Hannah our Greek gal really surprised me this morning (not in a nice way).  She is usually a quiet and self contained dog,  not given to barking much, unlike my other yappy three!

Out this morning though a man was approaching us walking under a large black umbrella as it was raining slightly.  Hannah sort of charged up to him barking her head off.  He was quite a nice chap and made a joke of it,  but she wouldn't stop.  I was having a job catching her to put her back on her lead as she was so agitated and before I managed to get to her she ran after him barking at the top of her voice until he had gone round the corner, and carried on a while even then.  It was very embarrassing.  I am trying to think if she has encountered an umbrella before - maybe not as most dog walkers can't manage umbrellas and dogs too.

I did wonder whether also whether she associated it with the bad treatment she received at the hands of the beach bed/umbrella men on the beach in Crete where we found her.

Has anyone else had their dogs acting out of character in this way?

Snowflake

it may be something that is just scary to her? if it was a big umbrella im sure at least one of mine would not have liked it.
i was recently on holiday with my dogs and we were on the beach when a scuba diver stood up in the sea and started to walk out.
i KNEW they wouldnt like it but the reaction was all theie fur standing on end and teeth bared. i have never ever seen them bare teeth ever.
i would open an umbrella at home in the garden let her sniff it and get used to it in her own time see if that works.

An old GSD of mine years ago hated people with hats on even my ex who was in the RAF had to make sure he took it off before he approached (and she adored him) her , we tried loads of things but she never really got over her hat fear , I have had a rescue in that didnt like umbrellas and did the same as Mahonc , after a while he did ignore it .

One morning my girl was spooked by a postie and was barking at him with her heckles up, never happened since tho (she isnt a rescue) and we think he may have surprised her as she never does that to people even with hats on and umbrellas etc.

Dogs are strange creatures!!

Any one, friend or stranger, carrying a box sends one of my boys mad.

Men with bonnets on sends my rescue collie into a frenzy. Gentle and soppy who likes nothing better than a cuddle from anyone - show him a man in a bonnet and he becomes a snarling, spitting demon. Dogs have amazing memories of things which have scared, startled or frightened them.

my bmd seems to have a problem with hats, mostly with men wearing hats, she will bark wildly and sort of be on guard, but she will totally snap out of it when they remove their hat, and then she will go over and have cuddles with them!

Hmm - am having trouble with the men with bonnets thing .... am I being thick?? Bonnets!!

I will deff get Hannah used to  umbrellas by putting it up in the garden etc.  The situation was made worse by the fact I had just met a couple of friends as we walked, one of whom had heard a lot about,  but not met Hannah - so when she went mental I was mortified.  Oh I heard myself say,  she NEVER barks like this - feeling like a fool (the two women clearly thought I was mad having adopted a Greek dog) and my three other littlies were going spare in sympathy.  Oh well c'est la vie - that's dogs for you.

I think Hannah  is getting a lot more confident in herself hence is not quite so submissive as she was when she arrived!  She never went near a man when I first had her!

Snowflake

In Scotland it's a brimless cap worn by men or boys.

My cocker is really soft and loves everyone but put something in the wrong place and he goes potty.
They put a huge diversion sign on our work forecourt and he was barking and pulling and hackles up got him in and he was "moaning" for about 10 minutes.
Put an umbrella up to dry in the downstairs office - same again.
I think its just something scares them and they react for evermore.

Jake is fine with cows ect but on the walk to work every day! we pass a horse field and this damn horse makes a bee line for Jake and chases him along the perifery of its field, Jake barks and barks and runs  as fast as he can past the field. The horse then nods a few times and ables off - pleased that he has chased Jake away. Whistler no problem they both ignor each other. What im trying to say is the horse does not like black & white Collies!!! But cockers are fine, so its not only dogs that react to certain situations.

Animals have long memories I think.

My sisters collie was spooked but a hot air balloon flying over the house, now she will not go in the garden if she can see the moon!!

Come to think of it I had a similar reaction from my sheltie when she encountered someone selling a bunch of  those halogen balloons at a show recently.  Very large leap and a spook.

Horse get spooked by a fllapping plastic sack (often encountered when out hacking)so I suppose it is no wonder that dogs get spooked too.  On the whole though they don't get spooked so easily as equines and certainly can't throw you off!!

Snowflake

> and certainly can't throw you off!!

Can still have an impact though - I was happily looking at the harbour view when a bit of canvass attached to a small boat lifted up in the wind.  My canine twerp jumped so far and so fast he knocked my knees out from under me then tried to get inside my coat with me!

He spent the rest of the holiday giving this boat the evil eye and a wide berth :)

My Bernese hates men in 'shiny' jackets - the Hi viz ones, don't know why but she will bark her head off when she sees them especially if the light is bad so there must be some kind of 'glow' that she doesn't like.

Didn't even think of bonnets having an alternative meaning outside of Scotland :) Now giggling at the mental image you must have had lol I'm not sure what you might call it....a flat cap?

yes, my lovely WSS has a real thing about snowmen...went absolutely nuts last year over one in the park and then getting no reaction whatsover (from the snowman) he eventually went and peed on it.

Other pet hates: people wearing hoods

Colliecrew

I am still giggling at the thought of men in bonnets!  I can't imagine the types of blokes who would wear flat caps (here in England) taking kindly to being described as men in bonnets!!!  Heeheehee.

Snowflake

Info about men's bonnets.

my old collie used to jump up and try to catch snowfakes,barking madly all the time!Not scared fhough,just being a collie!

> My Bernese hates men in 'shiny' jackets - the Hi viz ones

I wear a hi viz when cycling and often when out in the woods during the winter.. lots of dogs react badly to the hi viz.

I'm sure it must give off some kind of glow in low light that the dogs don't like as we have my daughter's hi viz jacket that she uses for horse riding lying around the house all the time (usually wherever she dumps it :grr: ) and Bramble never bothers about it.