It was just after lunch on the 5th of July, and Kris Ericson’s voice was strained.

Since the previous night, Ericson, director of Missing Dogs Massachusetts, had fielded calls reporting 23 lost dogs. That was on the heels of the 40 that had come in since the weekend.

A terrier in Somerville.

A boxer in Barre.

A Shiba Inu in Brewster.

All missing. All for the same reason.

Fireworks.

The Fourth of July is always peak season for runaway dogs, who take off when startled by the loud explosions of fireworks. Still others flee at parades, spooked by the aural nightmare of musket fire and sirens and marching bands.

It is never a holiday for dogs, but Ericson said this year is worse. “I’ve never seen it this bad,’’ she said.

With the Fourth falling on a Wednesday, large fireworks displays started the previous weekend and continued through the week. “And that’s not counting the village idiots who buy a ton of fireworks in New Hampshire and decide they’re going to blow them up the entire month,’’ Ericson said. “People bring a dog to a cookout, someone lights off an M80, and the dog’s gone.’’

The news is disheartening for the 100 volunteers who work with Missing Dogs Massachusetts, the largest organization in the state dedicated to finding lost dogs. They also service Rhode Island, and, along with their New England partners, Granite State Dog Recovery and Maine Lost Dog Recovery, they devote considerable effort to loss prevention, which means attempting to educate dog owners and adoption agencies about the things that cause dogs to run off. Fireworks are at the top of the list.

To find dogs, the group posts messages and photos on social media, targeting people in the area where a pet went missing, hoping someone will spot the dog and give the searchers a lead. They also put out traps and use remote cameras. They advise owners to put out a shirt or other item with a familiar scent and a bowl of food at the place the dog ran off.

Suzanne Davidson, who works for Lost Pet Tracking, a highly-praised Maine-based business that uses 10 trained canines to sniff out missing dogs all over the Northeast, is not soft in her criticism of some owners.

“The majority of phone calls are from owners who were grossly irresponsible,’’ Davidson said. “I feel for the people on the other end of the line. I got into this business because my own dog ran off – a black Lab, the classic, stable American dog that’s always supposed to come back. And most every phone call is from someone who says ‘my dog always comes back.’ Until they don’t. Until you take Fido to the barbecue, leave him off the leash, and then Uncle Ralph sets off all these explosions.’’

Davidson said she’s had calls from 30 frantic dog owners this week but has had to turn them away because of the heat wave because her search dogs can’t work when it’s so hot. “A canine’s primary tool is his nose, and he cannot use that tool effectively if he’s breathing out of his mouth and panting,’’ Davidson said.

In addition to grounding her fleet of tracking dogs, the heat is grounding the dogs that people are searching for.

“They’re going to stay still and park it somewhere and shut down,’’ Davidson said. “When dogs are separated from their people, they go into survival mode. It’s their number one priority, above finding their way home. They make a disconnect between them being a pet and them now being an animal out in the wilderness. They become somewhat their ancestral wild animal. And when it’s hot like this, they’re going to find shade and lay low.’’

Fireworks, like thunderstorms, can be traumatizing for dogs even when they’re kept inside. Ali Thompson, who works at Cape Ann Animal Aid, a shelter in Gloucester, said that if a dog appears jumpy or nervous in general, they will dress them in a ThunderShirt, a product meant to squeeze and soothe the dog, and put them in cages with a low roof, so they don’t hurt themselves trying to jump out. One year, during the city’s fireworks show, she said a dog that appeared calm broke several of its teeth trying to bite its way out of a cage.

Fireworks phobia is not a canine exclusive. The Fourth of July is also peak season for runaway cats, according to Danielle Robertson, who operates Lost Pet Research and Recovery in Granby. Ninety percent of her business is lost cats — she uses a trained cat-detection dog to locate missing felines — and said people often underestimate a cat’s reaction to loud explosions.

“There’s a reason that shelters get huge intake numbers this time of year,’’ she said. “Cats hate the Fourth, too.’’

Billy Baker can be reached at billybaker@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @billy_baker.