Its the time of year where the normally dull British skies get lit up by fireworks, and to help your pets deal with this better, you can now get relaxing films for them.

Diwali and Bonfire night mean that it is that time of year where the skies are filled with bright colours and the fog of gunpowder fills the air. For many, this is a beautiful time of year, for celebration and a chance to ‘awww’ at all the gorgeous fireworks.

For some, especially cats and dogs, this can be a very distressing time. In fact, research has shown that 82% of Britain’s cats and dogs are distressed by fireworks – so imagine how they must be feeling at this time of year.

For most cats and dogs, their hearing is incredible, making it a lot more sensitive than our own. If we think fireworks are loud imagine how our furry counterparts hear it. Rescue animals can especially be distressed by loud noises due to their difficult past which, they may now associate loud noises with extremely bad things.

Somebody came up with the idea of films for cats and dogs, with the hope that it will help them relax during loud times like bonfire night.

Oh, and they are narrated by David Tennant.

There are currently two films, cleverly named, ‘Woofering Heights’ and ‘Peer Window.’ They have been developed by MORE TH>N Pet Insurance, who worked closely with the professional animal behaviourist, Karen Wild, and vet, Robert White-Adams, throughout the whole movie making process.

Karen was the consultant on the project, she made sure that they movies would be effective in calming down animals and to ensure that the production stayed true to their research.

Peer Window is the movie aimed at cats, it is set entirely within a window frame to mirror the way cats stare out of windows at the world. The film shows a mix of inanimate and animate objects – all of which were recommended by the research. It includes looping scenes of trees swaying in the wind, rain droplets, rippling water and, of course, scenes of fish swimming around.

Woofering heights showcases slow moving scenery and still dogs, which shows the different brains dogs and cats have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD-2kYH3OG0

 

Both the film loop  few times as it has been proven that repetition and replay can have calming effects. All you have to do now is show your pets the films, which are aimed at them, a few times a day leading up to November 5th, or any other day when you know fireworks may be an issue. This will make them become familiar to the movie and, if all goes to plan, when the outbreak of fireworks begin, they won’t feel as distressed and you can be happy knowing that they are less anxious.

Some of the little kitty and doggy subjects have proven that the films have been successful. One dog who usually goes wild at the sound of fireworks actually fell asleep towards the end.