BOOM! The end of 2025

I'm afraid of no horse!

A few days before new year's, we went back to the local 'forest', for a nice walk and to visit the local horse stables to let Tera meet the creatures that she eats. The meeting was without any problems. She briefly looked at them, and decided that the rest of the environment was more interesting. The horses were eating and a bit lower than us, which might have contributed.
The walk itself was really fun for both of us. She drooled a bit during the drive – a sign of nausea – but nothing worse.

Back to the garden center

We also went back to the garden center. It was very busy, so a great location for people watching. She was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people, but they were too interesting to get uncomfortable.

The last step in crate training

Since day one, I restricted her water intake in the evenings, to prevent her from having to wee as much at night. It was going so well that I decided to leave the water bowl in the crate all day and stop the restriction. I have not noticed any difference in her sleep, so I consider this a success. I think the fact that I feed her a raw diet greatly helps here, since she does not have to drink so much. She drinks during the day, but not very often.

Fireworks are kind of scary...

...but only when she is outside and it is dark.
On 30 December, on our first walk after sunset, I just gave her the 'break' command after a nice sit-stay at the door, and someone fired a rocket firework horizontally over the small pond across the street. The flash and explosion startled both of us. Tera wanted to dart back inside. This was Tera's first real encounter with fireworks...not good.
For the rest of the walk, she was shaken and uneasy. Even though I did my best to act calm, so was I. Not due to the fireworks, but about the possible repercussions of what happened; a possible fear of fireworks.
Inside, she did not care in the slightest about the fireworks that were starting to ramp up. That is the most important thing– inside is still considered safe.
The last walk of the day, she was reluctant to leave the crate when she knew we were going outside. She did not want to step out of the doorway to the outside, so I had to get her out with some lead pressure.
The rest of that walk, she wanted to hide in the brush, under cars or dart to my front door. She did a wee, luckily and her tail was not between her legs. She did not take treats. She was scared, but not terrified– I could work with this. She also tried to seek comfort against the wall of my house, and had great difficulty giving me a sit-stay before going back in. Even when she is scared, manners are manners. I also want her last memory of outside to be one of calm. It is just fireworks, nothing to be scared about. It took a neighbor walking past to snap her out of it– enough to give me a sit-stay for a second or two.

New Year's eve

On 31 December on our first walk she started tense, but since it was 6:30, we were pretty much the only ones outside and she relaxed quickly. During our day walks, she was also uncomfortable, but less so. She was playing with her Doodle girlfriend while fireworks went off. This slightly older pup, that barked at her a few weeks earlier, is now a playmate. This will end soon, since it is a smaller type of Doodle, so Tera will outgrow her very quickly.
After dark, the walks were as brief as possible, since Tera was not having fun at all again. I decided to give her some Cognitive Behavioural Therapy by putting her in the crate in my car and keeping the hatch open, so she was in the safety of the crate, but still to see, hear and smell everything. She lay down in the crate, often with her chin on the bottom. No whining or any signs of real fear. She was uncomfortable enough to not take treats, but my idea was that she felt a bit safer and slowly could get used to things. After a good half an hour I was getting cold, so it was time to go back inside. The upside to this was that I could pick her out of the crate and take her inside, avoiding the sit-stay-break. My car is pretty high, so jumping is out of the question for a while, and she did not want to leave it anyways.

Due to family circumstances, I was alone with Tera for new year's eve, and I decided to just to go bed at my regular time– I usually go to bed around 20:30, and staying awake until midnight for no real reason seemed silly. This would have the extra benefit of having to walk Tera for the last time of the day at 20:00– if I were to stay awake, I could not avoid going out around 22:00-23:00, not something I was looking forward to.

I woke up at 0:30 – the government decided to send an emergency message to all phones – and checked on Tera via the IP-camera. She was awake, but only seemed to listen to the noise, I did not see a hint of stress. Good girl! It was loud enough outside to gave me the the confidence that fireworks will not be an issue inside.

A slippery start to 2026

On our first walk of the year– at a well rested 6:30– it was slippery outside; something we both did not expect, so we both were in for a surprise. I kept my footing, while Tera struggled more. After some slight encouragement with lead pressure, she took some careful steps and got used to the slippery surface. When I gave her the okay to cross the road, she bolted, hit the end of the lead and lost her footing, resulting in her sliding a bit on her belly. I could not help but laugh. Like the morning before, no stress at all during the rest of the walk.
Later in the day the sidewalk was not slippery anymore, but Tera still stepped on it very carefully– only to realise it was fine and go on like normal.
I did have a new mission for Tera: do not be scared of loud noises outside in the dark. Since there was still some fireworks going off, I tried the car method again. I saw no clear improvement, but she was confronted with the sounds again.
Later I got an idea: I need to get bang snaps! I picked some up at the local garden center– another socialisation opportunity for Tera– and went to work. Inside, she did not care at all. I did notice that these things leave pebbles in the house, so I won't do that again.
During the daytime, the snaps did nothing to her– but at night, they were a bit more intimidating. Nothing major, but enough to get her to react. This is good news, since I can now use these to desensitise her with these. I also picked up some more powerful, but still super light fireworks– nothing compared to a weak firecracker. I will save those for another time, maybe next year.

Family

On 1 January, it was time to visit my mom again. My brother would also be there with his family, so it was a great way to see everyone. I knew Tera would not enjoy the ride, but this was one of those times that she had to adapt to me. She did get sick on both the ride there and back. She gets over it really quickly, so I did not feel too guilty.
For an 11 week old pup, she did fine with the family. We were in the Grand Cafe of the nursing home, so she did see other people as well. She was her bouncy self and wanted to be everywhere at once. She did not bark or whine too much. She sat on my lap for a few minutes as well so my mom could pet her a bit. Due to her energy she is a bit much for my mom, so I have to keep her in check.
After about 30-45 minutes, she got visibly tired, so I said my goodbyes and went back home.

How did new year's eve go with your dog? How did you handle any anxiety your pup had?