About those weak nerves & fear & that darn vacuum cleaner

[Kittilicious]

Many posts on both weak nerves & fear/fear agression. So that leads me to my question... if a puppy is afraid of a vacuum cleaner, is that a sign of something? (other than fear of the sucking machine! LOL) Knuckles is scared of it, so bad that he will obsess over where it is after it's turned off & unplugged. He is getting better, he used to SCREAM when I'd run it and it would take him a good hour or two to go into the room that I was vacuuming afterwards. Now once its turned off, he'll peek his head in the room as if to say "is the coast clear?" and come in, but he still won't go near the actual machine.
So along the lines of nerves, fear, temperament... what does that say about him? Anything? He does have a few other milder fears, all seem to circle around loud noise.

[Emoore]

I don't know. . . . The fear/hatred of the vacuum is so common it makes me think that maybe it makes a sound that they really don't like that we can't hear.

[Kittilicious]

Originally Posted by Emoore

I don't know. . . . The fear/hatred of the vacuum is so common it makes me think that maybe it makes a sound that they really don't like that we can't hear.

Yeah, thats kinda why I brought up the topic, being it's so common.. but yet there are incidents that I read about (dogs, people, cars, etc) that the fear/temperament gets brought up.

[Sigurd's Mom]

I think it's just the noise of it all. Sigurd used to be fine, but recently he's been odd around the vacuum. I think it started at my neighbours house lol, she said she was vacuuming and Sigurd flipped the vacuum while she was using it... hers is a different brand/model so maybe the tone was different. Now when I vacuum Sigurd follows me around eyeing it.

[doggiedad]

when my dog was a pup i use to crate him
when the vaccum was in use. i use to vacuum
near his crate to get him use to it. when he was
out of his crate and i vacuumed he would charge
the vauum and bark. i would tell him "no" and move him
away from the vacuum. once he learned "stay", "go to
your crate" it was easy to vacuum. for training purposes
we turned on the vacuum a lot. my dog went after the broom
and dust mop. like anything else you have to train them
how to act when usuing the vacuum, broom or dust mop.

[hattifattener]

poor boy!
but i think he will get accustomed to it over time.

[Kittilicious]

He will, he's getting better everyday. From where he started until now, it's night & day!

As I said, this topic was more on the "peek inside the future" kind of topic... if this fear somehow defines, even a small bit, of how he would be as an adult. Being the vacuum is a common thing.

I think it's just the noise of it all. Sigurd used to be fine, but recently he's been odd around the vacuum. I think it started at my neighbours house lol, she said she was vacuuming and Sigurd flipped the vacuum while she was using it... hers is a different brand/model so maybe the tone was different. Now when I vacuum Sigurd follows me around eyeing it.

Thats interesting. I wonder how many dogs have a different reaction to a new vacuum. That would really suck (no pun intended) if I could get Knuckles used to this one and then a new one starts it all over again!
Anyone else remember if a new vacuum had a different reaction from your dogs?

[Wolfiesmom]

I have 2 different vacuums. I have central vac at home and a canister vac at the beach house. They are completely different and have a different sound. Wolfie reacts to both the same way. He tries to attack the vacuum when I am using the beater brush attachment, though now he just does that until I tell him no and then he walks away. If I am using the hose without the attachment, he tries to shove his tongue in there. I guess he likes it because he will go over and turn the central vac on by himself if I leave the hose unguarded for a minute, and shove his tongue in there.

[hattifattener]

Originally Posted by Kittilicious

Yeah, thats kinda why I brought up the topic, being it's so common.. but yet there are incidents that I read about (dogs, people, cars, etc) that the fear/temperament gets brought up.

dogs are very individual - some are nervous,others aren't.that's inherited.

this is third female GSD i own.

first dog was rock solid,second was nervous (but very sweet) and now i have solid pup again.
she even loves to play with vacuum cleaner. sometimes i suck all breath out of her - when she sticks nose to the hose.

[Mrs.K]

Mine always "attacked" it. They loved to play with the vacuum when they were pups, just like they did with the mop. Judge is right next to the vacuum playing with his ball nowadays, hoping that I kick it away for him to chase it. He doesn't care about the vacuum cleaner noise at all.