Hi, can anybody help !!   My cavalier puppy is terrified of the hoover.  I put her in her cage, and she just cowers at the back and looks petrified.  Is it just a case of letting her get used to it ?   or is there anything i can do to help her !!!

Start by having her crate open (so she can flee there if she wants, but isn't trapped) and hoover in another room. If she's okay with that, hoover in the same room as her but again have the crate door open as well as the door out of the room, so that she can get away if she wants. Then she can choose where she feels comfortable and you can hoover without reinforcing her fears in any way.

Thanks for that, its not to bad if my husband is home, because he takes her to another room and holds her, even then shes terrified. Our house is quite open plan downstairs, so when i hoover there isnt really anywhere for her to go !!!

How old is your puppy?

She is 12 weeks old

I was told one way to get over this is to get the hoover out and leave it in the middle of the room (with it turned off) with a dog treat on it, the dog gets used to it being there and doesn't see it as a threat.  Once the dog is used to it and is happy taking the treat off the top of it, get the hoover out and turn it on (give the dog plenty of room to escape) stay with your dog and give it a treat and coax it into the same room as the hoover.  Keep on doing this until the dog is happier.

I heard this at a training class but I've never had this problem so don't know how effective it is.

Steve

I think the best way is to keep things calm and your husband may be accidentally creating a drama out of a crisis if he takes the pup somewhere "safe". Only you've got years of hoovering ahead of you during the dog's lifetime and while he may not LIKE the sound of it, he has to learn to tolerate it.

My pup developed a serious and sudden dislike of the tumble dryer at 12 weeks but given the weather we've been having I can't stop using it! At 14 1/2 weeks he seems to have worked out some sort of love/hate relationship with it now that involves him keeping his distance - and a wary eye on it - but not bolting away like a frightened rabbit when it's turned on. I didn't do anything very special, just make sure he wasn't actually right next to it when I turned it on and simply carry on with other things that distracted him.

Sad to say your hubby is actually rewarding her for being frightened by giving her attention

You need to ignore the behaviour you do not want(the hiding)& reward the behaviour you want with cuddle, praise, treats etc

Look at the hoover from your puppy's point of view, it's probably 10 times bigger than her & makes a noise that she cannot see where it is coming from

So as has been said leave her crate door open so she can get away to a place she feels safe & don't hoover too close to her. Then leave the hoover out where she can see it but where she doesn't have to get too close to if she doesn't want to.

You can try to put treats near the hoover for her not too close at first but find a distance she is happy with & very very gradually work your way closer so that she associates being near the hoover with reward. You can also push the hoover around switched off so that she only has sight of it & if she stays put or ignores it praise her & talk to her(anything you like using a silly voice too )

If her breeder has used a hoover near her it probably wasn't the same make/model & looked & sounded differently to yours. When I got my first Dyson my GSD who is bomb proof(I thought) hated it but by ignoring her bahaviour that I didn't want & praised her when she ignored it pulled her round & she now totally ignores it

She may never like the hoover but can learn to ignore it or just move away when it is around being used. to somewhere she feels safe

Thanks for all your ideas, i will put the hoover out later and just leave it there and see how things go.  I will come back and let all you kind people know on the progress we are making. Thanks again !!!

Of course it could end up going the other way. My Kai was terrified of hoovers when he first came home. After ignoring him and letting him run off and find his safe place, he has now turned the tables (months later). Everytime the hoover comes out now he starts bounding about growling/howling at it. So now i try and hoover when he's sleepy as he cant be bothered to try and attack then :)

Mine aren't terrified, but they do run away from it. They come up to sniff, then run off when I switch it on! Poor Henry got stuck this evening - he couldn't come in the kitchen cos I was hoovering, but didn't want to stay outside cos it was raining! :-D