OK a bit of an interesting situation this morning....as it is really chilly this morning and I am fighting off a cold bug so really feeling the cold today I asked the OH to light the gas fire. We have a "real fire" effect gas fire. As it is the first time it has been lit since the beginning of the year really (before Bailey arrived certainly) we had cleaned it all out in readiness but when it ignited it did flare and make a kind of woosh sound (which is normal to be fair). However, this startled Bailey, he actually jumped back, and he has been very clingy and will not sit anywhere other than right beside me - if I get up his nose is glued to the back of my leg. He just sat bolt upright half on my lap starting at the fire. He also kept whining. I realise that this has scared him, and the fire is now off - but any tips to get Bailey used to the fire? Really not sure if it was the noise (we will light it in future when he is not in the room) or the actual flames themselves. He would not go close to the fireplace at all and usually he is laying in front of it. He is also a really nosy dog and will investigate all new things without showing any signs of fear (drives me mad at times). Once the fire was off he went straight over to the fire guard and started sniffing it all over and the grate. This, as you may have gathered, is not his usual behaviour. All tips welcome
Had much the same thing two days ago with the feral cat who has been coming inside at night when the furnace roared on for the first time this fall. He was very frightened, his heart was racing and I thought he might be sick or pee or poop inside. In our house he has me, the dog and the other cats to look to, he stuck by one of us and in a few hours he was fine. He even went out and came back in which meant he had to walk right by the hot air vent on the floor. It was so funny, he stopped and peered down into it, and the furnace was on. So my suggestion is don't coddle, act normally, let him figure it out for himself. Seeing flames does add a lot of drama. Maybe since you are not feeling up to snuff you could just sit by it yourself, read a book, ignore the fire and the dog and let him come to his own conclusions.
I think it's a good idea to start it without him in the room and see if it's the start or just the fire being on. I can imagine a lit gas fire is quite smelly to a dog and possibly weird Once it's started I'd feed him his dinner as close as he's comfortable. Every meal. Then if you don't need the fire on switch it back off. Otherwise settle down as normal. If he seems to become more relaxed gradually bring his food closer
Thank you both, I will try this tomorrow - good point about the smell, I hadn't thought of that. It was quite comical the look on his face as he was watching the flames and he didn't really show any signs of distress i.e. no panting, heart rate felt normal, it was just the sitting on me, nose glued to the back of my leg if I moved around, had to be as close as possible. He is very protective with me and if a neighbours dog is barking he attaches himself to my side until the barking has stopped - bless him The OH thought it would be funny to leap out of a doorway at me the other day and it made me scream, Bailey then planted himself between us glaring at his beloved dad - OH was not allowed to touch me for a good half an hour
If he is generally not a nervous dog, and just seems a bit startled, I wouldn't worry about it too much. He'll get used to it. If he continues to seem scared, then you'll have to work out a programme to desensitise him to the fire - as good previous advice above. My two, who are really very robust dogs, will still sometimes jump at new things then they realise it's no big deal and that's that. I often jump at surprising or unexpected things, but that doesn't make me nervous, just normal.
Ah, well - that's not so funny, I think. I wouldn't take any kind of resource guarding - including of humans - lightly at all. If Bailey is preventing your OH touching you, then that's not to be dismissed as trivial. It's one thing for a dog to 'get in on the action' if humans hug etc (Charlie does this all the time, it's 3 ways hugs in our house ) but quite another for a dog to 'warn off' another person.
We are working on it - there was no growling just kept leaning and pushing the OH away, with a tail wag too - usually he is a complete daddy's boy - we have three way hugs all the time and three way smoochy dances - who said romance has died
This suggests to me that he wasn't really "proper scared", just very cautious and suspicious. I'd agree with others, light it while he's out of the room for a few days, don't make a big deal out of it, treat the fire as a normal thing, let him figure out that you are not scared of it, and my guess is he'll accept it quite quickly.
