Your dog was fine last year. This year the first bang put them under the table, panting, pacing and refusing food.
Fear of loud noise commonly shows up for the first time during adolescence. You did not cause it by handling one bad night badly.
Before it starts tonight
Build a safe space in the quietest room, away from windows. A covered crate with the door left open, or a bed under a table.
Close the curtains and shutters, and turn the lights on so the flashes are less visible.
Mask the sound. Steady noise from a radio, a fan or a film at ordinary volume blunts the edge of a bang.
Walk and feed your dog before dark, and check the garden gate and the front door are secure.
Stay in with your dog if you can. Your ordinary presence is worth more than anything you could buy today.
During it
Let your dog choose where to be. If that is behind the sofa, behind the sofa is the right place.
Comfort them if they come to you. You cannot make fear worse by stroking a frightened dog.
Never punish fear, and never tell your dog off for pacing, panting or hiding. Punishment-based approaches are associated with fear, avoidance and defensive aggression.
Never take your dog outside to see the fireworks, and never shut them in with the sound to get used to it.
Offer food, a chew or a lick mat, and accept that a frightened dog may take none of it.
A dog who cannot eat is above the threshold at which learning is possible. Nothing you try to teach tonight will land, so stop trying.
The weeks after, and who does what
Noise fear is worked on gradually, with recorded sound at a volume your dog barely notices, kept below the level at which they react.
We will not print a sound protocol we cannot supervise. A veterinarian or a qualified behaviour professional runs it with graded recordings, a written plan, and medication where that is appropriate.
Book that conversation in the quiet part of the year rather than the week before the next display. Behaviour change is built from management plus reinforcement, and both need time.
What you can do this month
Make the safe space a permanent, pleasant place your dog uses on ordinary days. Feed meals in it.
Practise settling on a mat in short sets in a quiet house, so calm is a behaviour your dog already knows.
Keep a written record of what frightened your dog and how long recovery took. A professional will ask you for it.
Check the collar tag and the microchip details, because frightened dogs bolt.
Safety note
Get help now if your dog panics. That means freezing, trembling for hours, bolting, breaking out of a crate or a room, injuring themselves, or refusing food and water. Severe or panic-level noise fear needs a veterinarian and a qualified behaviour professional. Ask your veterinarian about medication as part of the plan. Fear that appeared suddenly also warrants a veterinary examination, because pain often presents as a change in behaviour.
Tonight's version, in one line: curtains closed, radio on, safe space open, and nobody asking your dog to be brave.