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Balloons are soooo scary!!

2K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  AcadianTornado  
#1 ·
Today's my b-day and my co-workers got me some balloons - I just got home from work and put the balloons on the counter. When I let the dogs in, Penny ran past them and then turned around and just stared at them. Cash came in, saw the balloons and went crazy! All the hair went up on his back and he started barking non-stop at them. Of course this made Penny think that they were bad, so she started acting just like Cash. I tried to tell Cash to leave it and not make a big deal out of it, but he would not calm down. I had to put the balloons in the office and shut the door - but he's still walking back and forth between the counter and the office and checking to make sure that those scary balloons are safely behind closed doors!!

Does anyone else have a dog that thinks balloons are scary?
 
#2 ·
Happy Birthday CrazyCash!!! ;D

Elza does get scared of certain shapes and noises too. I have to usually show her that it is ok and nothing is wrong with whatever she's afraid of. Touching and rubbing or stepping on these things usually sorts the problem out.

For instance I cannot measure her height cause she's afraid of the tape measure!!! :-\
 
#3 ·
Haha, I'm glad my pup isn't alone. About 4 monthes ago were on our morning walk, situation normal. All of a sudden, Kauzy locks up on point for about 5 seconds and then starts freaking out. It was a quiet early am Saturday morning and there was no one or thing around. I try calming him down and begin crossing the street with him. He tries to retreat. I then see what he's flipping out over; a garage sale sign with 2 Mylar balloons tied to it. I started laughing and we approached the evil demon balloons. It took a few minutes of calming him down, reassuring him and introducing him to the balloons. He then attacked, and subsequently destroyed them. It was an amusing exchange, though I felt bad for popping someone else's balloons. I've since brought home balloons and he's no longer scared of them, they are now toys to pop

Btw, happy bday!
 
#4 ·
Jasper used to be scared of balloons. There was an open house and they were tied to sign, and he did not trust the way they were bobbing in the breeze. We walked up to them and I poked them, and he got over it. A few months later he stole a birthday balloon out of my hand and ran off with it!

He was also scared of a statue of a firefighter in front of the station. This was only at night when the lights hit it weird and cast spooky shadows. During the day he couldn't care less. I interacted with the statue to make him think it wasn't scary, but he wasn't buying it. This was in my hometown--my family has since moved, so we don't go past it anymore on walks when we're there for a visit, so I'm not sure what he'd think of it now...maybe we'll have to test it next time!
 
#6 ·
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to CrazyCash and harrigab!! :D

Willie isn't bothered at all by balloons. As mentioned before, he is, however, afraid of brooms. Wouldn't life be easier if they could talk? I mean, just a few words -- in (let me in), out (let me out), cold (please put my sweater on me), toy (let's play with this toy), hungry (is it time for my dinner yet?), hurt (I am in pain and here is where it hurts), scared (what IS that thing?), etc.

Of course, they do manage to communicate these things nicely without the use of words, except for the "hurt" one, maybe. :)
 
#7 ·
Happy Birthday!

Savannah was also scared of balloons. Fortunately, we had already learned CheckItOut and she got over it fairly quickly. Our latest issue occurred when the pumpkins ripened. The round, orange things were just a bit much since we didn't walk by them every day. CheckItOut worked again, but we did receive more than a few odd looks from passersby.
 
#8 ·
Cash and I have been working on being ok with balloons. Today we had a breakthrough - we started out with just one balloon and he seemed ok with it, so I brought out the whole bunch of them and surprisingly he was ok with that too. At one point he had the string from the balloon in his mouth and he was running around the house with it - and very proud of himself. ;)

Here are a couple of pictures - the first one cracks me up, he wasn't totally sure about it floating above his head. :)
 

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