The Big Bad Vacuum!

[BobMariah]

Poor Gary is scared to death of vacuum's.

Gary is a Pekingese/Shih-tzu/Cavalier Spaniel mix (that's our vets best guess anyway) that we adopted from a resuce shelter when he was around 5 months old. He and his brothers and sister were found in an abandoned green house, close to death. When we adopted him, the lady that was fostering him and his siblings, tried to get us to take one of the other dogs because she said he would never be a lovely little lap dog. Boy, was she wrong! He's the cutest, sweetest little thing with the most adorable underbite I've ever seen!

Back to the vacuum's. He is scared to death of them. If he's downstairs and hears the vacuum running up stairs, he'll come and hide behind my feet. If Im sitting on the couch he'll try to stick his head between my back and the couch. He gets so scared his whole body shakes. The vacuum doesnt even have to be on. If he just see's it, he runs and hides. And then for the rest of the day he'll be in a depressed mood. He'll follow me where ever I go and make sure that he's touching me at all times. You'd think after an hour or so he'd forget about the vacuum, but he doesn't.

Yesterday I got home from work and he ran to the door and glued himself to my feet immediately. I asked my husband if he brought the vacuum out and he said "Yeah, and I forgot to put Gary outside first". We tried to give him treats to cheer him up, but he wouldn't take them. (Gary loves his treats - he doesn't ever not eat them). I asked if the vacuum was put away yet, and he said "No, but its up in our room so I can go up and vacuum in a little while". I thought that was fine; as long as he can't see it maybe he'd calm down. He didn't.

We went to bed around 10:30 last night. My husband forgot to put the vacuum away and it was still in our bedroom. Gary wouldn't come in the room. He walked up to the door, saw the vacuum and ran back downstairs into the kitchen and started walking in circles. My husband put the vacuum away and I went downstairs to get Gary and carried him up to bed. He was laying in bed shaking for about 35 minutes while I petted him. He finally fell asleep.

Im not sure what to do about his vacuum anxiety. We've even bought a Fisher Price toy vacuum from a garage sale and tried to get him use to that, but he wanted nothing to do with it. He doesn't mind loud noises at all. He like's to be in the garage while my husband saws, drills and pounds away building different things. I dont mind that he's scared of vacuums, but it effects him for more than just a few hours at a time. It takes a whole day to get him back to normal. If anyone has any advice, I sure would appreciate it.

Here is a picture of Gary (our cute little boy) and D (our little princess puppy)

 

[Lil-Jo]

Nov. 9, 2008 at 11:35 PM

Funny but sad for poor little Gary...  No suggestions because our Malamute/shepherd mix runs any time he sees the vacuum too...

[SashaDay81]

Nov. 12, 2008 at 3:15 PM

That is so sad. My Spunky chases the vacuum. I would just take him for a walk while someone vacuums the whole house at one time. But that might be to much. I would say look for a silent vacuum but I dunno if that would work. Good luck