Prepare Your Dog For Summer Festivities - Jun. 24, 2011

 Summer is officially here and with it comes backyard barbecues, trips to the beach and First of July firework shows. But it can also bring anxiety for our dogs.

Summer storms and celebratory fireworks are two main triggers of anxiety in dogs, according to a survey.

  One survey polled 1,201 North American dog owners on dog anxiety in general, and another polled 1,137 customers on anxiety and possible solutions.

 The surveys found that two of the most prominent forms of anxiety among dogs were noise and separation from their owners. Loud noises, such as thunder storms (86 per cent) and fireworks (74 per cent), were the most often cited form of noise anxiety.

Forty-one percent of the 1,201 dog owners polled said they had at least one dog that currently has or had an anxiety issue. Of the 1,960 dogs owned by those polled, almost 30 had some form of anxiety or fear issue, according to the survey.

 Nearly 23 million dogs suffer or have suffered from some sort of anxiety. The company also calculated that dog anxiety issues have impacted 18.6 million households.

Still, 71 per cent of the dog owners polled did not feel that it was necessary to address the issue, 29 per cent did not feel like there was a viable solution and 13 per cent felt solutions were too expensive.

For those that did address their dog’s anxiety, survey results indicated that more traditional solutions, such as medication, training and avoiding certain circumstances, were the most popular.

Dog owners spend, on average, more than $1-billion annually addressing anxiety and fear problems, with more than $240 million going to property damage.