Oh, the lovely warm shower is Satan's own instrument. The freezing cold hose, on the other hand, is quite well tolerated. Especially by Willow, who attacks the stream of water and gets the zoomies. When it's Shadow's turn to be washed, she stands by him and drinks the water as it runs off his tummy. She's similar with the hairdryer; she bites at the air. Shadow tucks his tail down and slopes off to hide somewhere.
Hoovers. Even brand spanking new one out of a box that didn't look like the previous one and still had the wrapping on. Very hard barking at that one! And scary sweet sellers in Inverary (older member may remember this one!)
When we first got Simba, he had a few "fears" - first one I noticed was strange vehicles like ride on mowers or little carts for doing landscaping that drove down the street. Hay bales in the field were absolutely Not To Be Approached, but the huge, clanking, moving oil pump Jack was a-ok. Black plastic bags filled with leaves on people's lawns were definitely scary. The worst was pretty much the first time I heard him bark at someone approaching our house (who, predictably, is my friend who is the most afraid of dogs). Couldn't figure out what the problem was....we thought maybe because she has dark skin and Simba's previous owner also had dark skin so maybe he had a bad association? It literally just dawned on me the other day that the more likely reason for his reaction was because she was wearing a fur coat and it was probably the first time he had seen an odd furry human walking towards him.... Thankfully he is over all these fears now...not a big fan of the vacuum, mind....
Balloons.....not when they pop ,no,problem with that,it's the bobbing ,unpredictable motion they make that seem to disturb him! If Poppy was a boy I can guess what lesson she would teach them! X
Brilliant little stories, such fun to read. I had bad news about Mabel's elbow dysplasia today so I'm going to start a new topic, reading these replies has made me howl with laughter. I don't want this topic to be anything but amusing. Labradors do the funniest craziest things and are the best in the world. Today Mabel saw her first maxi skirt gently wafting in the breeze. She wasn't frightened just thought hey what a great game see if I can catch the hem with my teeth. Thank goodness I pre-empted her little plan with cheese and managed to distract her just as she made a bee line for the lady.
I guess Maui is like Juno Rosemary ..... haven't found anything really bothersome yet either! She will bark at anyone coming into a room or at the door, but not like she's scared, just like 'oh yea ... what's happening?!'!! I think so anyway. And, she still not totally 'sure' of the pool yet. That's why we're doing that slowly, although she was quite excited with the other dogs in there the other day, ventured in a couple of times, but came right out. Also when I bathe her, she's not crazy about being in the tub. She doesn't cry or shake or anything, just tries to get out. I used to put Maggie in the walk in shower .... worked great. I thought that might be scary for Maui, but now I'm wondering if it's the tub that she doesn't like because when I had her in the bathroom with me the other day while I was taking a shower, she walked right in! She was exposed to a lot with her Breeder, so I'm attributing it to that.
The more you situations you can introduce her to the better. Juno has always been a very laid back, easy girl for which I am grateful every day, but she hasn't reacted to airbrakes on lorries, sirens on ambulance/fire engines, is not bothered about trains, doesn't blink at tractors and all the other noisy farm vehicles we get or the low flying air force planes we get numerous times a week. I'm sure there is something she will react to, just haven't found it yet . Hope Maui keeps on in the same way, she's doing really well at the moment
Ziva ..... Nothing that comes to mind but we still have low flying jets whizzing past house but due to weather in Scotland they flying high at present .
So far, the only thing Myles is a bit unsure of is the Staples "Easy Button". http://vid203.photobucket.com/album...trim.59D714E9-5765-4EFE-937D-ED4167814B80.mp4
I took Chepi for her first train ride today, as it came into the station she hid under my legs but then was fine. Otherwise, she will bark at women from other cultures who wear the big sheet-like-cover-you-all-over clothes (sorry I can't remember what they are called).
Do you have a photobucket or flicker account? I upload to photobucket and just paste the link in from there.
Oh god Maisie has a looooong list. We're sloooooowwwwly working on all of them and making some progress, particularly with loud noises while outside (she still looks a bit fearful but usually looks to me for a treat now while being scared, which is more of a response than she used to have - Anything that threatens to eat a crumb off the floor before she finds it, i.e. the vacuum, the broom, the Swiffer. - Anyone who appears when she is not expecting them. I'm not sure if she's scared so much as she finds it really rude to just appear out of nowhere and she has to let them know it by barking at them. This has happened when a man came out of a door she was looking at (omg! you weren't there 2 seconds ago!); people lying on the street that she all of a sudden notices and I suppose she thinks they oughtn't to be there; a person on a bicycle in the morning; a girl on the beach who was sitting on a log Maisie looked at and was like WTF where did you come from? If the person is willing, they often will make friends with Maisie and let her sniff them I really just think it's the person popping out of nowhere. - I woke up with a mucus-y throat the other day so was making very odd hacking noises to clear my throat. Maisie was appalled. - The CARRRRRRRR. I'm not sure if she was SCARED precisely but the other day there were two peacocks wandering on the opposite side of the street as us. Maisie barked at them repeatedly and was kind of straining to go over there. Again she wasn't acting super scared, more like startled and then kind of like "WHAT IS THAT! WHAT IS THAT! WHAT IS THAT!" but the peacocks were like "????"> i was pleased when they turned up another street. And then sometimes she sniffs the ground very hard and then acts scared. I have no idea what that is about but my mind always thinks "omg she's sniffing a cougar and there was a cougar around here! Ahhh!" even though I mean, we HAVE cougars around here, but we're always walking in fairly populated/residential areas, and I used to live in a place with even more cougars and I never saw one, so I don't know how valid that thought is. But again, what about the ground would be so smelly as to be scary? Maybe raccoons? Oh, and MOTORCYCLES. Honestly, I can't exactly blame her, as sometimes I jump when I hear one as there are SUPER loud ones in our neighbourhood! Things she is not scared of but should be: cats! She actually sniffed noses for a moment with a neighbour cat who came up to her before she did a play dance and the cat ran off.
Men and women in motorcycle helmets. Scary Scary Scary! No idea why, but remember on holiday, Lilly went nuts!
Really very sorry you've had bad news - I was waiting for you to post, but you didn't. I didn't want you to think that I'd over looked this. I know how horrible it is to hear such news. I hope that you are feeling better, and things look a bit brighter a few days in.
I'm just about to do it now, I needed a few days to think as I was in danger of turning into a rambling wreck.
