Actually, last night I have been washing until really late because, anyway it was so loud outside!

Two of my three cats live outside during the Summer (the third cat is blind) with the exception of 1st August, when they spend the night indoors and they know why.

As far as making noise is concerned, Switzerland is Switzerland and on Sunday you don't mow lawns or outside work in the garden. I know in London the day was reserved for that sort of work, but in Switzerland forget it. All the shops are closed (except for the tourist places like Interlaken) and although this year 1st August falls on Sunday, you do not get Monday off to compensate. Yes we love to work in Switzerland.

I love the sound of a good thunderstorm and we've been having some nice good loud ones. But I do know that some pets are scared by them bless their hearts. My cat so far doesn't seem bothered by them.

The grey parrot we belong to says something very similar (and also does a loud snore/pause/whistle/ routine) around bedtime. Thankfully she took it in her stride this year. I think it is important that they are not alone on days like August. I have known breeders with outdoor aviares who lost parrots with all the fireworks on 1 August in previous years. I doh ope yours is well.

So quite! Too quite...

CK

Hope your parrot is okay. Stress for parrots can have disastrous consequences, our avian vet told me. One of our dogs is deaf so she heard nothing. Our eldest dog seemed to settle down, but it's the middle one who is the most nervous and was really miserable. The parrot is still sleeping.....probably catching up on lost sleep hours.

We were VERY fortunate in that the fireworks were few and far between and ended around 22:30 last night soooo we were all able to have a good nights rest

Our new boy wasn't shaking-terrified but he certainly didn't like it much. We gave him a dose of Rescue Remedy late pm/early eve but then he spent a lot of the evening hiding on the turn of the stairs (in the middle of the house furthest from outside) with a very wary look on his face - took him a couple of hours to venture into the lounge. So, first dog we've had who is at all bothered but could have been far worse

Poor Dizzy (9 month old JRT) cowered in the bathroom for most of the night for his first August 1. We managed to calm him down a bit with toys and snacks. He didn't have a great time of it on Saturday either, with lots of fireworks being let off early.

He seems OK this morning.

Next year we'll spend the night in France.

Lots of noise throughout the whole week starting from tests last week already and they only died after 23h00 yesterday. I think many people are resentful that there is no public holiday today, hence late fireworks manifested this protest We just put the shutters down and wore ear plugs...

Interestingly there was an article about that in 20 Minuten last week - I think there is beginning to be a bit of a groundswell of opinion in favour of replacing lost weekend bank holidays, especially since government and post office workers are getting today off. This year (no public holidays on a weekday here between Easter Monday 2010 and Good Friday 2011) is throwing it into sharp focus

Fireworks started Friday evening, ran all through the weekend to a stupendous crescendo Sunday night, in spite of the rain - and a few stragglers are still going on today.

Result:

The little deaf guy was pretty much oblivious (thank heavens for small mercies), the quivering velcro-hound is still attached to my side and cannot be pried loose, and Hooligan is finally flat-out asleep, having bounced off the walls for 48 hours straight.

Not our worst 1 August by any means, but still not a pleasant weekend.

Hope everyone's pets are doing OK, now that it's (mostly) over.

Poor doggies, our cats spent the whole night under the coach in the hallway, the one farther form the windows from any direction

I thought the rain would put an end to the noise but no such luck. I still heard some today which was incredibly annoying.

I'm gonna start looking now for somewhere in Germany next year.

Dizzy's still as freaked out as he was yesterday, even though there hasn't been any more fireworks noise, and is hiding in cupboards, in room corners behind chairs, and in the bathroom. He refuses completely to go outdoors. Swiss National Day seems to have turned my happy, outgoing puppy into a nervous wreck.

Any suggestion how I can coax him back to normality?

I don't think it will last. It still smelled bad outside this morning to me and maybe he's aware of that. Try cooking something on the stove that he will find interesting (sausages, beef). If you have a car, and he likes that, take him for a drive. Poor little guy. I hope he's back on track tomorrow.

I could only be pissed off for 3 hours (21.00 - 24.00) just watching all the taxes I paid were turned into some lousy fireworks above the Castle in view of my apartment.
Happy birthday CH !!

Whatever you do, do not give him any verbal or physical reassurance at the moment. He is now still in a nervous state of mind and any soothing actions is a reward for that current state.

Act normally. Try coaxing him to play his favourite games at home, and do some basic obedience training with highly prized treats. It will be difficult for a dog to continue being frightened when he is playing his favourite game of fetch, or when there is a delicious piece of bacon in front of him.

You might want to, sometime down the road work on desensithising him to the noise of fireworks. This can be done playing the sound of fireworks whilst he is enjoying every day life and activities - especially after a long walk when he is in a tired but calm state of mind.

Start by playing it at a low volume - so low that you can hardly hear it. The dog will though, as their sense of hearing is so much keener than humans - but they should show no signs of fear at such low volume, then gradually increase the volume over the next course of weeks and even months. The dog will hardly notice the change in volume and eventually, he will be used to hearing it at full force.

It works well with distraction activities at the same time.

The sound of birds chirping used to drive my dog mad. He will bark, get extremely wound up and pant anxiously. I am talking about barks that sound like someone's torturing him. But I've tried this method and we are slowly seeing progress. His body language will still go into full alert mode whenever he hears birds chirping, but all it takes now, is an "AACK" to snap him out of it and proceed with distracting him with something else.

__________________
Remember when someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles to frown, BUT it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and b****-slap the mother-f***er upside the head.

BTW, I found out last night - a Swiss friend told me - that there are places in CH (villages and even towns) that celebrated the National Day on Saturday instead of Sunday, to allow people to be in good shape for going to work on Monday !!!!

Basel's fireworks were Saturday evening/night.