Dogs and irrational fears

Pit is riddled with silly fears that just won't get over, so I got to wondering what weird things your dogs are scared of, because my dog just can't be the only one that's like this!

Pit is absolutely terrified of my sneezes. If he sees me gearing up my sneeze-face, he books it as far away from me as possible in a scuttling frenzy and usually won't let me come near him for a few minutes afterwards.

Saga is scared of wooden/open stairs. We had been staying at a hotel that had them and while she was not pleased to go up them the first time, she did, only to walk into the glass door at the top. Now? NO WAY will she do them.

Hyia is scared of open stairs. Big sigh.

Mine don't like the pretty standard stuff: thunder and fireworks.

But, Chloe is scared of our unfinished (aka, not carpeted) basement stairs. She won't even go down them for a hunk of meat. LOL

Sadie, I think, had the weirdest fears. She was so confident in almost every situation, but she HATED the sounds of balloons being blown up, lighters being lit, and those silent noise-maker things (you blow in them and the little thing flips out). We always said she'd be terrified of a birthday party. LOL She also didn't like huge barn fans or the smell of pigs.

Lucy is so stereotypical. She is TERRIFIED of the mailman. I even asked him to throw cheese at her a few times when he came to the door, but she barks her head off like a monster and cowers when he get close.

Jackson is also scared of fireworks and really loud thunder. Lighter thunder doesn't seem to bother him. Oh and gun shots. We live by a huge farm so the farmers sons are often out shooting birds, deer, and targets and such... he wigs out! He will stay under my bed for hours as long as they are shooting. Oh and the fly swatter. NO idea why he's afraid of it... never have I nor anyone else ever tried to hit him with anything. But something about the fly swatter sends him a flyin'. Even if I use a shoe or a newspaper or something and smack the fly, he goes under my bed.

Some other fears that I wouldn't call "irrational" because they DO have a reason... the oven. My mom was cooking one time a few months back and opened the door up causing a lot of smoke, so it set off the smoke alarm which was super loud. He was a bit scared at first, finally calmed down, and then the stupid alarm went off AGAIN! So yeah now he stays VERY clear of the oven, at any house, not just my moms.

Morgan is scared of the ceiling fan at my in-laws' house. Well, scared might be too strong a word. More like he's wary of it.

Thing is, the one in our house doesn't seem to bother him at all. And it's not like the one at my in-laws' has ever jumped down and bit him or anything.

He can be spooked by random things here and there, of course, but the ceiling fan is the only consistent thing I can think of off the top of my head.

The last thing that weirded my dogs out was a taxidermy deer head. I can't say I blame them.

Tiffany is afraid of thunderstorms and the vacuum, but those fears seem to be pretty common. She's also afraid of the big garbage/recycling bins that you put outside to be picked up by the truck. I think she doesn't like the sound they make when people roll them along the driveway. She also is afraid of flags that are close to the ground. A neighbor has a flag hung outside their front door, and Tiffany runs away whenever the wind blows it. And then she's also afraid of certain toys that we have, especially a little remote control baby buggy, a bumble ball (one of those balls that plays music and bounces around), and a stuffed animal cat that makes a purring noise.

Tiffany has a lot of...um...interesting fears.

Fudge doesn't like snowmen. He spent ten minutes circling one and barking his stupid head off at it until I came and I got him and dragged him away because "OMG it's going to eat me!!!!"

If he even sees you start to make one he'll dig at it and send the snow flying everywhere when you go to get more.

I don't think the rest of them have any irrational fears. They have fears but they've usually got a good reason for them.

Well Tucker is scared of people, so that's a big one.

Other than that he seems to be very wary of lawn ornaments. Some people had a big blow up santa on their lawn in December and he barked at that, it moved with the wind a bit so he never realized it wasn't real. He's been wary of other ones but if I let him approach and figure out it's made of stone he gets over it (he'll check back over his shoulder a few times to make sure it's not a toy-story scenario though).

These two don't really have many odd fears. Zeus doesn't like thunder, but I think that's common. Voodoo is scared of woolly caterpillars, but that's about it.

My previous dog, Odin, hated plaid. No kidding. If you wore a plaid hat or shirt around him, he would freak out and start barking and growling like mad.

Missy is scared of fireworks, thunderstorms, sirens, etc - the standard stuff. She's shy/nervous with some new people at first, but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to that.

Jack doesn't even seem to notice fireworks/thunderstorms/etc, which I think helps Missy a lot - him being calm and not freaking out helps her not to freak out. However, he is scared of the drain things in the road. He will go out of his way to walk as far around them as possible.

Sam is terrified of our basement. I don't know why though he won't go down their for me, for toys, for meat- nothing!

He used to be terrified of water and woman too but he overcame that like a champ and now he loves everybody and swimming.

Besides that he's pretty ok though he used to be very wary of for-sale signs.

Maeve is afraid of Thunder, Fireworks, and random loud noises.

Watson is fearless...or likes to think that he is.

Chewy is afraid of wheelchairs and walkers, so, by extension, the very old and the disabled. Man is it embarrassing! Oh! She's also terrified of this wooden rollie armadillo thing. It's small but has a long handle that you push it around with, and it has these rubber flippers on its feet so it makes slapping noises when it moves. Utterly horrific. She'll bark and snarl and sprint away. And she used to be afraid of vacuum cleaners, but now we live in a house with no carpets, so...

Lola, as neurotic as she is, has pretty standard fears. Loud thunder and fireworks.

Dance is afraid of bags. Fabric bags, plastic bags, paper bags... any kind of bag! She's not as petrified as she used to be, but she's still very skittish and weird around them. I have no idea why. Oh, and her fear/weirdness with people I guess is another irrational fear.

Keira is terrified of the hose outside if it's on. She has no reason to be, but as soon as I turn it on she starts quivering and whining and pacing to escape. She's also afraid of vaccuums for no reason. I mean, I've never really had a dog that liked vaccuums, but none are/were afraid of it like she is.

Ripley isn't really afraid of any particular thing I don't think. He's going through some sort of fear stage now it seems, where he'll now balk at things that never bothered him before, but he recovers quickly. I guess if I had to pick one thing, he really does not like people yelling.

Evidently Kharma has a thing about stinkbugs :rofl1: http://www.chazhound.com/forums/t135752/

Tallulah doesn't quite know how to take toys that squeak.

Bimmer . . . I'm not really sure . . . oh, wait. Electric fences!

EDIT: I guess the electric fence fear is pretty rational though, lol.

:rofl1: Bailey does this too!!!!

Mia had a great reaction to one of those recently. It was kind of hilarious.

Mine aren't that weird right now. Nard is afraid of storms. Rose is afraid of doggy clothes... My shelties though... oh boy...

Nikki's big two were fart noises and bubblegum. Trey was pretty much afraid of everything.