Why dogs bark at the vacuum cleaner?
5 years ago, when stumpy little dog "Palette" came to our house, first thing I saw her running away from was when I shut the Microwave door. Then, when we go for a walk, she was uncomfortable to walk close to trash bins that were put out for the pick up. Then, garbage truck that makes loud noise made her stop walking,and stay still until the truck move forward.
One time, on our walk, we saw a kid's opened umbrella was rolling around on the street since wind was pushing it forward. She might have thought that an umbrella is a living thing and chasing after us and she started running as fast as she could.
At house, she was curious about furry friends she saw in the mirror and barked at it, paused and play bow, barked again. For her, it was another furry friends that she cannot smell her scent from in strange object.
Sometimes, she encounter a vacuum cleaner with loud noise and she felt the need to herd it,and bark at it..
Palette 3 months old..
We see things with human concept but, for those little eyes, ears, everything we are familiar with are not familiar to them;sound,shapes,movement etc.., and they could be something that makes them feel stressful, or feel scary, or feel uncomfortable around the objects.
Just like puppy proof your house , we should see things through dogs' point of views. What the world would be through dogs' eyes.. Ordinal objects in the house that we consider normal and nothing afraid of may look very strange,scary to them.
At about 3-4 months old, Palette got enrolled into puppy training class and we were introduced to clicker training. So, we used the clicker to train at home and got her used to the unfamiliar/former scary objects little by little just like getting her used to being bathed , and number of scary things got less and less as time passes by.
However, vacuum cleaner was the one that took much longer time for her to feel no need to bark at/herd and just ignore the vacuum cleaner and lie on floor on her side.
Can I be where I am? Do I really need to move?-Palette
Many dogs would find vacuum cleaner evil and bark at it or try to herd it like Palette used to.
Lucky and Vacuum cleaner
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch the video above.
I watched many videos on dogs vs vacuum cleaner but many times, owners seem to move the vacuum cleaner to the direction where dogs are at or move the vacuum cleaner as if they would like to make it view as fun chew toys or just like you saw in the video above, some encourage the dog to bite at the vacuum cleaner..
I think that some people may feel this behavior around vacuum cleaner annoyed but act the way that may lead to opposite result. In other words, we human are the one that need to be trained. If we want the annoying behavior stops, we should not encourage the dogs to bark at it or herd it.
First time Palette saw the vacuum cleaner, her eyes were on it, and once she understands it makes loud noise, she started running towards vacuum cleaner from other room and once she is around the vacuum cleaner, she was tensed up. So, I thought she knows the routines already and ready to bark at it, or herd it.
With little Palette bark loud at it,herd it, it was not easy for me to vacuum cleaning the house.
So, what I did was putting the vacuum cleaner where she sees daily. That way, she can see the vacuum cleaner without loud noise. So, I thought it would be easier for her to get used to it, visually.
I also hid the yummy treats near the vacuum cleaner or on the vacuum cleaner head etc when we play "Find it" game.
You can see how Palette play "Find it" game here. In the video, I did not hide the treats where vacuum cleaner is but you see the idea how you play "Find it" game with your dog at home.
After she got comfortable enough to go close to the vacuum cleaner on her own will, I turn it on for a second or so, and if she were sit-stay where she is at without any barking, I clicked and treat. I did not grab the head of the vacuum cleaner until she gets used to the sound itself. As time goes by, I turned it on longer and longer and click and treat.
After she got used to the visual and sound, I started vacuuming but from the room where they are not in. Basically, I was putting distance between loud vacuum cleaner and Palette, and gradually vacuumed closer and closer, but never moved the vacuum head toward her. If she come around in front of the vacuum cleaner, I turned back at her and I did not move the vacuum cleaner and ignored her, just like I ignored her jumping up on me. I tried to be as boring as possible for Palette. And, I never encouraged her via laughing or never said "Go get it!" to encourage the behavior.
One thing I found it helpful later is to ask her to go in to her crate (crate door is opened) while I am vacuuming. If she comes out to the vacuum cleaner, I stopped vacuum cleaning and told her to go to crate, and continued vacuuming the house.
When I prepare the vacuum cleaner, she usually look back and stare at the vacuum cleaner as if to say "Why I need to re-locate my comfy place for loud noisy thing?".
Another thing that seem to help is to vacuuming after walk. I think Palette is too tired to care about noisy vacuum cleaner.
She still test me sometimes, but I just need to be consistent in how I react to her.
Is your vacuum cleaner evil to your furry friends?
One time, on our walk, we saw a kid's opened umbrella was rolling around on the street since wind was pushing it forward. She might have thought that an umbrella is a living thing and chasing after us and she started running as fast as she could.
At house, she was curious about furry friends she saw in the mirror and barked at it, paused and play bow, barked again. For her, it was another furry friends that she cannot smell her scent from in strange object.
Sometimes, she encounter a vacuum cleaner with loud noise and she felt the need to herd it,and bark at it..
Palette 3 months old..
We see things with human concept but, for those little eyes, ears, everything we are familiar with are not familiar to them;sound,shapes,movement etc.., and they could be something that makes them feel stressful, or feel scary, or feel uncomfortable around the objects.
Just like puppy proof your house , we should see things through dogs' point of views. What the world would be through dogs' eyes.. Ordinal objects in the house that we consider normal and nothing afraid of may look very strange,scary to them.
At about 3-4 months old, Palette got enrolled into puppy training class and we were introduced to clicker training. So, we used the clicker to train at home and got her used to the unfamiliar/former scary objects little by little just like getting her used to being bathed , and number of scary things got less and less as time passes by.
However, vacuum cleaner was the one that took much longer time for her to feel no need to bark at/herd and just ignore the vacuum cleaner and lie on floor on her side.
Can I be where I am? Do I really need to move?-Palette
Many dogs would find vacuum cleaner evil and bark at it or try to herd it like Palette used to.
Lucky and Vacuum cleaner
If you are a blog subscriber or reading from facebook,please click here to watch the video above.
I watched many videos on dogs vs vacuum cleaner but many times, owners seem to move the vacuum cleaner to the direction where dogs are at or move the vacuum cleaner as if they would like to make it view as fun chew toys or just like you saw in the video above, some encourage the dog to bite at the vacuum cleaner..
I think that some people may feel this behavior around vacuum cleaner annoyed but act the way that may lead to opposite result. In other words, we human are the one that need to be trained. If we want the annoying behavior stops, we should not encourage the dogs to bark at it or herd it.
First time Palette saw the vacuum cleaner, her eyes were on it, and once she understands it makes loud noise, she started running towards vacuum cleaner from other room and once she is around the vacuum cleaner, she was tensed up. So, I thought she knows the routines already and ready to bark at it, or herd it.
With little Palette bark loud at it,herd it, it was not easy for me to vacuum cleaning the house.
So, what I did was putting the vacuum cleaner where she sees daily. That way, she can see the vacuum cleaner without loud noise. So, I thought it would be easier for her to get used to it, visually.
I also hid the yummy treats near the vacuum cleaner or on the vacuum cleaner head etc when we play "Find it" game.
You can see how Palette play "Find it" game here. In the video, I did not hide the treats where vacuum cleaner is but you see the idea how you play "Find it" game with your dog at home.
After she got comfortable enough to go close to the vacuum cleaner on her own will, I turn it on for a second or so, and if she were sit-stay where she is at without any barking, I clicked and treat. I did not grab the head of the vacuum cleaner until she gets used to the sound itself. As time goes by, I turned it on longer and longer and click and treat.
After she got used to the visual and sound, I started vacuuming but from the room where they are not in. Basically, I was putting distance between loud vacuum cleaner and Palette, and gradually vacuumed closer and closer, but never moved the vacuum head toward her. If she come around in front of the vacuum cleaner, I turned back at her and I did not move the vacuum cleaner and ignored her, just like I ignored her jumping up on me. I tried to be as boring as possible for Palette. And, I never encouraged her via laughing or never said "Go get it!" to encourage the behavior.
One thing I found it helpful later is to ask her to go in to her crate (crate door is opened) while I am vacuuming. If she comes out to the vacuum cleaner, I stopped vacuum cleaning and told her to go to crate, and continued vacuuming the house.
When I prepare the vacuum cleaner, she usually look back and stare at the vacuum cleaner as if to say "Why I need to re-locate my comfy place for loud noisy thing?".
Another thing that seem to help is to vacuuming after walk. I think Palette is too tired to care about noisy vacuum cleaner.
She still test me sometimes, but I just need to be consistent in how I react to her.
Is your vacuum cleaner evil to your furry friends?
Comments