You must first know my dog is super neurotic. He's a huge chicken. He's afraid of the vacuum cleaner, exercise balls, our laundry basket, the spzzzzzzt sound of the mop sprayer, other dogs, and all people besides me, my wife, my brother, and my father in-law.
We've tried to help him overcome some of these. We tried taking him to the dog park so he could make friends. He wound up cowering underneath our camp chairs and eyeing the other dogs suspiciously every single time. We've tried having people hand him treats when they first enter the house. We've tried holding him and letting neighbor kids pet him on our walks. They love him, but he squirms and whimpers. Nothing works. He remains the biggest chicken ever, but he's super cute and sweet with my wife and I.
We got the phone call to pick him up and we drove over. I walked in and paid while the groomer went and picked him up. She handed him over, but not without asking a question.
I got out to the car and sighed, turning to my wife.
I don't know what else to do. We took him for a walk at night the other day. As we passed a house with a bright porch light our shadows crawled across the ground.
When my shadow reached alongside our dog, he yelped, jumped, and almost fell in the gutter as he tried to get away from the scary thing.
I think there's no hope.
I'll leave you with some cute videos of Mahoney. Just click on them.
13 comments:
We have a neurotic rabbit. #youarenotalone
One of our dogs is like that. The other is awesome. It's not just you...
Neurotic animals are almost as entertaining as neurotic people. Probably less irritating, though. We adopted a cat years and years ago before we had kids. She was just like your dog. Scared of everything. The vacuum, the outdoors, loud noises, soft noises, other cats, dogs, fish, EVERYTHING.
And just for the record, I don't think you beat your dog. I know you're more along the lines of the "Scare the ever-loving CRAP out of your own brother by hiding in his closet" kinda guy.
We have two neurotic dogs, but they both are neurotic about different things. We've also tried positive reinforcement to help, but no such luck. They must just be born that way. Mahoney is a cutie though!
I'm bummed because I can't see the videos, something about being removed from FB? What's that got to do with anything?
Anyway,I'm pleased to hear about everybody's neurotic dogs, makes me feel better about my own. Thanks!
awwww! pup! my sons adored the second vid.
how embarrassing though!
@dbs- Neurotic rabbit? That sounds fun.
@J.J.- Glad I'm not alone. Mahoney is awesome in his own way.
@Candice- they really are entertaining. The other night Mahoney started doing this twitching thing in his sleep while snoring funny. Unfortunately, pulling out my camera woke him up. You also know me too well.
@Morgan- Isn't he? People adore him. Too bad he's afraid of all of them.
@Kerry- Sorry. I couldn't find where I'd saved them on my computer, so I pulled them from facebook. I wonder why no one else has had problems with them. Weird.
@vic- Embarrassing for me or him? I do sound like a goofball on the video and I think I snorted once.
HA! no i meant for the groomer to think you hurt your pup!
Ah...that too. :)
Hah! My dog is like that as well, to a certain extent. She flinches a lot when you make sudden movements, low-crawls, yelps, etc. My mother says "I think she was abused!"
...I'm the first owner.
Granted, we got her when my first daughter was 4, and a little, shall we say, brutal?
Matt, Mahoney's first experience with another person besides us was being poked in the eye by my friend's little boy. I think that has something to do with it too. Kids are so cute and unintentionally brutal.
You really have one unique blog. If I had your talent for drawing, I would too, but I'm stuck with words and photos.
Thank you, Snowbrush. I'm not sure if I'd call my drawing all that talented.
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