Hi All,

A few days ago a pan went on fire in our house (thankfully it was quickly extinguished and didn't do any damage.) Ever since then, as soon as Nando hears a pan he barks. He's not absolutely petrified but he is excited/anxious of them.

Should we just continue as normal and completely ignore him, or should I perhaps clicker train him to like pans?

Josh

He should meet my Roxie -she has a thing for opening cupboards and carrying both saucepans and frying pans around when bored LOL.  Seriously though, my gut instinct would be to put his dinner in one. Use it as a food bowl, and see if that would help! If he'll eat from it he should quickly learn it's nothing to worry about, if he's worried enough to not want to eat from it, then you'd need to take things slower.

> my gut instinct would be to put his dinner in one.

That was my first thought too... and I nearly posted to that effect but decided to wait and see what others, more experienced than me, thought.

But re-reading it, it seems Josh's dog is more upset by the sound they make, so it might not be that straightforward. Getting him used to the sight of a pan would/could be fairly easy using a clicker, but it might be a little bit more tricky with the sound.

It is mainly the sound, and he is not so bothered if I do anything with a pan, he only seems to make a nose if it is my Mum with the pan... I think perhaps it stems from the fact he is more protective over her.

If he is generally quite a confident dog I'd arm myself with really good treats and clean out the saucepan cupboard.  Don't make exaggerated noises but get all the pans out, remove and replace a few lids, wipe the cupboard out and get them all back in.  All the while drop fantastic treats at random onto the floor - no talking, no touching, no eye contact.  When you've finished go out for a nice walk.  Tomorrow do it all over again...

As others have suggested, get him to build up a positive association with the pan noise. You probably need to do this by making very soft noises with it first and gradually building up to more clattery noises. But watch his body language carefully, if he starts to 'notice' the pans you are going too quickly. I think you could feed him treats out a pan so long as you hold it but I'd be careful about feeding him out of it on the floor as some dogs can be scared by the clattery nature of metal food bowls.

It sounds a bit bizarre but well out of his hearing you could yourself record pans clattering and being banged. You then play this CD at incredibly low levels while you play a favourite game with him and slowly over days and weeks your turn up the noise. If at any point he starts to focus on the noise then it shows you have gone to far and you need to go back to a lower level.

Some dogs are much more noise sensitive than others and can quite quickly become scared of sounds similar to what startled them in the first place so depending on how worried you think he is and how sensitive he is generally, you might want to think about a course of desensitization as described.From what you say though it sounds like he is being a good watchdog and you could just try to tell him its okay and release him from duty. Perhaps as DAB suggest above you and Mum could do a bit of pan cupboard cleaning together and drop treats for Nando or throw the occasional toy...whatever he enjoys most.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">He should meet my Roxie -she has a thing for opening cupboards and carrying both saucepans and frying pans around when bored LOL.

ok, so not just a nosey puppy thing then? 18 weeks and opened the pan cupboard and helped herself tothe collender....put it in her bed layed down thought nope i want more went back and got the tupperware cheese grater!!!!

Others on here are way past my experiencesbut i would have also said to put her food in it....

or,place a lot of them on the floor in the garden and keep her attention focussedon you,weave in and out of them...its how my trainer many moons ago taught my bitch to not bark or run from umbrellas!!

Sorry I forgot to reply to this thread... been a busy few weeks! Well, after a few days Nando settled down without me having to do anything really. I think he was just on alert for a few days and has soon realised they do no harm! He is a very confident dog and was very well socialised to loads of different things as a pup so he is probably not damaged by it! Thanks for all the advice.

that's great josh. Wondered where u had been lol

> I think he was just on alert for a few days and has soon realised they do no harm!

Very pleased to hear it :)

I know how odd some dogs can be about things like that. Where I used to live there was a hardware store just along the road, which we had to walk past to get to almost anywhere. They usually had some of their wares on display outside, and one day a sudden gust of wind caught some plastic buckets that tumbled down just as we were walking by. Every time we passed it for the next two years, he shied when we passed the shop! It only changed when they had a new manager who loved dogs, and allowed them into the shop for a fuss and a bit of lovin'... Doggy used to try to drag me into the shop then, instead of away from the dangerous buckets! :)

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I know how odd some dogs can be about things like that.

Im not the greatest cook and the smoke alarm has been known to go off from time to time :) One of my mail's started to go upstairs if I opened the oven door (she doesn't like the smoke alarm noise). It then got to if i switched the oven on, now its if I open a cupboard to get a pan out to cook, she just goes upstairs until dinner is served, She obviously has no faith in my cooking ability!