Why are dogs afraid of Vaccum Cleaners?
For some, the noise hurts their ears and for others, especially herding breeds, it is the movement and some act like they do because they think it is going to attack their special person so they try to kill it. We need to teach the dog to leave the vacuum alone 100% of the time. I like to start when the dog is a pup if possible because it is so much easier. When I get out the vacuum, the dogs go into their crates and watch leaving it alone. With fosters, I park that vacuum right beside their crate and they need to almost touch it when going in and out of the crate. I feed them beside it etc and then I start turning it on when they are crated for just a short while and am there to stop them and say leave it if they start to act up. You would be surprised how many adopters say one of the reasons they apply for one of our fosters is their training about the vacuum and with cats.
