There's a very specific look a dog gives you the moment the first firework goes off. Somewhere between betrayal and full existential crisis, as if to say: you knew about this, you let me get comfortable, and you said nothing. If your dog spends every fifth of November attempting to fold themselves into a shape smaller than physically possible behind the sofa, congratulations, you're the proud owner of a very normal, very dramatic dog. Fireworks are one of the most common triggers for anxiety in dogs in the UK, and Bonfire Night — plus the several increasingly lawless weeks either side of it, because apparently one night of explosions was never going to be enough — is the worst of it.
We're not vets, and we're certainly not going to pretend a spray bottle fixes what is, for some dogs, a genuinely distressing welfare issue. But we do know a fair bit about what's actually in a good calming product, why hemp and valerian keep coming up in that conversation, and what's worth trying before, during and after the sky starts doing its worst. Consider this the sensible, mildly unhinged guide we wish someone had handed us years ago, ideally with a strong drink.
How to Tell Your Dog Is Actually Anxious (Not Just Being a Lot)
Some dogs are constitutionally dramatic and would stage a full collapse if you so much as looked at them wrong over breakfast. Genuine firework anxiety looks a bit different, and a bit more Oscar-worthy: trembling or shaking, pacing that will not stop, panting or lip-smacking when it definitely isn't hot, hiding, trying to make a break for the border, barking or whining like the house is under siege, and a level of clinginess that turns them into a very large, very anxious ankle accessory. Some dogs also lose all house-training for the evening, which is Bonfire Night's own special little parting gift.
If that's a fair description of your dog every November, it's worth taking seriously rather than laughing it off — however tempting the ankle-accessory bit is to find funny at 2am, when you can no longer feel your foot.
Where Hemp and Valerian Actually Come Into This
Valerian: The Herbal One With Actual Receipts
Valerian root has been quietly calming people down for centuries, and dogs have finally been let in on the secret. There's a reasonably sensible explanation for why it seems to work rather than just vibes: it's thought to increase levels of GABA in the brain, a neurotransmitter that essentially tells the nerve signals responsible for stimulating activity to sit down and behave. Less stimulating activity, in theory, means a calmer dog. It's the same mechanism behind a lot of human sleep aids, which explains a great deal about why your dog occasionally seems to need a lie-down and a firm word with itself, much like you after a group chat gets too lively.
In fairness to the science, there isn't a mountain of dog-specific clinical research on valerian, and dosing guidance is largely borrowed from human use and a lot of very confident anecdotes. What we do know is that vets working in integrative and behavioural medicine commonly recommend it for noise phobias, travel and separation anxiety, which is a fairly strong vote of confidence even without a stack of peer-reviewed trials to wave about.
Hemp: The One Everyone's Heard Of and Half Understands
Hemp gets thrown around a lot in the calming-product world, not always accurately, and usually by someone who's never actually explained what it does beyond "it's very trendy." The theory is that compounds in hemp interact with your dog's endocannabinoid system, a network with a genuine job of regulating mood, stress response and general how-wound-up-am-I-right-now levels. Done properly, the aim isn't sedation. A well-formulated hemp product shouldn't knock your dog out cold; it should leave them recognisably themselves, just considerably less inclined to renovate the skirting boards out of pure panic.
The honest caveat, because we'd rather be useful than salesy: results vary hugely between individual dogs, quality varies hugely between products, and nothing in a spray bottle should be mistaken for a substitute for proper veterinary input if your dog's anxiety is severe, worsening, or genuinely affecting their quality of life. Think of hemp and valerian as taking the edge off, not performing an exorcism.
Where Our Hemp & Valerian Spray Fits In
This is exactly the gap our UNBOTHERED Hemp & Valerian Calming Spray was built for — the fireworks, the suitcase materialising ominously by the door, the four hours alone while you're stuck at your nephew's christening pretending to enjoy small talk. A light mist on the coat or bedding, ideally before things kick off rather than mid-meltdown, and it works alongside everything else you're already doing, not instead of it. It is not, to be clear, a substitute for you simply not going to the christening, though we understand the temptation.
The Rest of the Bonfire Night Survival Kit
A calming spray does more heavy lifting when it isn't working alone. A few things that genuinely help, none of which involve you also having a nervous breakdown:
Build the Den Early
A covered crate, a blocked-off corner, or just their favourite spot with the curtains drawn and a radio on loud enough to blur the bangs (talk radio works nicely; the earnest droning is oddly soothing). Set it up hours before, not the moment the first rocket goes off, so it smells like a familiar bolt-hole rather than a last-minute panic room you've thrown together in a hurry.
Walk Them Early, Not at Dusk
Get the main exercise done well before fireworks typically start, so nobody's stuck mid-walk when the sky suddenly opens fire. A tired dog copes better than a wired one, generally speaking, much like the rest of us.
Resist the Urge to Either Panic or Ignore Them
You don't need to pretend nothing's happening, but you also don't need to fuss so hard they learn that fireworks reliably summon a full emotional performance from you as well. Calm, boring, business-as-usual reassurance — the tone you'd use for something mildly annoying rather than the end of days — tends to land best.
Update the Tags, Just in Case
More dogs go missing around Bonfire Night than almost any other time of year, spooked dogs being spooked dogs with apparently excellent cardio. Double-check collar tags and microchip details are current, ideally before the fifth, not after an increasingly tearful search of the local park at midnight.
And if your dog is on edge for reasons that have nothing to do with fireworks — staring at empty corners, growling at the hallway, greeting visitors who aren't there — you may simply have a ghost hunter on your hands. I've written about why dogs are the best ghost hunters ever, starring my own German Shepherd, Sadie.
What About Travel and Everyday Alone Time?
Fireworks are the headline event, but the same underlying wobble shows up in quieter forms — the dog who starts pacing the second you so much as glance at your keys, or the one who dissolves into a puddle of nerves the moment a suitcase appears, as though you've announced you're leaving forever rather than popping to Cornwall for four days. If holiday season stresses your dog out more than it stresses you out, our packing guide for dog owners covers the practical side of travelling with an anxious dog, and a spritz of UNBOTHERED before the car journey or the crate doesn't hurt either.
More broadly, calming support is just one small piece of the wider wellness picture — routine, exercise, and genuinely knowing your dog's triggers matter more than any single product ever will, which we go into properly in why dog wellness actually matters.
The Bottom Line
Your dog treating a firework like a home invasion isn't a personality flaw, and it isn't something you have to grit your teeth through every single November until the end of time. A bit of preparation, a decent den, and a hemp and valerian spray formulated to take the edge off rather than knock them out flat can make a genuinely dramatic night considerably less dramatic, for both of you. And if things are more serious than a spray and a good den can manage, your vet is always a better next move than another increasingly unhinged Google search at 11pm on the fourth of November.
