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Long shot, as I know there are a few dog owners on here.
We have a greyhound, an inherently nervous breed, but ours is not as flighty as most.
But, he has developed a fear of our living room. The reason we think is that we have unit that creaks a bit when the heating comes on. He hears the creak and runs upstairs to hide.
Weirdly, there are similar creaks in other parts of the house that he's fine with.
We basically need to convince him that the creak is nothing to worry about and that the living room is a nice place to be.
Any ideas?
Food. Give him lots of nice treats, or a chew/bulls pizzle/something like that in the living room just before the heating comes on. Then when it comes on, he's a) distracted and b) begins to associate the noise with nice things
Let them be. If they feel safer in another room that's fine.
Dog's are just weird creatures over little sounds. Our Jack Russell runs off whenever I get a Facebook message (the ping must annoy him!). But lays comatose upside down when I'm making a right racket doing jobs around the house.
Our Jack Russell also sods off upstairs every night despite there being a lovely log-burner for him to curl up in front of. He just likes his space.
Pretend you're a dog and bark at the sofa so the dog knows you'll stand and fight with him when the ghosts materialize.
Our greyhound hides on the sofa whenever theres anything scary like the vacuum or fireworks! Have you had him long? We've had ours for 6 years and still find small things that freak her out even though she's not a shy dog.
We find it best just to let her go to another of her beds if shes not comfortable, which is usually when the 3 year old is being a bit loud & boisterous.
IHN has it, associate the noise with a positive experience. A companion strategy would be to record the noise on your phone and occasionally play it over a Bluetooth speaker. Start at a very low volume, low enough that he doesn't react. After a few days increase the volume very slightly. Keep going over days/weeks only progressing if he doesn't react, until it is as loud or louder than the real thing. This also works well to desensitise dogs to fireworks and other noises they react to.You can even find appropriate sound tracks on Spotify, though maybe not for creaking central heating!
Have you seen Ghosts?
Dogs are weird. My dog is scared of mornings, and I’ve no idea why. Hides away, shakes, generally scatty. Fine all other times, I’m putting it down to doggy dementia (she’s nearly 10).
They're funny things. Ours will happily lie next to me chewing a stick while I'm using a chainsaw, but is scared witless by bin liners. Anything involving peanut butter tends to improve these situations, if you've got a kong / lick toy or similar, give to him a few times in the living room and then after a while, when he's engrossed in it try and make the noises come on. Likewise, make it the place he gets any treats or similar, and where you have play time.
Have you seen Ghosts?
I was thinking the same lines. The creaking you hear is not the heating....
If you believe it a major issue or has the potential to becoming one, & want a behaviourist's help
Sandra Raw https://www.worcesterdogs.co.uk/ is a local specialist.
My partner runs a small dog training business and thoroughly recommends her
Our whippet is afraid of, of all things... her lead. You know, the thing we put on every time we leave the house to go walkies.
Going for a walk, without fail, goes like this:
put on shoes and grab coat*
whippet gets super mega excited about going for a walk
get lead
still excited
approach with lead
whippet puts tail between legs and cowers away
attach lead
whippet is instantly, once again, super mega excited about going for a walk
Sorry. I realise that's less than useless w.r.t. the opening post.
Dogs are weirdos.
* sometimes its flip flops and shades, but you get the idea
Food is pretty much always the answer.
Also, how you react can have a big influence too .
If you are hearing the noise and then getting on edge because you think the dog will be on edge, it's self-fulfilling often as it'll sense your edginess.
Our dog is pretty weird too. I'll often come in from cycling home from work with him, he has dinner then buggers off upstairs.
If I come up to have a shower or something he'll run back downstairs and stay there.
Then when I go back down he goes up again.
Hard not to take it personally. 😂
But at bed time after taking him out, he will hang about downstairs and won't go up until my partner is upstairs and until I go up there too.
Weirdo.
I'd agree to make it as normal as possible but subtley try to associate it with something positive...so you're not seen as reacting to it?
I say subtle but that's probably the hard part, our cocker picks up on things way before I'm remotely aware of what I've done.
Or what @thols2 said.
Dog’s are just weird creatures over little sounds. Our Jack Russell runs off whenever I get a Facebook message (the ping must annoy him!). But lays comatose upside down when I’m making a right racket doing jobs around the house.
So much this Lola will jump at the letter box. But I have to move her out the way when drilling into masonry as she will literally sit between my legs looking up at the dust falling into her face.
Lots of good advice in this thread, so I can't really say anything that isn't already said.
My dog doesn't seem to care about fireworks or the vacuum cleaner, so I'm thankfull for that.
I suspect it's partly due to positive reinforcement with treats as above, and if I'm playing war games on the PC, he's used to machine gun fire and tank blast sounds.
I have however, had to obscure the glass on the bottom part of my mirrored wardrobe, because he will quite happily start a fight with his own reflection, hahah.
That one took me a while to figure out, he'd be chiling on his own upstairs and all of a sudden I'd hear a lot of growling... I almost thought I had a haunted house for a while hahaha
So much this Lola will jump at the letter box.
Mine seems to just know somehow, if it's my friends he gets exited, but in a friendly way..but food deliveries etc. from strangers, he get's very territorial. He must be able to smell the difference, or the style of knock on the door.
My dog's scared of my telescopic ladders. Runs and hides if he sees them. Weird animals
IANADO, but just reading these responses to the OP makes me love the things all the more.
As you were.
My working cocker Barney loves to be vaccumed with the little brush on the end of the vacuum crevice tool/nozzle. Gets dead excited when the vacuum cleaner comes out. But he is scared of owls!
Mine will happily tolerate drilling, fireworks, the vacuum - you can vacuum right up to the edge of her bed and it's only when you lift the bed to vacuum under it that she'll move.
Turn on the cooker hood extractor in the kitchen, and she will run to the farthest room and absolutely cower and tremble.
Our house is full of steam, cooking smells and oily deposits, but the dog's happy. Priorities.
Our 4yo Cavapoo spent 5 minutes growling & barking at a pack of loo roll he saw through the cracked open bathroom door the other day.
Opened the door to show him what it was and he ran off and hid.....
Probably poltergeists or something... Saw a film about it once....
Gets dead excited when the vacuum cleaner comes out. But he is scared of owls!
Hey there,
My dog is scared of the Portishead fog horn. She goes nuts when she hears it and hides under my desk.
Funny enough no fog horn today, even though it is foggy.
BR
Jerry