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Afraid Of The Furnace.


Guest tmm

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Let me say I am new to message boards; this is my first post. I just had a community question I feel others may have some experience with. We've had our girl (Maisy) for about a year and a half now (our first greyhound, and right now our only dog). She lived with us in the apartment last winter, and our furnace wasn't noticeably audible; so we had no troubles. This August, my wife and I bought our first house, so we are now expecting cooler weather in the area. We recently had our furnace inspected and tuned up, so we've started running it. Trouble is, the furnace is in the basement, and when it starts to turn on, our girl notices! I wouldn't say it was loud, but it is more noticeable than our apartment. The low humming and firing up of the burner gets her quite concerned; so much so that she runs for the doors and starts shaking in anxiety. She'll settle down a little bit, but I can tell she is still anxious. I try not to reinforce this nervous behavior. I'll stay calm and if she finally does lay down, then I will give her encouragement (thinking she has submitted to her fear). But it seems she is still bothered by it every time it comes back on. So this is an ongoing cycle. The encouraging aspect is it is still early in the process; the furnace has only been running in our house for the past few days. Am I off-line in any of my though process? Are there any suggestions? We've been fortunate and haven't had to deal with a lot of anxiety issues from her before, but I am open to suggestions.

 

Thanks in advance! We love being new to the greyhound community!

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Our first foster came years ago early in Feb. Yes, we need heat in Florida! We have a 2 story house and all the heat/air is located in the attic. That's not the problem. It's the thermostat on the wall that clicks and sends the dog wild through the house.The previous foster family had the same issue with him and gave up to keep their family sane. He got over it with this house in about 3 months. A new black refrig was delivered to replace the white one and he would not come in the kitchen for several days. Some greys are a bit "sensitive" We won't go into Harley's,garbage trucks and the drumming at the high school 2 blocks away,LOL. He grew on me and I could not see him go to a 4th foster home. I FAILED and love him with all the quirks.

Edited by buddibear
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That's not fun for either of you.

 

Have you dealt with a reaction like this from Missy before? If so, did she get over the anxiety or did it get worse and worse as time went on?

 

If she gets over trauma pretty easily, I would try to wait it out. It sounds like you are already doing that.

 

When Duncan, my previous grey, got spooked by something, there wasn't a choice of waiting things out. He got more scared each time he encountered the thing that spooked him. Our response was two pronged. First, we did exactly what you are doing now; we stayed calm, waited for Duncan to settle, and praised him. If that wasn't moving him past his fear, we started diverting his attention when the "thing" happened.

 

Does your furnace have a click before it turns on? If so, that might be a good time to play with her and/or give her treats. She'll still hear the furnace come on, but she'll be doing something else fun and that should distract her from her fear some. It's not an instant fix, but it does work over time.

 

If your furnace doesn't click, you could turn the thermostat up and force the heater to come on. You will know it is coming on before she does, and you can start distracting her early. This might work best if one of you turns the thermostat up and the other engages Missy.

 

 

Can Missy get to the furnace? If so, would a visit to the "quiet" furnace help? Even when it isn't running, it smells like the air coming out of the ductwork. Maybe she could sniff it and realize it isn't something alive that will get her.

 

Congrats on being here! It's a friendly group with lots of people who share ideas, photos, and just plain silly stuff about their hounds. Tell Missy she needs to be friends with the furnace so you can come here and play.

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Thanks! Its fun to read what others are saying on the message board. Yeah, like both of you mentioned, it is the "click" of the thermostat that alerts her. Then the low rumbling of the blower turning on sets her into panic. You know, we have never dealt with a reaction like this from her before, but she has processed new things in the past very well. Maybe it is a bit of the new "unknown scary sounds," and a trip to the furnace might help. I never thought of the smell association by doing that. And I'll practice diverting her attention from the sound. We'll figure this thing out!

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Guest greyers

Ughh. I totally feel your pain!

Last fall and into winter we had an awful acorn problem in the mountains where we keep our trailer. The acorns dropping on the roof at night would set both my guys into a total panic and no matter what we did to try to stop that reaction or ease the fear, they would shake our RV all night long and not calm down. Once we even packed up and went home at 2 am!

 

I love the suggestion to give a treat when the "click" comes on and I totally second that idea! If you are faced with dogs that won't eat in those conditions then I have another idea that I should have thought to try myself. Get some sort of high value chewy treat. Maybe a bully stick or a trachea or if you feed raw bones, try that. When the heater turns on, you give the treat and if they don't eat it then no biggy. You take it away in a bit. Then you keep pulling out that special treat so they have something positive to associate the sound with even if they do not eat it. Eventually if they DO eat it then the item serves as a distraction for awhile hopefully allowing them to calm a bit.

 

Wish I had a better suggestion, but like I said, I failed myself last year and we ended up moving campground spaces so we are no longer parked under an oak tree.

 

Good luck!

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I wouldn't bother showing her the furnace--they can be pretty scary looking! But it's a great idea to give her treats when she gets scared by it. I moved to a new place that has a train track RIGHT next to it (which I never noticed before I moved in!) so when we're out walking, I started to give George a dog biscuit broken into three pieces as the train goes by (it's LOUD when you're walking outside--and hear it comes now!!) and it worked like a charm. Except now every time he hears the train coming he stops walking and turns to me for his biscuit!


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Susan,  Hamish,  Mister Bigglesworth and Nikita Stanislav. Missing Ming, George, and Buck

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