Hellish time for dogs

Radioscope: Audioscope, RTÉ 1, Wednesday Even in the sleepy suburb where I live, these past few weekends have been noisy ones and next weekend it will sound like a war zone. It's firework time - and every year Hallowe'en seems to start earlier and earlier.

The almost nightly explosion of noise can make life particularly difficult for the blind or visually impaired. The subject was dealt with in Audioscope, and presenter Bethan Collins and her panel left listeners in no doubt of the seriousness of the problem and, in particular, its effect on guide dogs.

For one guide dog owner, the problem started in September with fireworks going off day and night. Charlie, the highly trained and valuable dog, became so distressed he raced around the house hiding under the bed, clawing at the carpet. The owner administered Bach Rescue Remedy which worked for a short while but the noise and, more importantly, the unpredictability of the noise got so insistent as the weeks went on that a severely traumatised Charlie had to be retired.

Audioscope is a specialist niche programme for blind or visually impaired people which must originally have been scheduled to fulfil RTÉ's public service remit but the accessible way in which it approaches its subject and, in particular, the presenter's good humoured interaction with her panel, broadens its appeal to the general listener.

Simon Higgs from the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind explained why fireworks are such a problem for guide dogs. It's not just the noise level, it's the unpredictability of when the sounds occur. The dogs also become traumatised because they can't see where the sound comes from. It sounds like a hellish experience for the owner. For Paula, this time of the year has been "frightening and heartbreaking" in that she can't comfort her dog Jody. Next weekend to get him away from the noise, she'll be sending Jody off for the night of Hallowe'en down to Cork to be minded by Simon Higgs. It's a most unsatisfactory solution because while it reduces the trauma for the dog, it means Paula is without her essential means of getting around.

The panel asked the fundamental question that always crops up at this time of year - given that fireworks are illegal, why are there so many of them? Using them is hardly a covert activity, so why is the legislation not enforced? But, unfortunately, there was no police spokesperson on the panel to answer these questions.

Paula was adamant that she was not trying to be a killjoy. If fireworks were restricted in some way to Hallowe'en weekend, she could prepare her dog for it and the situation would be manageable. For Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, the problem has huge financial implications because training and maintaining a guide dog is expensive and, as Higgs said, retiring a guide dog has huge trauma and sadness for the owner.

At under 20 minutes long, this programme is one of the shortest on the schedule but every week Collins manages to take a subject and make it personally relevant to its community of listeners.

Anyone who heard this programme won't be able to listen to the thud thud of Hallowe'en fireworks without wondering if somewhere out there, a guide dog isn't being traumatised to within an inch of its life.