is not the role of government to "fix" all social ills, as if they ever have or ever could "fix" anything. It is the drive, inginuity, and intelligence of the American people acting in their self-interest who have driven all the innovation and wealth creation of this country. Beware of the charlatans promising you something for nothing. Whether it is an internet scam promising you something for nothing, or your government promising you "free" this and "free" that, it is all a scam nonetheless…….believe it at the peril of your wallet, and worse yet at the peril of your personal and individual rights & liberty ….
As Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…."
When your government tells you, they will "allow" you to do this or that, the government is overreaching its authority, and be not afraid to say it is so…..Happy Independence Day!