lil_me Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 (edited) Ok, my youngest dog is driving me crackers, he's a lab/springer, about 5 years old now and he's scared of the washing machine. At certain times in the day he's always cried more and been more 'scared' and we've now realised it's when the washing machine is on. He's absolutely petrifed of it. He's never been a confident pooch, is scared when a dog growls at him, of loud noises etc but this is getting silly. Any ideas for my soft silly pooch? Not using the washer is impossible as it's on daily sometimes a few times a day, laundrette too expensive...any cheaper ideas? Yes I should have been in bed now but the washers on and his crying is keeping me awake! I've came back down to switch the washer off and calm him down so thought I may aswell ask now! Thanks in advance for any help/advice Edited April 12, 2008 by lil_me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K9Fran Posted April 12, 2008 Report Share Posted April 12, 2008 Could he sleep somewhere else? Is the the sound or the vibrations he's worried by? If you have a variable spin speed, does he cry less on slower spin programmes? I would work at keeping him amused and doing something he likes when the washing machine is on, but try and keep him as far away from it as possible. Do this each time you run the washing machine, or even take him out of the house completely before it starts. Do NOT, EVER leave him alone with it, as we are trying to change his perception of it by getting him to think it means the best possible things are going to happen, if at any time during this process he finds out that sometimes they don't happen, you'll undo all the good work. After a few months, he should start to forget it was scarey and you can start to reduce the distances between dog and machine........ HTH - it worked quite succesfully for a friend of mine whose dog was scared of fireworks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil_me Posted April 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 (edited) He's as far away as he can be from the washing machine, that's in the back utility room. He won't go near there when it's on. Yes I think less on some spin cycles, more if it's louder and cries when it's filling/emptying. He's scared of fireworks, any sudden noises aswell, always been quite a fearful do of many things but it's took us ages to suss this one out. Fireworks one made worse when a one hit the conservatory door as we went to open it last year. I'll definately stop putting it on when we're out/in bed, in the summer I can use slower spins more. I tried giving him his fave chews yesterday when it was on and he just left it and cried. Thanks for your help. Edited April 13, 2008 by lil_me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summersun Posted May 24, 2008 Report Share Posted May 24, 2008 hiya, this is gonna sound odd but my dog stopped being "scared" of all nasty bangs and crashes when we got our new dog who wasnt scared. is your doggie pal friendly - perhaps he has a nice confident friend who would stay with him ? just a thought (i wouldnt suggest getting another dog just to do this - it was just a happy co-incidence for us !!) claire x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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