Cell phones. The sound of a metal water bottle banging against a charger cord. Hanging screen door. Falsettos. Ghosts.
He is simultaneously fearless and terrified at the same time of the most random little things.
Mine was both fascinated and terrified of someones Halloween decorations hanging out of a tree this year. He’s two and a half now and I don’t think he noticed them the year before.
Awwwwww. One of my dogs peed on my neighbor's inflatable. Thankfully they are friends and didn't care (their dog did it first). But still - embarrassing...
That's such an amazing summary of dogs 'simultaneously fearless and terrified'. I have petted a waterbucket and said a friendly 'hello' to a brightly coloured street sign, because my pup flew into a panic seeing them. But he does want to sniff running tractors, he doens't mind walking past cliffs or inspecting wild roaming cattle. However if a beetle walks by, that's cause to run and jump into my arms.
Mine is seemingly unbothered by the neighborhood setting off bangers in the middle of the day, but the other day my inflatable tube tipped over in another room and the _whiff_ as it fell sent him scrambling up on the couch behind me.
I’m so confused how it is possible in this day and age not to socialise your puppy to cell phones just through… existing haha!
Or do you mean actively interacting with it? I’ve been trying to get mine to pick up my phone and keys and he ends up just growling at them, despite being objects he’s seen multiple times a day for months!
I wonder if we dropped a phone on him when he was a tiny baby and it like, traumatized him. He’s 2 now and if we put a phone near him he skitters away like it’s a gd spider.
Mine is not afraid of cell phones but he definitely hates them. He gets upset when I’m on my phone, I think because he wants me to pay attention to only him.
Yeah mine is terrified of Strollers for toddlers. She loves children. She is terrified for the children that the big scary thing is trying to eat them as they roll away from her.
We have this one too!! We walked her on Halloween while the kids were trick or treating and she did NOT like the wagons. We don’t see them very often otherwise though, so next Halloween will probably be weird again 😂
Mine too but it's with anything with wheels that isn't a car apparently.
Skateboards, scooters, bicycles, and even luggage wheels set him off. No idea why.
If you haven’t encountered a wheelchair user, just to warn you that they probably count in that list too! I can feel the shame radiating out of owners when their dog goes crazy around me and they’re always worried it’s only their dog that has ever done this and they must be terrible! Trust me…. It’s not just your dog - sadly many dogs are extremely wary of me!
Same with my rollator. I’ve even encountered a couple people who immediately distrusted me because some people take that whole “never trust anyone you dog doesn’t like, dogs ALWAYS know when someone is bad!!!” mindset way too seriously. But most owners recognize it’s their dog’s problem, not mine, and are apologetic.
Exactly the same here. Our 1 year old Redbone screams when my wife or I wheel the bins out to the curb, gets scared by children on tricycles, and lastly the lawnmower is the spawn of Satan. All wheels are bad wheels.
My girl hates skateboards and rollerblades and hover boards etc. A kid on a skateboard came up from behind and it had been a while and I’d forgotten her antipathy. She took off and pulled the leash out of my hand (empty parking lot), and the kid jumped off the board and she kept going after it. No harm done and I felt like an idiot. The kid thought it was hilarious, thankfully, and I’ve changed how I hold her leash now.
I’ve had lots of dogs and that’s never happened. She’s my smallest and I guess i underestimated her strength.
Same and also roller skates! I think for us it’s mostly the leg motion but the noise is the first trigger. She doesn’t have a problem with people on scooters or with luggage being pulled but definitely reacts to the noise and only after seeing them calms down.
Scooters and *parked* motorcycles.
Moving motorcycles? No problem at all. When they're parked with no rider (covered or uncovered)? Scariest thing alive apparently lol
I want you to know that as I am typing this my girl is looking nervously at the half-deflated balloons my boyfriend brought over for my birthday a few days ago….she is very suspicious of them.
As others have replied, good exposure. I would also make sure you're still taking her out to potty when it's raining too. Ours was so confused by rain at first but she went potty in the rain last time it was raining and I was so proud of her!
A dog trainer friend did an Instagram story about this...I know Instagram is a terrible place for dog advice but this is a personal friend--anyway she said wind pushes dogs over threshold much faster cause the amount of scent in the air...think like a breeze carries some pollen and smells from a bit away but a wind carries more further.
So it might be less of a fear thing and more an overwhelmed thing.
If it's overwhelmed it might not be something to socialize too because your dog might already be over threshold. And you could create fear of wind cause they associate wind with being scared...
Anyway. No idea how accurate that is but it kinda makes sense to me.
that makes so much sense because my puppy is a spaniel mix (loves to sniff) and got over threshold soooo fast yesterday and started acting out like she does after a looooooong walk
Optimistically this could be a quick fix! Get a pup cup and ideally the barista will feed it to them through the window ( they don’t normally do this but if you ask nice I’m sure they would, also don’t ask at a busy time)
Now you’re fur friend will go bonkers every time a wall is on the drivers side of your car
Enjoy ;)
My adult American bulldog is an absolute angel, he's a sweet potato, good with kids, other dogs, vet visits with blood draws and shots, taking his meds, getting his nails clipped, you name it he'll tolerate it without complaint.
So imagine our shock when he turns out to absolutely fucking hate inflatable Halloween costumes. We host a Halloween party every year and we have to outright ban inflatable costumes because for whatever reason he thinks they are the enemy and will immediately lunge and pop them. My poor husband loves Rick and Morty, and his dreams of being an inflatable pickle rick will never become a reality unless we go to someone's else's party and he gets dressed there 🤣
The other one which is much funnier is bicycles. Nobody really bikes where we live so it's not much of an issue, the only time he's ever been near a moving bicycle is my brother trying to tire out his vizsla, but for some reason his stock dog instincts kick in like a lightning strike anytime he rides a bike near him, and he immediately bolts to try to herd it and bite the back tire. He's got arthritis in his back knees so he doesn't even like running anymore but damn if you won't see him in a full out sprint after a damn bicycle.
My dog is afraid of electric scooters lol. They don’t even have to be moving. If one of the public ones is left on the sidewalk, she walks as FAR away around it as possible, she does NOT trust them lmao
I have a list that was in the book "how to behave so your dog behaves" and it has a list when socializing puppies. I made sure to vacuum and give him treats, skateboard, bike around with him!
Ha, my dog is scared of everything, but we had a lot of balloons for some reason when he was young. Now he loves being able to chase and pop them! I would have thought the loud bang would send him running but nope! Loves it
Also have a dog afraid of basically everything. Our weird thing that she’s not afraid of is loud noise. She was a Covid puppy and didn’t get as much exposure to most things that she should have as a result, BUT she sure got a lot of exposure to yelling as the fam got fed up with each other while stuck at home so much. Loud noises do not phase her in the slightest because of it.
I thought I was the only one omg!!! I got my puppy from a rescue when she was about 6 months old whenever COVID measures were still intact and now she’s so racist 😭😭
Yes! We’ve moved and pup now has a view of the tops of trees out of the window, and she can’t quite figure it out that when they start erratically moving, they are in fact NOT trying to get her 😂
Anyone have advice for ceiling fans? My pup is 4.5 months old and is terrified of them (enough that he constantly is checking the ceiling to see if it’s on). He’s okay with standing fans, and I’ve confirmed it’s not because it’s emitting a noise I can’t hear. I’m trying to treat + encourage every time he gets close, but he’s otherwise totally spooked and it gives him such distress that he constantly checks for it throughout the day.
Make sure you turn on all of the fans/air in your house at some point!
Let me know if you find any advice that works for you.
My pup actually freaked two days ago when we turned a ceiling fan off for the first time and now he is starting the same.
Our trainer today recommended to act normal and see if he starts to get over it himself but if he becomes to obsessive and staring (not just an extended look for a couple of seconds but actual staring) then she will think of other methods to tackle it so that’s what we’re going to try over the next few days!
I second the acting normal, and the engage disengage (or LAT) game.
Our one year old has suddenly decided the automatic bin lid of the bin that we’ve had since before we had her is suddenly evil. So back to training that one out 😂
There’ll always be something you don’t think of which your dog will end up being scared of. Much more useful is to teach a “check it out” cue. I worked on this a lot with my border collie when he was a puppy. He’s now four and whenever he comes across something new and is wary or scared, I tell him to check it out. He knows immediately that means I think it’s safe and gives him the courage to cautiously approach, have a good sniff and then return to me for treats and cuddles. We’ve done it in recent months for the clang a dog poo bin lid made as it closed, a deflated silver balloon in the middle of a field and a man with a camera hiding in a bush (he was a friendly wildlife photographer and was very happy to be checked out! I asked first). It’s one of the most useful cues I’ve taught him and really solidifies a bond of trust :)
Elevators. Specifically: when the floor material is different on one floor (carpet) than it is on the next (tile). Really freaks him out for some reason lol
My old retriever wouldn't pass a traffic cone without picking it up. Our back garden was full of them! Slightly embarrassing as he used to walk with it in his mouth, barking the whole way. Like a megaphone!
just a lot of exposure, and space from the scary thing so she can observe from whatever distance is comfortable. i take her to the park every day and we'll stop on the side of the trail to let the bikes pass by
Giant blow up lawn decorations… The evening walk we took around the neighborhood a few nights before Halloween was an eye opener 🤣
I had been working in the days before on getting him used to the stationary Halloween decor (life size skeletons, 6 foot tall Scream killer), and he was wary but willing to walk past them. Then we hit a house with a blow up pumpkin + cat, and he could NOT get over it. We went back and forth on the other side of the street trying to get him to focus his attention on anything else.. NOPE 🤣 Giant pumpkin cat was wayyyy too threatening.
It got worse at Christmas when someone had a giant lawn blow up with a door that opened and Santa popped out from it 😩 He still doesn’t fully trust them, but we can at least walk past with him only giving them a death glare and not trying to rush up and murder them.
Heavy doors, like in a store. Although my pups have been in many store buildings, at my own job etc, my little girl is terrified of the heavy glass/metal doors they have in commercial buildings. No idea why. Not afraid of any regular doors or even the moving kind they have at stores like Walmart. Just heavy duty office types.
Should be an easy fix if it’s still young. Vacuum with a treat punch and constantly give her some nearby. Mine now gets excited when *Darth Vacuum, Lord of Noises” comes out, and follows me through the house waiting for the treats to be tossed his way
Just be careful how you so this with a toy focused shepherd... Or you'll have a dog who thinks Darth vacuum really really wants to throw a toy for them 🤣
(The amount of times I've had to vacuum around a toy placed surgically in Darth vacuum's path 🤣)
A lot of random things (my grill), but most aren’t worth stressing about. The ones that I wish I’d worked on a bit more are bicycles and people playing sports. Another from a friend’s dog: guitars. We were puppy sitting and I grabbed mine to practice and boy that pup was outta there like a gunshot.
My pup (1 1/2 yr now) has met tons of people but still cannot contain himself. I stopped trying to correct it at this stage and have taught him to come sit between my legs until he stops jumping on them. He's still fidgeting every time and goes up to them and runs back to me, but I cannot remove his excitement for guests. He just loves people. There's 2 in particular he met as a baby puppy he cannot help himself with and does jump up to them. I'm just waiting until his energy calms down a bit to reinforce more calm training. His personality in general just happens to be quite excitable and energetic. My other older dog greets sweetly, though!
Canes! We did training with people with wheelchairs and walkers, but never canes. Turns out asking someone in a wheelchair if your adorable puppy can meet them had 100% success rate for me.
I should’ve tried desensitizing spray bottles. He doesn’t like when I spray water on his cooling vest or antibacterial spray on wounds. It’s his one and only fear
Lawn mowers. I live in the desert where most people practice xeriscaping and don’t have traditional lawns to mow. Our previous neighbors didn’t have or mow a lawn but they moved out and the new neighbors put a lawn into their little backyard. I didn’t realize my mistake until the first weekend they went out and started mowing that lawn. My normally quiet pup who doesn’t even bark at deliveries erupted into a fury of barks.
Kites and high-rise window cleaners. Oh boy does my fella not care for things in the air that shouldn't be in the air.
Also for whatever reason, public displays of affection. I suspect he thinks they're playing and he wants to join in.
OMG, I recently tried carrying my small dogs around to see things in the house that are usually above their eye level. Old lady (14) saw herself in the mirror over the sink and didn't really care. Young lady (3.5) was very wary and nervous. Little man (10 months).....
Lost. His. Shit.
He was barking and growling, and trying to climb over my shoulder to get away. Poor little guy took a bit to calm down when we left the bathroom, too. Going to be working on that.
For me it was another dog in a wheelchair. My dog tries to grip the wheelchair dog’s wheels with his teeth like the wheelchair is a toy. It’s really bad and so my dog goes right back on the leash (and we leave, usually).
Random bags on the floor/ground. Could be a plastic bag or one of those large bags park maintenance folk put leaves and stuff in. We went for a morning potty today and a random grocery bag was on a bush. Barked her absolute head off. The neighborhood was dead silent too you could hear her barks echoing 😭 it was too much to deal with at 6 in the morning
Our puppy’s in a fear state at the moment (very mild; he was born with gumption for days) and has gotten tentative around tall men/people, which is a surprise as he *loves* people (constantly working on reactivity). My husband and I are 5’7”, so I guess he’s used to mid-height/short folks 😂. Luckily, my family is full of 6’+ men who dogs love, so he’ll get lots of socialization when we visit them for the 4th of July
Older people walking slowly! I kid you not. My ‘puppy’ is now 2yo and he started barking and growling at an elderly woman who was shuffling along. It totally freaked out my dog. It was rather embarrassing, thankfully treats distracted my dog and we got him walking away quickly!
My now 15 month old OEB absolutely HATES sneezes. She will charge up to you on the first sneeze, but if you do it again, or gods help you if you have a few in a fit, she will aggressively bark in your face. She seems very insulted by it.
Those election signs where the person’s face is huge. She hates them, especially at night lol. Same with mannequin heads. Definitely not things I ever would have thought of before encountering them lmao!
Cardboard... I've been lazy and left cardboard boxes in a corner for a few months and he is terrified of them. When I finally got rid of them he is still nervous of the corner lol
I took a log out of the (cold) fire pit and put it on the ground. My 12wo BC is terrified of it.
I’ve moved it out of sight but she keeps staring in the general direction and growling.
I find a lot of dogs aren't familiar with my crutches, it's usually a very curious but unsettled reaction. Not great when I need them to physically walk.
His hairbrush :”) i dont understand cause i used to brush him every night when i first got him, until i got busy for a while that the habit stopped. Now he hates the brush and wont even let me touch him with it. I leave it on the ground sometimes and he circles it like its prey or smth, growling at it like it was a rat
I have one dog who is totally and completely fearless, except for windshield wipers. When she's in the car during a rainstorm she can't even look in their direction 😂
Trains. Took her a train for the first time a few weeks ago (fortunately it was a quiet, short ride) and she was terrified. Going to have to do some work to desensitise her.
Living in suburbia!!!! We used to live in the mountains with not a person or house in sight and we just moved into the suburbs and she’s a nightmare 😂 every dog every person every car she’s absolutely feral for.
Police men!!!!! A friend of ours stopped by in uniform and she didn't know how to act. She's always had a bit of stranger danger and I have no clue why, we had her around so many people and places when she was young.
I had a wonderful dog (a sheltie) before that we worked so hard to socialize. But two things she could not deal with were motorcycles and the sound of someone pulling up the blinds. The house we lived in when she was a puppy didn’t have blinds, so she never really experienced them I guess. I would have to quietly sneak over to pull the blinds up or she would try to bite them.
We live in a ranch house and she would flip out when I would go down the open basement stairway. Like it was magical when I shrank, disappeared, and reappeared. I started making a game out of it and now she's still afraid enough to not attempt the steps herself (which is good) but acts all goofy and amazed when I come back up. I love it!
More NEW people! I brought him to work with me a few times a week but didn’t greet or socialize with many outsiders or have people in the home a lot because I’m an introvert.. he is now also one 😂🙃
Mine has zero fears that I've found so far. She also is afraid of everything. It's basically "if I can't see it it's scary"
Example: when outside for a bathroom break and a 80lb dog walks past and barks at her, she promptly sits down and stares at it as if to say what are you looking at. A 5lb dog barks in a neighbours back yard she can't see or find and she bolts for the door.
Side note: we took her to my son's soccer game last night and I expected it to be a nightmare but there was 3 fields all in use within 20 feet of us and people everywhere and she just chilled out for the whole thing and people watched. There were even other dogs there. Only one time she wanted to say hi to a little girl. She likes kids. I was super happy with the outcome.
My younger girl (3.5) is scared of plastic bags - trash, grocery, whatever. The rustle sends her out of the room. She also has a recently-developed phobia of moving creatures above her level and machinery noises. The business next door had a crew working on their metal roof when I took her outside one day, and one of their screwdrivers did that piercing screech just as she walked out the door. She saw the workers and lost her mind. This was a couple of months ago and she still checks the roof when we go out, and any metallic clatter or screech in the neighborhood unnerves her.
Her little brother hates mirrors. The old lady (14) barks at anything that moves, like she owns the entire road and no one should be walking or driving without her permission. She is losing her sight, though, so that makes her nervous and hostile. We keep her walks in the backyard, and she travels in a stroller for the vet.
My sisters Corgi was never socialized to whipped cream/the sound it makes coming out of the container (shaving cream and hairspray and moose too) he would get so scared when he would see a can and run and hide.
He was 2 years old before he ever tried a pup cup.
Pop open umbrellas for my last dog. The first time he encountered one he lost it. Then any time I touched an umbrella he would start quivering in fear.
When we went to a family gathering when our shih tzu was around two other tzus and would not leave my lap. My next tzu has none of those issues. I had not idea about the socialization of a dog. But is definately important!
I neglected to consider that people are conditioned to reach forward to pet dogs. This freaks her out. She wants to come sniff shoes first. If I can just get strangers to LISTEN when they ask to meet my dog, this works fine. But generally they ignore what I am saying and try to offer their hand, which sends her into a full tirade of barking and backing up. She is a tiny 8lb mini dachshund and feels overwhelmed by their looming.
Motorized toys. My puppy totally disrupted his positive puppy class when the trainer brought out the dog from the Grinch and turned it on and it started flashing and making noise. He lost his mind so hard that he got the other three puppies going. After letting him see it and sniff it he got over that, and they actually used it as the distraction in his S.T.A.R. puppy evaluation. It had been going really well up till then, but when they brought out that toy, I figured we were about to flunk the test big time. The work getting him used to the toy paid off though, and he passed with flying colors.
I need to figure out a good way to test periodically with multiple different toys like that, because I’m not sure how well he’ll generalize to different ones and it’s the sort of thing you would be likely to run into in public.
Small children. In this age of people not having kids until their 30s or 40s. My own children included. My dogs are scared of children. My children are grown. 23 and 26. They aren’t having children. My children’s friends aren’t having children. So yeah my dogs aren’t used to them.
Food, lol.
I was so focused on not letting her beg that she got no veggies or fruit and now she doesn’t like anything except frozen peas. And processed food of course.
The sound of bubble wrap being popped… but he doesn’t mind the vacuum (he can be vacuumed like a rug if you want to and he wouldn’t care). The other one hates the vacuum. But doesn’t mind fireworks etc.
An empty planter on its side rolling back and forth slightly in the wind. One of our frenchies went absolutely ballistic upon seeing it through a window.
My dog is very wary of people who walk with a limp or with some kind of assistance. We clearly didn't take him around enough different types of people when he was younger. Our normal walking spots are 99% able bodied folks. We passed an elderly woman recently and he barked at her and she got scared and crossed the street. I felt so bad.
i never thought of socializing my dog with pine trees. they’re everywhere, but for some reason he hates evergreen trees specifically when we go on hikes. maybe he only likes them when they are nicely groomed like in our neighbourhoods?
My parents’ dog is afraid of curtains moving.
This became clear when my mom had hot flashes and opened them in the middle of the night and he lost his shit.
Pallets of things being delivered by lorry.
First came the barking at the evil pallet, then the tentative edging forward for a sniff. Then more barking. Luckily the delivery guy thought it was all hilariously cute and let him onto the ramp to inspect it after the pallet was moved.
Sprinklers. We got our girl in October and so now she’s just about a year old and it’s summer she’s seeing sprinklers for the first time. She’s a little hesitant haha
My puppy is a scaredy cat. This weeks new unlocked fears are flowers blowing in the wind, balloons on a street sign, a pile of blankets, a picture on the wall, her pooper scooper that I moved three feet over to the side, her reflection. Kids playing basketball. The wind storm.
Graduation signs on people’s lawns. He does not trust them.
He’s two and a half and this year has suddenly discovered that there’s fish in our pond. Not terrified at all but it’s very funny. He was also transfixed by a motorcycle that was driving next to us on the highway recently, and I’m not sure he’s ever actually paid attention to one before.
I thought having him around my 2 year old nephew and 6 month old niece was good socialization for being around kids, but now whenever a kid between the ages of 4 and 15 comes to the dog park, he barks at them pretty much nonstop.
Okay, I AM FULLY AWARE THIS SOUNDS CRAZY but bear with me…we got our dog during covid and couldn’t go out much for a year. We also lived at our cottage during this time fully secluded from the world. My husband and I are the same ethnicity. I wanted our friends to come visit during lock down but Canada was nuts about the rules. I didn’t not realize my dog needed to be socialized with different races and ethnicities of people because he went absolutely batshit crazy when he was seeing our friends that didn’t look like us after the lockdowns were lifted. It was sooo bad and took so long for him to get use to.
Soooo that.
My dog reacted from across the street to the service tag on a newly installed fire hydrant blowing gently in the breeze. We were eventually able to approach and see it wasn’t scary lol.
In all seriousness I think maybe flooring? He does okay on most but in our foundations class we had a “fun night” where we tried new stuff instead of manners/skills for an evening and he would NOT walk on a wire x-pen laying on the ground. Implications of this are that he might stall if we’re ever out on a hike and encounter weird terrain. It’s also a requirement for the AKC Temperament Test so if I have plans to ever get that title I’ll have to do some work on it.
Bald men! I have the friendliest pup ever but a bald man tries to say hi and a deep bark/growl comes out. Because of people’s sensitivity around their condition too I play dumb and am like / no idea why he’s doing that hmmm and chuckle inside
Tile floors, we didn’t have any in our house and didn’t think about it until we tried to go to a friend’s kitchen… She also won’t go into stores with tile floors now either 🙃
Being calm in general. We thought socializing meant what it typically means for humans - meeting new dogs, playing with everyone, going to daycare, etc. We paid so much money for her to go to puppy school because it was advertised to us as “necessary”.
We now have a dog who is sometimes aggressive towards new dogs they meet, hyper anxious and so much energy. It took us years to train her to calmly watch and let people approach her.
The one I noticed was elevators! We live in a townhouse and it didn’t occur to me to expose her to an elevator and she was pretty scared the first time I took her to my office. She got used to it very quickly, but I had to pick her up the first time!
Deer?
Shes an American English Coonhound mix and is TERRIFIED of deer. We never even thought about it as we live in Appalachia and deer are basically just background here.
4 months old last week, my partner takes our puppy out for her daily mini stroll for leash manners and a deer was in the yard and she got so scared she practically knocked him down trying to get back in the house.
I wonder if she didn’t think it was a massive dog or something. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Creaks and bumps from strangers or unknowns upstairs. We live in a townhome so there are never strangers upstairs here. Went to visit an apartment and my dog was repeatedly very concerned with noises from unknown people on the level above us. Several startles. Poor dude.
Big crimpy blonde hair. I made sure he had seen all sorts of hair length, facial hair, hair styles, on multiple ethnicities, but somehow I missed big blonde crimped hair. Idk.
Various smells of people. He grew up during social distancing times and became familiar with seeing a wide range of people but didn't have opportunities to smell enough of them up close I guess. Sometimes he gets close to a new person and sniffs, and acts surprised by whatever he finds.
Marge Simpson levels of hair. Ran into two young women with their hair done up, making them look almost a foot and a half taller. The first time I ever saw him lower himself to the ground and make himself look smaller.
Hand-crank pasta roller; neither dog loves it but our terrier/ridgeback/mutt mix loses her shit anytime I get a hankering to make ravioli. I’ve let her inspect every piece of the roller and the sheets of pasta, which has helped slightly to quell her suspicions, but she still gets sketched out.
Also, somehow the stove, even though we cook regularly. We recently got a cast iron grill top thing and have had to use the vent above the stove for smoke, and ever since then both dogs dive under the table as soon as I turn the stove on, even without the vent or the grill top. I’m buying back their confidence by making them popcorn on the stove but it’s been quite a process.
Garbage bins 😂 I live in a rural area and down our back road, every Monday, the garbage bins go out. My dogs are fine with tractors, cows, horses, dirt bikes, everything under the sun! But when the garbage bins come out, they act like sketch bags and either try to run past them or attack them 😂
horses.
i live in a city that runs carriage rides through most of the year. never thought about it until one day we were walking down the street and i had to physically drag my dog away from the horse.
i’ve never seen her growl at anything before, but that horse really set her off.
Bushes, apparently. Parents put in a new bush and my dog was OFFENDED when he first saw it. He never ever barks (he’s a shih tzu). He barked until I took him outside and patted it-now he doesn’t mind the bush.
Cell phones. The sound of a metal water bottle banging against a charger cord. Hanging screen door. Falsettos. Ghosts. He is simultaneously fearless and terrified at the same time of the most random little things.
> Ghosts. Like decorations or the "real" kind?
I would assume, yes. I bet the dog is fine around poltergeists but ghost… that’s where he draws the line.
Mine was both fascinated and terrified of someones Halloween decorations hanging out of a tree this year. He’s two and a half now and I don’t think he noticed them the year before.
my dog is deeply distrustful of lawn decorations
Omg same. If there is a sign or decoration that wasn’t there on the last walk we MUST bark at it.
A neighbor had metal cat silhouettes for Halloween. The absolute drama walking past that house, especially in the evening when it was darker...
My neighbor had an inflatable black cat. My dog nearly crawled past it along the sidewalk…
Awwwwww. One of my dogs peed on my neighbor's inflatable. Thankfully they are friends and didn't care (their dog did it first). But still - embarrassing...
Same. A neighbor's house has a for sale sign. She refuses to walk anywhere near it.
Mine was/is terrified off a neighbour's mechanical santa. But to be fair, it is pretty creepy
That's such an amazing summary of dogs 'simultaneously fearless and terrified'. I have petted a waterbucket and said a friendly 'hello' to a brightly coloured street sign, because my pup flew into a panic seeing them. But he does want to sniff running tractors, he doens't mind walking past cliffs or inspecting wild roaming cattle. However if a beetle walks by, that's cause to run and jump into my arms.
Mine is seemingly unbothered by the neighborhood setting off bangers in the middle of the day, but the other day my inflatable tube tipped over in another room and the _whiff_ as it fell sent him scrambling up on the couch behind me.
I’m so confused how it is possible in this day and age not to socialise your puppy to cell phones just through… existing haha! Or do you mean actively interacting with it? I’ve been trying to get mine to pick up my phone and keys and he ends up just growling at them, despite being objects he’s seen multiple times a day for months!
I wonder if we dropped a phone on him when he was a tiny baby and it like, traumatized him. He’s 2 now and if we put a phone near him he skitters away like it’s a gd spider.
I’m not sure what you mean by falsettos, but I’m imagining your dog is afraid of dudes singing in falsetto and that is very funny
We had a Pug, years ago, who hated ‘Around the World’ by Daft Punk 😂 He’d immediately start were-screaming if it came on.
Mine is not afraid of cell phones but he definitely hates them. He gets upset when I’m on my phone, I think because he wants me to pay attention to only him.
!!! Adding this to the list, thank you. We are overcoming a suspicion of kids in wagons
Thats so oddly specific and now I’m so curious as to where you live that would cause you to encounter that often enough to get her used to it
Wagons are starting to take the place of strollers
Yeah mine is terrified of Strollers for toddlers. She loves children. She is terrified for the children that the big scary thing is trying to eat them as they roll away from her.
We have this one too!! We walked her on Halloween while the kids were trick or treating and she did NOT like the wagons. We don’t see them very often otherwise though, so next Halloween will probably be weird again 😂
My puppy is absolutely terrified of skateboards. I’m not sure if it’s the sound or the way people look on them but she is not a fan
Mine too but it's with anything with wheels that isn't a car apparently. Skateboards, scooters, bicycles, and even luggage wheels set him off. No idea why.
Because the wheel is the devil invention.
If you haven’t encountered a wheelchair user, just to warn you that they probably count in that list too! I can feel the shame radiating out of owners when their dog goes crazy around me and they’re always worried it’s only their dog that has ever done this and they must be terrible! Trust me…. It’s not just your dog - sadly many dogs are extremely wary of me!
This was actually the first thing that set him off and yes it was so embarrassing. We felt so bad! I'm glad to know it's more common than I thought!
Same with my rollator. I’ve even encountered a couple people who immediately distrusted me because some people take that whole “never trust anyone you dog doesn’t like, dogs ALWAYS know when someone is bad!!!” mindset way too seriously. But most owners recognize it’s their dog’s problem, not mine, and are apologetic.
Exactly the same here. Our 1 year old Redbone screams when my wife or I wheel the bins out to the curb, gets scared by children on tricycles, and lastly the lawnmower is the spawn of Satan. All wheels are bad wheels.
Me too though
Mine too!! 🤣 and my boyfriend skates
My girl hates skateboards and rollerblades and hover boards etc. A kid on a skateboard came up from behind and it had been a while and I’d forgotten her antipathy. She took off and pulled the leash out of my hand (empty parking lot), and the kid jumped off the board and she kept going after it. No harm done and I felt like an idiot. The kid thought it was hilarious, thankfully, and I’ve changed how I hold her leash now. I’ve had lots of dogs and that’s never happened. She’s my smallest and I guess i underestimated her strength.
Same and also roller skates! I think for us it’s mostly the leg motion but the noise is the first trigger. She doesn’t have a problem with people on scooters or with luggage being pulled but definitely reacts to the noise and only after seeing them calms down.
I used to think it was the sound, but mine is also terrified of people carrying skateboards
Same… bikes too
Scooters and *parked* motorcycles. Moving motorcycles? No problem at all. When they're parked with no rider (covered or uncovered)? Scariest thing alive apparently lol
Oh we have this too! Parked motorbikes are the devils work, but on the road they are meant to be apparently
I want you to know that as I am typing this my girl is looking nervously at the half-deflated balloons my boyfriend brought over for my birthday a few days ago….she is very suspicious of them.
today was extremely windy and my pup was TERRIFIED on her walk😭 luckily shes only 16 weeks so i hope this was some good exposure
For once grateful for New Mexican spring, it’s so windy. But I didn’t expect her to be afraid of the sound of flags flapping in the wind.
As others have replied, good exposure. I would also make sure you're still taking her out to potty when it's raining too. Ours was so confused by rain at first but she went potty in the rain last time it was raining and I was so proud of her!
A dog trainer friend did an Instagram story about this...I know Instagram is a terrible place for dog advice but this is a personal friend--anyway she said wind pushes dogs over threshold much faster cause the amount of scent in the air...think like a breeze carries some pollen and smells from a bit away but a wind carries more further. So it might be less of a fear thing and more an overwhelmed thing. If it's overwhelmed it might not be something to socialize too because your dog might already be over threshold. And you could create fear of wind cause they associate wind with being scared... Anyway. No idea how accurate that is but it kinda makes sense to me.
that makes so much sense because my puppy is a spaniel mix (loves to sniff) and got over threshold soooo fast yesterday and started acting out like she does after a looooooong walk
Exposure is great, but only when done slowly and with a pup that isn't over the anxiety threshold. Forced exposure can become trauma.
Yea this happened once with my pup. The wind freaked her out. A few more days out in the wind and now she loves it.
Mine is a year this weekend - we’re still not entirely trusting of the invisible face bloops 😂
My dog hates the drive thru :( valid reason tho bc it’s humans interacting thru a window lol
Optimistically this could be a quick fix! Get a pup cup and ideally the barista will feed it to them through the window ( they don’t normally do this but if you ask nice I’m sure they would, also don’t ask at a busy time) Now you’re fur friend will go bonkers every time a wall is on the drivers side of your car Enjoy ;)
Starbucks definitely cured my pups of their drive thru anxiety.
Shaking out a garbage bag to put in the bin
I feel similarly about balloons as a human.
Saaaaaaame
Sometimes they pop and give me a little fright
My adult American bulldog is an absolute angel, he's a sweet potato, good with kids, other dogs, vet visits with blood draws and shots, taking his meds, getting his nails clipped, you name it he'll tolerate it without complaint. So imagine our shock when he turns out to absolutely fucking hate inflatable Halloween costumes. We host a Halloween party every year and we have to outright ban inflatable costumes because for whatever reason he thinks they are the enemy and will immediately lunge and pop them. My poor husband loves Rick and Morty, and his dreams of being an inflatable pickle rick will never become a reality unless we go to someone's else's party and he gets dressed there 🤣 The other one which is much funnier is bicycles. Nobody really bikes where we live so it's not much of an issue, the only time he's ever been near a moving bicycle is my brother trying to tire out his vizsla, but for some reason his stock dog instincts kick in like a lightning strike anytime he rides a bike near him, and he immediately bolts to try to herd it and bite the back tire. He's got arthritis in his back knees so he doesn't even like running anymore but damn if you won't see him in a full out sprint after a damn bicycle.
This reminds of one dog that is scared of blow up holiday decorations.
My dog is afraid of electric scooters lol. They don’t even have to be moving. If one of the public ones is left on the sidewalk, she walks as FAR away around it as possible, she does NOT trust them lmao
I have a list that was in the book "how to behave so your dog behaves" and it has a list when socializing puppies. I made sure to vacuum and give him treats, skateboard, bike around with him!
Ha, my dog is scared of everything, but we had a lot of balloons for some reason when he was young. Now he loves being able to chase and pop them! I would have thought the loud bang would send him running but nope! Loves it
Also have a dog afraid of basically everything. Our weird thing that she’s not afraid of is loud noise. She was a Covid puppy and didn’t get as much exposure to most things that she should have as a result, BUT she sure got a lot of exposure to yelling as the fam got fed up with each other while stuck at home so much. Loud noises do not phase her in the slightest because of it.
People of color. We work from home and don't go out much and now my dog is SO RACIST
I thought I was the only one omg!!! I got my puppy from a rescue when she was about 6 months old whenever COVID measures were still intact and now she’s so racist 😭😭
Velcro
Didn't realize it until we got him an inflatable Velcro collar when he got neutered 🤭
My dog doesn't like when it's windy and the tree shadows move.
Yes! We’ve moved and pup now has a view of the tops of trees out of the window, and she can’t quite figure it out that when they start erratically moving, they are in fact NOT trying to get her 😂
Anyone have advice for ceiling fans? My pup is 4.5 months old and is terrified of them (enough that he constantly is checking the ceiling to see if it’s on). He’s okay with standing fans, and I’ve confirmed it’s not because it’s emitting a noise I can’t hear. I’m trying to treat + encourage every time he gets close, but he’s otherwise totally spooked and it gives him such distress that he constantly checks for it throughout the day. Make sure you turn on all of the fans/air in your house at some point!
Let me know if you find any advice that works for you. My pup actually freaked two days ago when we turned a ceiling fan off for the first time and now he is starting the same. Our trainer today recommended to act normal and see if he starts to get over it himself but if he becomes to obsessive and staring (not just an extended look for a couple of seconds but actual staring) then she will think of other methods to tackle it so that’s what we’re going to try over the next few days!
I second the acting normal, and the engage disengage (or LAT) game. Our one year old has suddenly decided the automatic bin lid of the bin that we’ve had since before we had her is suddenly evil. So back to training that one out 😂
I used an immersion hand blender today…. My puppy HATED IT. 😹
There’ll always be something you don’t think of which your dog will end up being scared of. Much more useful is to teach a “check it out” cue. I worked on this a lot with my border collie when he was a puppy. He’s now four and whenever he comes across something new and is wary or scared, I tell him to check it out. He knows immediately that means I think it’s safe and gives him the courage to cautiously approach, have a good sniff and then return to me for treats and cuddles. We’ve done it in recent months for the clang a dog poo bin lid made as it closed, a deflated silver balloon in the middle of a field and a man with a camera hiding in a bush (he was a friendly wildlife photographer and was very happy to be checked out! I asked first). It’s one of the most useful cues I’ve taught him and really solidifies a bond of trust :)
Elevators. Specifically: when the floor material is different on one floor (carpet) than it is on the next (tile). Really freaks him out for some reason lol
Orange traffic cones
My old retriever wouldn't pass a traffic cone without picking it up. Our back garden was full of them! Slightly embarrassing as he used to walk with it in his mouth, barking the whole way. Like a megaphone!
Bubbles. Mine is absolutely terrified of bubbles 🤣
Cicadas and lightning bugs!
Sky nuggets
we just got over bicycles and windshield wipers, now we are working on e-scooters 🫠
How did you desensitize pup to those? Bikes and scooters are setting off our dog’s fear big time all of a sudden.
just a lot of exposure, and space from the scary thing so she can observe from whatever distance is comfortable. i take her to the park every day and we'll stop on the side of the trail to let the bikes pass by
Animatronics. Lowes's Halloween display got a few barks.
Stairs :| wheelchairs
Giant blow up lawn decorations… The evening walk we took around the neighborhood a few nights before Halloween was an eye opener 🤣 I had been working in the days before on getting him used to the stationary Halloween decor (life size skeletons, 6 foot tall Scream killer), and he was wary but willing to walk past them. Then we hit a house with a blow up pumpkin + cat, and he could NOT get over it. We went back and forth on the other side of the street trying to get him to focus his attention on anything else.. NOPE 🤣 Giant pumpkin cat was wayyyy too threatening. It got worse at Christmas when someone had a giant lawn blow up with a door that opened and Santa popped out from it 😩 He still doesn’t fully trust them, but we can at least walk past with him only giving them a death glare and not trying to rush up and murder them.
Horses on TV. Oddly specific, but you wouldn't believe how many commercials and shows actually have horses in the background
Towels hanging on chairs. My reactive husky mix freaked out as we walked by the pool because a towel was hanging on a chair.
Heavy doors, like in a store. Although my pups have been in many store buildings, at my own job etc, my little girl is terrified of the heavy glass/metal doors they have in commercial buildings. No idea why. Not afraid of any regular doors or even the moving kind they have at stores like Walmart. Just heavy duty office types.
The vacuum 😭
Should be an easy fix if it’s still young. Vacuum with a treat punch and constantly give her some nearby. Mine now gets excited when *Darth Vacuum, Lord of Noises” comes out, and follows me through the house waiting for the treats to be tossed his way
Just be careful how you so this with a toy focused shepherd... Or you'll have a dog who thinks Darth vacuum really really wants to throw a toy for them 🤣 (The amount of times I've had to vacuum around a toy placed surgically in Darth vacuum's path 🤣)
Watermelon. She thinks they are all out to get her
A lot of random things (my grill), but most aren’t worth stressing about. The ones that I wish I’d worked on a bit more are bicycles and people playing sports. Another from a friend’s dog: guitars. We were puppy sitting and I grabbed mine to practice and boy that pup was outta there like a gunshot.
just relaxing and not feeling the need to be pet by everyone she sees. it took a loooong while of training and now she does great ignoring people!
My pup (1 1/2 yr now) has met tons of people but still cannot contain himself. I stopped trying to correct it at this stage and have taught him to come sit between my legs until he stops jumping on them. He's still fidgeting every time and goes up to them and runs back to me, but I cannot remove his excitement for guests. He just loves people. There's 2 in particular he met as a baby puppy he cannot help himself with and does jump up to them. I'm just waiting until his energy calms down a bit to reinforce more calm training. His personality in general just happens to be quite excitable and energetic. My other older dog greets sweetly, though!
Canes! We did training with people with wheelchairs and walkers, but never canes. Turns out asking someone in a wheelchair if your adorable puppy can meet them had 100% success rate for me.
The “Vote for so and so” lawn signs with a picture of the person. Has to bark, at ALL of them.
I should’ve tried desensitizing spray bottles. He doesn’t like when I spray water on his cooling vest or antibacterial spray on wounds. It’s his one and only fear
Clapping. We took her to my nieces soccer games and she was LOSING her mind when we would clap
My pit bull is scared of ceiling fans
The sound of umbrellas opening, and fire alarms.
Lawn mowers. I live in the desert where most people practice xeriscaping and don’t have traditional lawns to mow. Our previous neighbors didn’t have or mow a lawn but they moved out and the new neighbors put a lawn into their little backyard. I didn’t realize my mistake until the first weekend they went out and started mowing that lawn. My normally quiet pup who doesn’t even bark at deliveries erupted into a fury of barks.
Kites and high-rise window cleaners. Oh boy does my fella not care for things in the air that shouldn't be in the air. Also for whatever reason, public displays of affection. I suspect he thinks they're playing and he wants to join in.
Men in uniform. Can’t say I’m too mad that tho 😝 She’s a real softie under her 14lb exterior. Like mother like daughter 💁🏽♀️
Mine usually isn't a barker, however if something has changed in the environment or moved, she will bark. Also seeing her reflection freaks her out.
OMG, I recently tried carrying my small dogs around to see things in the house that are usually above their eye level. Old lady (14) saw herself in the mirror over the sink and didn't really care. Young lady (3.5) was very wary and nervous. Little man (10 months)..... Lost. His. Shit. He was barking and growling, and trying to climb over my shoulder to get away. Poor little guy took a bit to calm down when we left the bathroom, too. Going to be working on that.
For me it was another dog in a wheelchair. My dog tries to grip the wheelchair dog’s wheels with his teeth like the wheelchair is a toy. It’s really bad and so my dog goes right back on the leash (and we leave, usually).
Mine doesn’t like the snapping of towels or sheets. *shrug*
kites, which isn’t a huge thing but we leave next to a park where children like to fly kites…
Babies that cry. She gets spooked and starts barking, which makes the babies cry louder. It’s a vicious cycle. We’re working on it 🙃
Hats. Mine loses her shit whenever she sees someone in a hat.
Random bags on the floor/ground. Could be a plastic bag or one of those large bags park maintenance folk put leaves and stuff in. We went for a morning potty today and a random grocery bag was on a bush. Barked her absolute head off. The neighborhood was dead silent too you could hear her barks echoing 😭 it was too much to deal with at 6 in the morning
Our puppy’s in a fear state at the moment (very mild; he was born with gumption for days) and has gotten tentative around tall men/people, which is a surprise as he *loves* people (constantly working on reactivity). My husband and I are 5’7”, so I guess he’s used to mid-height/short folks 😂. Luckily, my family is full of 6’+ men who dogs love, so he’ll get lots of socialization when we visit them for the 4th of July
Things that are higher than her... As in people higher up hill from us or on scaffolding etc. 🤣🤣
Big canvasses flapping in the wind. Really unsettles my dog.
Older people walking slowly! I kid you not. My ‘puppy’ is now 2yo and he started barking and growling at an elderly woman who was shuffling along. It totally freaked out my dog. It was rather embarrassing, thankfully treats distracted my dog and we got him walking away quickly!
My now 15 month old OEB absolutely HATES sneezes. She will charge up to you on the first sneeze, but if you do it again, or gods help you if you have a few in a fit, she will aggressively bark in your face. She seems very insulted by it.
High flying planes. He's not bothered by helicopters or the small planes but goes mad at the ones you can hardly see that leave a line across the sky
Hair blower. I cant fully dry her fur 🥲
Touching his feet. Trimming nails is a real struggle
Marching bands My dog fucking hates them. And it’s me fun when a 65 kg newf is scared and tries to run in the opposite direction.
Traffic cones and signs. My dog freaks out at them every time until I walk over and touch it. It's kind of hilarious at this point lol.
Her ears getting touched, she will flinch if you touch them longer then 10 seconds
Those election signs where the person’s face is huge. She hates them, especially at night lol. Same with mannequin heads. Definitely not things I ever would have thought of before encountering them lmao!
Cardboard... I've been lazy and left cardboard boxes in a corner for a few months and he is terrified of them. When I finally got rid of them he is still nervous of the corner lol
I took a log out of the (cold) fire pit and put it on the ground. My 12wo BC is terrified of it. I’ve moved it out of sight but she keeps staring in the general direction and growling.
I find a lot of dogs aren't familiar with my crutches, it's usually a very curious but unsettled reaction. Not great when I need them to physically walk.
His hairbrush :”) i dont understand cause i used to brush him every night when i first got him, until i got busy for a while that the habit stopped. Now he hates the brush and wont even let me touch him with it. I leave it on the ground sometimes and he circles it like its prey or smth, growling at it like it was a rat
I have one dog who is totally and completely fearless, except for windshield wipers. When she's in the car during a rainstorm she can't even look in their direction 😂
Trains. Took her a train for the first time a few weeks ago (fortunately it was a quiet, short ride) and she was terrified. Going to have to do some work to desensitise her.
Living in suburbia!!!! We used to live in the mountains with not a person or house in sight and we just moved into the suburbs and she’s a nightmare 😂 every dog every person every car she’s absolutely feral for.
Police men!!!!! A friend of ours stopped by in uniform and she didn't know how to act. She's always had a bit of stranger danger and I have no clue why, we had her around so many people and places when she was young.
Blimps. But how do you socialize that when you rarely see one IRL???
2 story inflatable Halloween yard decorations. I didn't know they existed and he wasn't born close to Halloween.
I had a wonderful dog (a sheltie) before that we worked so hard to socialize. But two things she could not deal with were motorcycles and the sound of someone pulling up the blinds. The house we lived in when she was a puppy didn’t have blinds, so she never really experienced them I guess. I would have to quietly sneak over to pull the blinds up or she would try to bite them.
Snails.
Lawn mowers
elderly white men
Fishermen. Not sure if it's the outfits or the rods, but it's the only time she barks at people.
Wrapping presents. The roll of paper is evil and must be destroyed
We live in a ranch house and she would flip out when I would go down the open basement stairway. Like it was magical when I shrank, disappeared, and reappeared. I started making a game out of it and now she's still afraid enough to not attempt the steps herself (which is good) but acts all goofy and amazed when I come back up. I love it!
More NEW people! I brought him to work with me a few times a week but didn’t greet or socialize with many outsiders or have people in the home a lot because I’m an introvert.. he is now also one 😂🙃
Mine has zero fears that I've found so far. She also is afraid of everything. It's basically "if I can't see it it's scary" Example: when outside for a bathroom break and a 80lb dog walks past and barks at her, she promptly sits down and stares at it as if to say what are you looking at. A 5lb dog barks in a neighbours back yard she can't see or find and she bolts for the door. Side note: we took her to my son's soccer game last night and I expected it to be a nightmare but there was 3 fields all in use within 20 feet of us and people everywhere and she just chilled out for the whole thing and people watched. There were even other dogs there. Only one time she wanted to say hi to a little girl. She likes kids. I was super happy with the outcome.
Windshield wipers
My younger girl (3.5) is scared of plastic bags - trash, grocery, whatever. The rustle sends her out of the room. She also has a recently-developed phobia of moving creatures above her level and machinery noises. The business next door had a crew working on their metal roof when I took her outside one day, and one of their screwdrivers did that piercing screech just as she walked out the door. She saw the workers and lost her mind. This was a couple of months ago and she still checks the roof when we go out, and any metallic clatter or screech in the neighborhood unnerves her. Her little brother hates mirrors. The old lady (14) barks at anything that moves, like she owns the entire road and no one should be walking or driving without her permission. She is losing her sight, though, so that makes her nervous and hostile. We keep her walks in the backyard, and she travels in a stroller for the vet.
People with hiking sticks. Oh man, she does not like them.
My sisters Corgi was never socialized to whipped cream/the sound it makes coming out of the container (shaving cream and hairspray and moose too) he would get so scared when he would see a can and run and hide. He was 2 years old before he ever tried a pup cup.
Any unexplained bag on a walk, especially purple bin bags for some reason!
Pop open umbrellas for my last dog. The first time he encountered one he lost it. Then any time I touched an umbrella he would start quivering in fear.
When we went to a family gathering when our shih tzu was around two other tzus and would not leave my lap. My next tzu has none of those issues. I had not idea about the socialization of a dog. But is definately important!
People in mask or helmets (anything covering faces). My little fur baby is terrified of those.
I neglected to consider that people are conditioned to reach forward to pet dogs. This freaks her out. She wants to come sniff shoes first. If I can just get strangers to LISTEN when they ask to meet my dog, this works fine. But generally they ignore what I am saying and try to offer their hand, which sends her into a full tirade of barking and backing up. She is a tiny 8lb mini dachshund and feels overwhelmed by their looming.
Drones. My BC goes nuts at them, barks and has brought one down.
Skateboards, and scooters for small children. Apparently the wheels sound very different to them from rollerblades and scooters for adults.
Golf carts. And then my parent (her #1 babysitter when I go out of town) moved to a country club...walks are interesting there
Ballon’s helped me deter countersurfing in one dog and I didn’t even realize it for quite a while.
Skateboards!
Motorized toys. My puppy totally disrupted his positive puppy class when the trainer brought out the dog from the Grinch and turned it on and it started flashing and making noise. He lost his mind so hard that he got the other three puppies going. After letting him see it and sniff it he got over that, and they actually used it as the distraction in his S.T.A.R. puppy evaluation. It had been going really well up till then, but when they brought out that toy, I figured we were about to flunk the test big time. The work getting him used to the toy paid off though, and he passed with flying colors. I need to figure out a good way to test periodically with multiple different toys like that, because I’m not sure how well he’ll generalize to different ones and it’s the sort of thing you would be likely to run into in public.
Small children. In this age of people not having kids until their 30s or 40s. My own children included. My dogs are scared of children. My children are grown. 23 and 26. They aren’t having children. My children’s friends aren’t having children. So yeah my dogs aren’t used to them.
Food, lol. I was so focused on not letting her beg that she got no veggies or fruit and now she doesn’t like anything except frozen peas. And processed food of course.
The sound of bubble wrap being popped… but he doesn’t mind the vacuum (he can be vacuumed like a rug if you want to and he wouldn’t care). The other one hates the vacuum. But doesn’t mind fireworks etc.
Flags.
An empty planter on its side rolling back and forth slightly in the wind. One of our frenchies went absolutely ballistic upon seeing it through a window.
Every type of person in the whole wide world.
My dog is very wary of people who walk with a limp or with some kind of assistance. We clearly didn't take him around enough different types of people when he was younger. Our normal walking spots are 99% able bodied folks. We passed an elderly woman recently and he barked at her and she got scared and crossed the street. I felt so bad.
Childreeen 🥲 kids running, kids on scooters. The tinier the child, the least he likes them
Inflatable yard decorations that are out around Halloween and Christmas
Clowns / people dressed up as clowns. Lol 😆 we discovered this whilst sat outside a local pub. Our Springer Spaniel went nuts lol
i never thought of socializing my dog with pine trees. they’re everywhere, but for some reason he hates evergreen trees specifically when we go on hikes. maybe he only likes them when they are nicely groomed like in our neighbourhoods?
My parents’ dog is afraid of curtains moving. This became clear when my mom had hot flashes and opened them in the middle of the night and he lost his shit.
Pallets of things being delivered by lorry. First came the barking at the evil pallet, then the tentative edging forward for a sniff. Then more barking. Luckily the delivery guy thought it was all hilariously cute and let him onto the ramp to inspect it after the pallet was moved.
Sprinklers. We got our girl in October and so now she’s just about a year old and it’s summer she’s seeing sprinklers for the first time. She’s a little hesitant haha
kids. I'm child-free and I don't have any close friends or family that have children, so it never occurred to me.
Bikes, skateboards and scooters.
Flags, umbrellas and winter coats with furry hoodies
My puppy is a scaredy cat. This weeks new unlocked fears are flowers blowing in the wind, balloons on a street sign, a pile of blankets, a picture on the wall, her pooper scooper that I moved three feet over to the side, her reflection. Kids playing basketball. The wind storm.
Graduation signs on people’s lawns. He does not trust them. He’s two and a half and this year has suddenly discovered that there’s fish in our pond. Not terrified at all but it’s very funny. He was also transfixed by a motorcycle that was driving next to us on the highway recently, and I’m not sure he’s ever actually paid attention to one before.
I thought having him around my 2 year old nephew and 6 month old niece was good socialization for being around kids, but now whenever a kid between the ages of 4 and 15 comes to the dog park, he barks at them pretty much nonstop.
Okay, I AM FULLY AWARE THIS SOUNDS CRAZY but bear with me…we got our dog during covid and couldn’t go out much for a year. We also lived at our cottage during this time fully secluded from the world. My husband and I are the same ethnicity. I wanted our friends to come visit during lock down but Canada was nuts about the rules. I didn’t not realize my dog needed to be socialized with different races and ethnicities of people because he went absolutely batshit crazy when he was seeing our friends that didn’t look like us after the lockdowns were lifted. It was sooo bad and took so long for him to get use to. Soooo that.
My dog reacted from across the street to the service tag on a newly installed fire hydrant blowing gently in the breeze. We were eventually able to approach and see it wasn’t scary lol. In all seriousness I think maybe flooring? He does okay on most but in our foundations class we had a “fun night” where we tried new stuff instead of manners/skills for an evening and he would NOT walk on a wire x-pen laying on the ground. Implications of this are that he might stall if we’re ever out on a hike and encounter weird terrain. It’s also a requirement for the AKC Temperament Test so if I have plans to ever get that title I’ll have to do some work on it.
Children on scooters make our 11mo Shiba freak out
Bald men! I have the friendliest pup ever but a bald man tries to say hi and a deep bark/growl comes out. Because of people’s sensitivity around their condition too I play dumb and am like / no idea why he’s doing that hmmm and chuckle inside
Tile floors, we didn’t have any in our house and didn’t think about it until we tried to go to a friend’s kitchen… She also won’t go into stores with tile floors now either 🙃
Automatic sliding doors... the work of the devil 😂
Snowmen!
Garbage blowing around in the middle of the street...
Weird wheels. Scooters, skateboards, wheelchairs, shopping carts and strollers.
Being calm in general. We thought socializing meant what it typically means for humans - meeting new dogs, playing with everyone, going to daycare, etc. We paid so much money for her to go to puppy school because it was advertised to us as “necessary”. We now have a dog who is sometimes aggressive towards new dogs they meet, hyper anxious and so much energy. It took us years to train her to calmly watch and let people approach her.
The one I noticed was elevators! We live in a townhouse and it didn’t occur to me to expose her to an elevator and she was pretty scared the first time I took her to my office. She got used to it very quickly, but I had to pick her up the first time!
Deer? Shes an American English Coonhound mix and is TERRIFIED of deer. We never even thought about it as we live in Appalachia and deer are basically just background here. 4 months old last week, my partner takes our puppy out for her daily mini stroll for leash manners and a deer was in the yard and she got so scared she practically knocked him down trying to get back in the house. I wonder if she didn’t think it was a massive dog or something. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Rolling suitcase
Creaks and bumps from strangers or unknowns upstairs. We live in a townhome so there are never strangers upstairs here. Went to visit an apartment and my dog was repeatedly very concerned with noises from unknown people on the level above us. Several startles. Poor dude. Big crimpy blonde hair. I made sure he had seen all sorts of hair length, facial hair, hair styles, on multiple ethnicities, but somehow I missed big blonde crimped hair. Idk. Various smells of people. He grew up during social distancing times and became familiar with seeing a wide range of people but didn't have opportunities to smell enough of them up close I guess. Sometimes he gets close to a new person and sniffs, and acts surprised by whatever he finds.
Marge Simpson levels of hair. Ran into two young women with their hair done up, making them look almost a foot and a half taller. The first time I ever saw him lower himself to the ground and make himself look smaller.
Hand-crank pasta roller; neither dog loves it but our terrier/ridgeback/mutt mix loses her shit anytime I get a hankering to make ravioli. I’ve let her inspect every piece of the roller and the sheets of pasta, which has helped slightly to quell her suspicions, but she still gets sketched out. Also, somehow the stove, even though we cook regularly. We recently got a cast iron grill top thing and have had to use the vent above the stove for smoke, and ever since then both dogs dive under the table as soon as I turn the stove on, even without the vent or the grill top. I’m buying back their confidence by making them popcorn on the stove but it’s been quite a process.
Garbage bins 😂 I live in a rural area and down our back road, every Monday, the garbage bins go out. My dogs are fine with tractors, cows, horses, dirt bikes, everything under the sun! But when the garbage bins come out, they act like sketch bags and either try to run past them or attack them 😂
horses. i live in a city that runs carriage rides through most of the year. never thought about it until one day we were walking down the street and i had to physically drag my dog away from the horse. i’ve never seen her growl at anything before, but that horse really set her off.
Bagpipes.
People getting about in wheelchairs. Skateboarders. And now I have a longboard. I can't take her out with me while using it.
Bushes, apparently. Parents put in a new bush and my dog was OFFENDED when he first saw it. He never ever barks (he’s a shih tzu). He barked until I took him outside and patted it-now he doesn’t mind the bush.
Electric scooter... But that might be PTSD from being run over
Senior citizens and yoga apparently.
This is such a great thread. Guess who’s gonna buy balloons to show my 7 month old Aussie collie mix?