Strange things dogs do

pjlippert

pjlippert

Cathlete
A question for you dog lovers. What is it with some dogs barking at people wearing hats and why do they try to 'attack' the vacuum cleaner?? :rolleyes: My Bichon barks at people he knows who frequent our home when they are wearing hats. What's up with that? I couldn't find anything very useful on the internet.

Thanks and WOOF!
Pam
 
Sorry, I can't help you with your problem, but my beagle likes to eat poo:eek: So, I'll trade ya dog problems!:p
 
The barking at hats could be that the dog had a bad experience with someone wearing a hat.

There was once a Great Dane at the local shelter where I volunteer who was the sweetest, friendliest dog. She was adopted by the shelter manager and would come to the shelter with him when he worked (and greet people who came in).

One day, a man wearing a hat came in, and this big, friendly dog went cowering under a desk: her previous owner (who left her and a male Great Dane starving to death, her with 12 new puppies, all of whom eventually died) was a man who wore hats.:(
 
Hi Kathryn, that is such a heartbreaking story!!:( I can't understand people who don't care for their furry family members or who hurt, neglect, abuse animals.

We got Wolfy from a neighbor when hewas about six months old. The college kid who lived in a fraternity was allergic to him. The college boy is very respectable and Wolfy was very admired but that type of environment could be a bit scary for a tiny white furball.

Pam
 
My dogs act up when I am wearing a winter hat, or a baseball cap. I don't wear them often, but they act as if they don't know me. Good question!

My DH works a lot, we both do, but when I am home alone and going to sleep at night they bark at everything. They never do that when he is home. I like to think they are being protective, since they sleep with me too. All of them.

Let me know what you find out! :)
 
I think I read about this in a book by Patricia McConnell "For the Love of a Dog". The book talked a lot about how animals rely heavily on body language and facial expressions to gauge each others temperament. When people wear glasses, hats, or other things that obscure their facial features (even beards and mustaches), it can cause the animal to misread the temperament of the person and therefore the dog does not know how to react to that person.

That book is pretty interesting and includes a really nice display of animal facial expressions and how they really do look just like human facial expressions and what the underlying emotion that corresponds to that expression means.

As to the vacuum cleaner question, I have no idea what is up with that one! My dog is actually afraid of the vacuum but will try to attack (playfully attack) the lawn mower. My dog is also deathly afraid of electrical cords even though he has never been caught in one or hurt by one. He won't even step over the cord. He just stares at it like at any moment it is going to attack him. I assume it is the same idea as why some dogs are afraid of thunder and others are not regardless of past experiences.
 
Dogs don't like hats, facial hair or glasses. I've had a couple dogs that attack the vacuum too - it's loud and they see you pushing it around like you're fighting with it. The dogs I have now have no problem with the vacuum, but both hate motorcycles and leap at them when they drive by. Quite humorous, since they always clothes-line themselves on their leashes. You'd think they'd learn. I don't even want to get started on how they react to dogs on the HDTV with surround sound - even those that are cartoons. I have to shoot any dog immediately that shows up on an XBOX game before my dogs can see or hear them, or they go nuts.
 
I know this is a dog thread, but...
One Halloween, I put on a cat-ear headband (a stiff headband in a tiger pattern, with ears) as a minimalist costume I was going to wear to school, and the minute I put on the ears, one of my cats looked at them very startled, as if I were a completely different person/creature. I took them off, and she was fine. I put them back on, and she was a bit freaked out again.
 
Hey, that hat's not supposed to be there. My dog has to remove any band-aid she finds on me -- it's not supposed to be there.

As far as the vacuum cleaner, my dog used to run away from it. I assume there is possibly an overtone (higher pitch) that hurts her ears. Anyway, I started giving her a treat everytime I took out the vacuum, and eventually I made her come get the treat while I was using the vacuum. So now she doesn't exactly like it, but she tolerates it.
 
I think they react anxiously to things they aren't familiar with. So if they're used to mostly seeing people without hats, hats will freak them out. If you have a dog who really reacts to hats, try wearing some different ones around the house so the dog becomes accustomed to it. On a funny sidenote, my parents' black Lab is the only dog I've ever known who *loved* the vacuum cleaner. She loved to have her back vacuumed! But she really was a fearless dog.
 
I rarely wear hats but I did today and my lab just looked at me like, "what's up mom?" but what the other girls said sounds like good reasons dogs may bark. My sweetie has worn her teeth down to nubs b/c her big issue is chewing. She ate all the spindles on our porch but the worst thing she ever did was eating my son's diaper when he was a newborn. She had gotten into the trash and ate the whole thing. I didn't even know she did it until I was outside w/ her when she pooped out the entire intact diaper. I don't know how it didn't kill her or really hurt her. We took much better care to dispose of diapers after that.:eek:
 
Okay, Dixie girl, I think YOUR dog takes the gross cake!! Or diaper in this case! OMG!! That's another one of those bizaar and totally disgusting things dogs do... really, couldn't they just eat kibble?? GAG!!

Or to go with the 80's theme... "like Oh My God, like gag me with a spoon!"

Pam
 
I know Pam, who knows what goes through dog's heads and why they do what they do. The funny thing about my girl dog is she hates dog poo so I can't figure out why she ingested a poopy diaper. I wonder if it was a female/motherly instinct she had...don't mother dogs eat their pups messes? But, yes that act was disgusting and very bizzare!
 
Oh, thank goodness Dixie......I think your dog beats my dog in the "gag" category. LOL! We call our beagle the recycler....since he eats his own.....um....excrement.:confused: We watch him as closely as we can, but when he stays outside for long periods of time, like dogs should in nice weather.....well..... I guess it's a beagle thing. I've actually looked it up in books and some dogs, like beagles, do this sort of thing.

We have another female beagle (mix) that doesn't do this, but we've had beagles before that do. They're not underfed......in fact, the vet recommended they lose a few pounds.....so that's not the problem.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.......
 
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