Do your pets have any bugaboos or bugbears?

[marzipanni]

No, not pet toys...objects of fear or dread!
Sally, our Border collie-heeler has displayed odd anxieties. She slinks out of the kitchen at the sight or sound of ice trays being emptied into the ice bin. When we adopted her from the SPCA at age two, she was afraid of motorcycle sounds, cookie sheets, and cast iron frying pans, but now she has overcome her fears of those things. (Perhaps her former owner was a sadistic biker-baker?)

[AlienGirl]

1. The gaping open maw of the dishwasher

Cars driving too close to us when we're out walking around, Homer Simpson (which makes him want to fight anything with Homer's face on it), and mops (which must be destroyed at all costs).

Tucker

[marzipanni]

2. Sorry, I guess I should know if you have a dog, or a cat,

a ferret or a rat.... (If my kid and husband weren't such computer addicts I might have a shot at knowing DUers better!)

[AlienGirl]

9. I have a cockatoo, aka a feathery chainsaw.

[marzipanni]

11. That's hilarious! He sounds like a perfect candidate for

the David Letterman show! I wonder why he objects to Homer?
Do you have to put him in a dark room when he becomes too raucous?

[AlienGirl]

13. Well, he first saw Homer on an oven mitt

He likes to fight oven mitts because we once had one that looked like a snake. So he made the association oven mitt-->Homer-->fight. Then all instancers of Homer became fightable, not just the oven mitt version.

We live in a studio apartment, so there is no "dark room"! When I put him in bed for the night I cover his cage, but if people are home and awake he's out interacting with us (and giving us parrot help, the opposite of actual help).

Tucker

[BattyDem]

15. You have a Homer-hating cockatoo??

:rofl:



"... giving us parrot help, the opposite of actual help."

So ... you have a Republican bird. ;-)

[marzipanni]

20. My brother's friend gave my mom an oven mitt that looked like an alligator

with lots of teeth. Her dog hated it, because that guy teased him with it.
When I worked for a chiropractor, occasionally one of the patients brought her sulphur crested cockatoo on her shoulder. He would sit on the edge of a little sink in the corner and eat an orange wedge while she had her treatment.

[petronius]

3. One cat is afraid when I carry my laptop bag

the other cat fears everything on the planet...

[marzipanni]

18. The mere mention of a thing called "laptop"

infers competition to a cat! ;)

[petronius]

37. That's an excellent point!

She is extremely aggressive about claiming that territory. She also managed to knock the computer off a table once; I had thought it was an accident but now I'm reconsidering in light of your comment...

[Maddy McCall]

4. Lucinda hates rain. Doesn't matter if it's a sprinkle or a hurricane....

she jumps up on the couch, panting and shaking...and she stays right by me until the rain passes.

She's a miniature schnauzer. I've had her since she was a puppy. There's really no reason for her to be afraid of weather--she's been this way since we got her.

During Katrina, I thought she was going to have a stroke. She curled up into a tiny ball and wouldn't let me even walk to the window to look out.

[marzipanni]

7. Oh, you reminded me-Sally is also disturbed by high winds

If it's windy at night she always sleeps on our bed. She trembles if she hears thunder, but I'm sure that's not uncommon. Many dogs in my neighborhood have run away on the 4th of July because the fireworks display is at the park a couple of blocks away.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. We have a scaredy dog. The sight of large boxes etc. is enough to

make her slink around the opposite side of a large room to avoid them.

[BattyDem]

8. My dog sticks his face in large boxes and bags just to see if ...

there's anything in there for him. Luckily, he NEVER takes anything out. If he does find something that's his (like when he finds a toy in the bag after I've been shopping), he gets very excited, dances around the bag and barks at me until I give it to him, LOL!

[marzipanni]

14. Maybe you could make a kibble trail leading up to a carton

and leave a treat in it for her, to help her overcome her fear. BattyDem's dog would show her boxes can be a good thing!

[BattyDem]

6. My poodle, Maestro, hates loud noises

Thunder, the vacuum cleaner, the smoke alarm, the carpet steam cleaning machine, car alarms, etc.

Construction began on my block a few months ago and they did some blasting ... Maestro had to start taking Xanax! It was a major problem because he has diabetes and the stress from the noise threw off his glucose levels for weeks. :-(

[marzipanni]

10. Awww, poor Maestro! Is he a small, medium, or large poodle?

My family had two standard poodles when I was growing up. They were wonderful dogs. We had Pepe from 1953-1965, Mimi from 1965-1975. She got cancer in her mouth, I think maybe from radon gas because she slept on the cement/linoleum floor a lot and parts of the first floor tested high for radon. My neighbors' dog also had mouth cancer...

[BattyDem]

12. He's a miniature poodle ...

but he thinks he's a Great Dane, LOL! I don't have the heart to tell him he's not. ;-) Poodles are great dogs! They are incredibly smart and affectionate. He's 9 years old, but he's still playful and loves to tease.




Both you and your neighbor had dogs with mouth cancer? Wow ... there was definitely something going on in the ground there. Poor doggies. :-(

[neweurope]

16. Shadows and stripes is what one of our horses fears.

He will not step on them, he'll jump every time. Impossible to get him across a zebra crossing... And believe me, we've tried every trick in the book PLUS bags and sacks full of goodies.

------------------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[marzipanni]

17. LOL- I'm reminded of a report on NPR

Nursing home aides were consulted about remedies for problems the residents encountered, as the aides were most closely involved in their care. One problem was Alzheimer's patients walking out of a door to an unsupervised area, so an aide painted a large black oval on the floor in front of the door. It looked like a big hole, so nobody stepped near it. (I suppose having "old eyes" had something to do with it; as a glasses wearer I can relate)

[neweurope]

19. Sounds like a great solution! So often aides are

more clever than the experts.

------------------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[fleabert]

21. check out the book - The Dog Who Loved Too Much

excellent book that covers behavior like this. Great and unusual that she overcame her fears without treatment, most don't I understand.

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. For our Sheltie, Jessie, squirrels are a thing to be wary of and she

"tries" to save me from the vacuum cleaner by rushing up and barking at it once, and then hiding under the table. She is awesome at growling and snapping at the SBC repairman...from underneath the back porch.

Merlin, our cat, is afraid of "outside". It's just too big for him to wrap his mind around.

[sbj405]

23. Visible anxiety when I put my coat on or head towards the door

Has gotten much better over time (he doesn't eat my house), but still like he's having a panic attack for fear I may never return.

[NMMNG]

24. My roomie's cockatiel is terrified of hands

If you bring your hand up to the cage he cowers and hisses at you. His previous owner would let him out of the cage to fly around, then when it was time for him to go back to the cage the owner would put on a thick black glove (since the bird would bite) and grab him to put him back. Now the bird is terrified of hands. My roomie has worked for over a year to get him used to her hand (though he still nips at her sometimes) but nobody else can go near him still.

[riona]

25. i had a great dane

that used to sit (cowering) on my lap if the doorbell rang.
:scared:

[YankeyMCC]

26. This is a long list

Vacuum cleaners
There's this simple rubber bar (it's a bone sized simple pet toy) that he growls at if you pick it up
Wind - Yes that's what I said - Wind
Mailman
My son's robot toys (there are 2 or three)
Thunder
rain
water in general
cars
vet

[marzipanni]

29. Don't feel bad. My Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary

has four full pages of phobias listed, and that's only the ones with names!
But I looked up therapy and found this interesting (applies to other animals as well as humans):

There are only about two dozen common phobic objects, most prominently open spaces, crowds, animals, insects, closed spaces, heights, illness, and storms - all dangerous to our ancestors. 'Phobias lurk in each of us. They are the rekindling of dark, primordial fears'-
from a Book Review: Martin Seligman, What You Can Change and What You Can't,
more- http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/2136.htm

What kind of pup is he?

[LostinVA]

27. My eldest cat (8) has always been terrified of aluminum foil

[philosophie_en_rose]

28. One of my dogs hates ziploc bags.

Shake a ziploc or a grocery bag at him, and he'll run away. I have no idea why he's such a weirdo. But he's really afraid of it.

[no name no slogan]

30. Nope. Just dingleberries.

n/t

[Arugula Latte]

31. When I was a kid I had a horse that was deathly afraid of

black garbage bags. :scared: He would freak out when he saw one; one time he accidentally stepped on one and leaped back so quickly that he fell over. Luckily I fell clear onto soft ground and received only a cracked elbow. He also freaked out when he saw kites. I remember that I could feel his heart pounding through the stirrups!

[izzybeans]

32. My in-laws' dog steals dirty socks from the hamper and

gaurds them...vigorously. He'll sit them under the table and lie there ready to pounce on anyone attempting to pick them up. It's about the only time he shows his teeth. And he'll do it to anyone. He doesn't discriminate when it comes to dirty sock protection.

[laheina]

33. One dog hates motorcycles and people with their

sweatshirt hood pulled up. He barks at both. My other dog doesn't like storms. She needs cuddles when the weather gets too bad.

[warrior1]

34. check it out

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3805431976412888747

[Shell Beau]

35. One of my dogs is DEATHLY afraid of the waterhose!

:shrug:

[0007]

36. Sheep dogs have some funny hang ups. It could be a person's

voice. A hand going into the pocket. The sound of wind. They are extremely intelligent dogs and one can go batty trying to understand them.