Dog mentally scarred for life?

mikemac

The mammy would be sweeping the kitchen floor every day, neat freak.

When the golden retriever was only a pup, he wet the floor as pups do and he was put out while the sweeping brush was still being held. He probably got shouted at too.

No, he's never been beaten or touched in his life, in fact he's spoilt! And spent this evening curled up by the fire

But even now if I or anyone goes to sweep the floor, if he even catches sight of the sweeping brush he whimpers and acts submissive and wants out.

This was eight years ago! I would have thought he'd get over it by now, do dogs never forget?

Don't want him upset over something stupid like this.
Any dog shrinks here?
Oh he was bought from a breeder, not a rescue dog or from a bad home. I've seen his family tree, it's more detailed then our own!

easyeason3

He still associates the sweeping brush as being put outside that's all. It's like if you teach a dog to sit when they are a puppy, they will continue to remember that command & what they need to do.
So technically by picking up the brush he takes that as his nod to go outside.

chucken1

Ah poor baby . I think dogs never forget. We have a little Jack russell whos 11 now and every time she hears or sees keys she does what your fella does..gets all worried and wants as far away as possible.
No idea why as she was never mistreated..in fact this is her house and shes now sighing deeply at me to stop clicking the keyboard

echosound

Dogs do definitely remember triggers like that.

We had a dog many many years ago, who got out and went wandering on a farmer's land. The farmer aimed a shot over the dog's head to scare him off, but some stray pellets clipped the very tip of the dog's ear. No real damage done thankfully, just a little scratch on the tip of ear.

The dog came yowling home (we knew the farmer and he told us about the incident, and while I was gutted the dog had been so badly scared, the farmer was well within his rights to shoot the dog dead if he had wished, t'was our own fault that he managed to escape in the first place and was put in that position ) and from that day til the day he died, if anyone had anything long that looked gun-like in their hand (sweeping brush, shovel, etc) the dog would whimper and run hiding into his kennel. Even if someone raised their arm and pointed at the dog, he would run whimpering as he thought it looked like a gun being aimed. Poor fella. Had to be extra careful around him so as not to trigger the memory.

I wouldn't worry overly about your dog, I know it's not nice to see them being upset, but just shunt him into another room while you're sweeping, as it does seem he associates the sweeping brush with having to go outside and worries he's about to get a scolding!

Meteoric

Please try not to worry over much, it is not the end of the world if you can always take him out of the area when sweeping. If you do want to get him over this, then positive association is the way to go.
Take the brush, bring it to the point where your dog starts being anxious, stop, move back a step, and get the dog to come to you and reward it with food, cuddles or both, then while he's happy you move to the thing that made him a bit anxious (e.g. bringing the brush near him) but continue the cuddles and treats without restricting him from getting away at all, depending on the dog he will forget the old thing in favour of the new model in different amounts of time.
Repeat in baby steps until the dog realises that sweeping = good things, a long process, but if you do want him to stop associating sweeping with bad things what you probably need to do.
It ls easier probably on you and the dog to just not have him around people sweeping but reprogramming is probably the only way if you want to sort it out in my opinion

Chris_Heilong

Yeah what with this cr@p about farmers rights to kill dogs or do we all have "rights" to kill animals on our property?

Just a question as I always get ticked off when I hear stories of Farmers shooting at dogs, why not just ask to be compensated if a dog does damage?