Fears

[corgimom]

deleted........

[Michael Romanos]

Linda - you re-introduce a very good topic. Often there is no human explanation for the things that Corgis are fearful of. These things might last a short while or be forever embedded in their minds. For over two years, Taylor was frightened of the plastic shopping bags used specifically to line the kitchen tidy (rubbish). He no longer is. He ran, hell bent for leather, away from a child's kite flying in a park. I had a previous Corgi who was scared of wheelie rubbish bins when left out in the street for emptying by the rubbish companies. I have had two Corgis who loved watching massive firework displays from close range. Taylor would be terrified of the same. When Cody rushes to you for comfort -give it to him and hope hat he will get over any misconceptions he may have in the future. Taylor met an elephant and some monkeys recently and he wanted to see all of them. Some Corgis would be real scared of a large elephant with a swinging trunk let alone chattering monkeys. Taylor doesn't mind any lawn mower but the for the one that cuts HIS grass. He also ignores vacuum cleaners and I can dry him with a noisy hair dryer but he is frightened of thunder and lightning.

[darci]

Darci isnt afraid of the vacuum but she thinks it's her job to protect me from it.
We were walking for our potty break last week in the rain and it started to hail, freaked both dogs out, they were done with potty and ran for the house.

I have a noise maker from football games, Yellow and looks like a hand Egan doesnt mind it but Darci will get in her crate.

[Corgis'R4me]

Originally Posted by corgimom

I have noticed that Cody has a couple of things he seems to be afraid of -

One was the other night, my husband was chipping golf balls in the back yard, and I was sitting on the step on the patio. Cody did not like the sound of the swing of the golf club and came running to hide behind me. I just reassured him that it was okay. He would run out to my husband when he called him, but then immediately turned around and ran back to me. We let him smell the golf club to show him it was nothing, but still didn't seem to work.

Tonight, my teenage son had some friends over and they were hitting wiffle balls in the back yard with the baseball bat. Cody was inside, but did not like the sound of that and jumped up on the back of the couch to be by me and put his head on my shoulder. It was obvious that he did not like it. Again, I didn't baby him, but just reassured him that it was okay.

We have had Thunder storms and he is fine with those, and he is not afraid of the vacuum cleaner or noises that he hears when we are out walking, so not sure what it is that he does not like about these two things.

Any thoughts on this?

Linda

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*~* Linda,
Tin Foil...or..Seran Rap !!! Midnight & Sunshine BOTH are scared of the ripping noise of those two things. I think that their ears are very sensitive and that particular noise freaks them out.

The vaccume cleaner gets ATTACKED by Sunshine !! Midnight just walks calmly into another room. I have to put Midnight & Sunshine outside whenever I vaccume...because Sunshine will seriously ATTACK the vaccume. She barks at it, jumps on it, snorts at it and seems very P.O.'d that it exists in her home ! (how dare it make that horrible noise !) ! :0 <---

*~* Nikki

[Jane Austen]

I was popping bubble wrap one day and knew Duchess didn't like it, but foolishly popped some more in the hope that she would get used to it. Instead she nearly bite me. I was astonished because she never did that before. She also does not like the sound of my brother cleaning out some needles he uses to refill ink cartridges. It is a noise I don't hear unless I am close by.
She is okay with thunder but doesn't like loud motorcycles (Choppers). She doesn't like the sound of my brother's sneeze but anyone else's is ignored. I have broken her from chasing loud trucks while walking the street.
There is also the fact that she doesn't pay attention to bicycles except if they are traveling fast.
I adopted her at seven so I accept that this all comes from her genes and her early life. She is the dearest dog I ever had, and perfect in so many ways.

[corgimom]

Nikki,

In regards to the vacuum, I have to laugh, because with my three cats,
2 of them will take off out of the room as soon as I bring it out, and the
other cat, will sit and stare at it - he is not afraid whatsoever. I can get
close to him while vacuuming and it doesn't phase him a bit.

It's interesting what these dogs can be afraid of.

Linda

[Jeni D]

Dudley is also afraid of plastic bags, but he also doesn't like plasic bottles or when anyone is carrying something overly large. He will run to the other side of the room and bark. He seems oblivious to vaccuums, lawn mowers, and other vehicles though...go figure

[Jhemphill]

Maximus really does not fear anything, but has a great dislike , maybe hatred is better for my husbands electric razor, every morning after he comes in from his outside time, he will run into the bathroom and stand by the sink looking intently up at my husband waiting for the razor to come on. When it does he jumps and barks at it and does not stop until it is turned off, he also runs and gets his rope to play fetch, it seems like the rope is a substitute for the razor which he can not chase or bite. He also hated the lawn mower, when it is taken out he will lunge and bark at it, it is not even running. When it is running we put him on the screened porch and he runs back and forth barking and growling at it until it is out of site. He used to attack the vacuum, but has gotten used to it, sometimes he will run at it bark and growl, we just tell him stop and he goes off and does his own thing. I guess he still feels the need to tell the vacuum that it had better what it self, because he is watching it and one false move and it will be done for. They are so funny in the way they interact with objects. Just gotta love them.

[milles2]

Interesting thread. Tucker is afraid of loud noises like fireworks and thunder. But that seems to be about it. He follows the vacuum around, herds me when I am using the pushmower on the lawn and tried to herd the riding mower. His Pem buddy scooter recently got backed over by his riding tractor; not hurt too badly. I have decided he will no longer be outside when I am on my tractor!

Then there's Lulu the Cardi! Tuck scared the bejesus out of her last night with a large, loud, sqeaky ball. She hightailed it out of the living room and refused to come back for almost an hour. This morning we were walking in the school yard, she spotted a woman walking, she planted her butt and barked her head off at this woman. Tucker is wagging his butt for all he's worth and pulling on the leash to go jump on her and smooch her. Of course, the woman stopped, oohed and ahh'd on how cute they were. I advised her to not pet them because they were soakeing wet and muddy from our walk and I just knew there would be no stopping Tucker then Lulu from jumping on her.

Normally when she sees something strange, she stops in place and barks her head off. She does this to strange dogs (the next time she sees them she is all over them wanting to play), objects (shovel, orange construction cones, garden slugs - yuck!). Tucker will run up to just about anything strange and taste it and sniff it.

Susan

[corgimom]

Cody is afraid of thunderstorms and fireworks; goes to hide behind the door in
the main floor bathroom. Vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers do not bother him.

The other night we were walking and these motorcycles went by and were so very loud and he got very scared and was "pulling me" to get home - he was not going to stop for anything.

He is very friendly towards everyone he meets on the streets, some dogs interest him more than others. He will stop and bark at strange objects in peoples yards, especially if it is dark out - like big garbage bags, or tarps covering up objects in someones yard.

linda

[disraeli]

Originally Posted by darci

Darci isnt afraid of the vacuum but she thinks it's her job to protect me from it.

Ha ha, totally true...Rhys tries to protect me from the big vacuum, the dustbuster, my broom (!), and the hair dryer.

Rhys's big fear is umbrellas. The first time he ever saw one was in puppy obedience - they brought one out to work on "coping skills"; it was the only thing he was afraid of. I've tried to sit umbrellas down in front of him and let him check them out - but as soon as hears one "pop" open, he's having none of it.

Also, he recently has become skittish about thunder, which never bothered him before. One day, it was storming; he had to wait until a break in the rain to go out and potty. Well, the rain may have been breaking but apparently more thunder was rolling out. While he was out there doing his thing, this HUGE thunderclap cracked and boomed (it scared me, too). I had never seen him try to make it back to the apartment door so fast before. Now, he's afraid of thunder. *sigh*

[ChloeLouise]

Yes, very interesting thread!
Jane Austen: Chloe goes completely berserk when anyone sneezes!! She barks and jumps and carries on like crazy!
Lawn mowers are not an issue - in fact when I was mowing yesterday I had to stop the mower and move her OUT of my path! She HATES the rake, however, and the snow shovel is EVIL - she has to be inside when anyone is using either! Thunder and lightening are not a problem when she is IN the house, but we needed to go out during a storm recently and that DID NOT go well - so maybe she just doesn't like the rain falling on her. I must say that the baby gates are what she really fears the most. They are perpetually falling with a crash when we step over them and now whenever we move the gates or go near them she scoots away. I actually don't mind her "respecting" the gates because we can now put them near things we don't want her into and she stays away.
Our previous dog, Wimsey, ran away and hid whenever we got out the spray can of Lysol! As a puppy we always sprayed his accident spots with it and he must have, for his whole life, associated being "scolded" with the Lysol can!

[Jespah]

Rupe is terrified of fireworks - this has only happened in the last year - he was fine with them up until recently. He knows they only happen on the late walk and will go out the other 3 times a day with a swagger and grin, but if there have been fireworks in the neighbourhood, for at least a week I'll have to drag him out on the late walk and force him to move along.
As dogs are literal, if you tell them it's alright or okay when they are acting scared, they read that as it's okay to act this way when this situation happens. So I was always told to tell them no or bad dog. It works with thunder, but Rupe is too far gone with the fireworks so I don't even react when he freaks out.
When they are scared of physical things, I go up to whatever it is and touch and say "sniff it", then they know it's okay.

Deb

[Jane Austen]

Duchess distrust everything that can topple. She nudges waste baskets and empty cardboard boxes. Sometimes when the swing top lid of the waste basket is on the floor she nudges that to flip it into a swinging motion.
Making up a rattle can of pennies has been a great help to alter her behavior when she chases the cat or barks excessively at company coming to the door. She seems to not like it rather than being afraid of the noise.

[Fluffypants]

Deb - I do the same thing when Jackie is afraid of something - call her over & tell her to sniff it. Usually works pretty well.

Jackie is afraid of thunder & fireworks, though not the vacuum / hairdryer / coffee grinder. I think if it is something that I am doing, she looks to me to tell her if it is ok. If I'm ok, she's usually ok. But it's harder with fireworks/thunder, because those things require an explanation. You can't walk up to them & show the dog it's ok. She has also been known to be skittish around things with wheels (bikes, strollers, etc.). But our therapy class has been helping with that, since we have to do some training around wheelchairs, and it is helping her get used to wheels in general. And she has a general things that float over her head, like balloons and (I was shocked to discover this week) . . . BUBBLES!

ooooo . . . SCARY BUBBLES . . . I'm starting over on those. First we will work on not being afarid of the bottle, then the wand . . . what a nutty dog I have! Not afraid of big barking dogs, but show her a bubble, and she hides in the bathroom!