[Jedski]

Something that I have found interesting to say the least, is some of the habits and fears that have surfaced since we adopted Jeddah. Some are funny, some have been a test to our patience, at times.....but some are down right sad. As I've mentioned previously on the forum, we've now had Jeddah just over twelve months.

On Christmas Eve, we were preparing to have a few people over, and out come the bags of party ice to fill the eskies for the drinks (not too sure what you guys call them!) You know how the party ice can tend to form one large chunk, so you have to give the bag a bit of a bash to break it up...... Well, Jeddah reacted with total fear. Head dropped low, cringing and trying to run away! At first I thought it was just the noise of breaking up the ice. But, as we pulled out the next bag of ice, same reaction by just seeing the bag. At this stage, we then popped Jeddah away from the esky preparation.

Comes round to New Year's Eve, daughter's boyfriend brings up two bags of ice to the back deck, not knowing of Jeddah's little problem - proceeds to empty ice into esky. My daughter is calling out to him, "nooooo, not the ice in front of Jeddah!!" Once again, same reaction from Jeddah. Luckily, this lovely young man is a dog lover, so he doesn't think we're too wierd.

So, it makes me wonder, how does a dog end up being frightened by party ice??? What on earth has happened to her to bring on this strange reaction??

Has anybody else experienced some odd behaviour from a previous life?? (I'm talking about your dogs here, not partners).

 

[TracyJo]

Jeddah is so fortunate to have found you! Poor baby, God only knows what happened to her to cause her fear of ice!
We used to have a little corgi-shiba-sheltie mix, Max (he now lives in my in-laws) who had quirks like that. I had adopted him without Mark's knowedge I spent the afternoon with him and he was just the sweetest little dog but the second Mark walked in the door in his uniform, he completely freaked out. He was terrified. Mark rushed to the bedroom and changed clothes, after that, Max was fine. To this day, Mark can not be in uniform around the little guy. God only knows what caused that....

 

[Chaz]

Who knows why odd things freak these dogs. Mavis likes ice, especially the ice I use to make Martinis. Try giving Jeddah a piece of ice, out of the freezer at first, to see if maybe she likes it. If she learns to like ice, maybe you can show her the bag it comes from and ease her mind a bit. But then she might always be afraid of those bags. Good luck.

I'm guessing a esky is what we call an ice chest.

 

[frznbuns]

oh it makes you wonder!!! Poor dog. I wonder if someone in the past shook a bag at Jeddah, or blew one up and then broke it near Jeddah. poor dog! good luck! It is nice that Jeddah has wonderful parents like you to understand that all dogs are not alike and we have to love them no matter what!

 

[Jedski]

Chaz, you're not going to believe it, but she loves ice, just to chew on or even if I put it in her water!! That's why I thought it was so strange, so something must have happened with the ice bag.

Ohhhh, an ice chest, that makes so much more sense than saying "esky". LOL I'm pretty sure the word esky came from a brand name a million years ago!!!

Thank you frznbuns and TracyJo. You know what it's like when you love the furry little suckers, you'll do anything for them...... It's the people out there fostering and preparing dogs to be rehomed who really impress me!! They are the absolute legends of the doggy world in my eyes. I've only done this once, but they do it time and time again. Very special people.

 

[Lexus]

Poor Jeddah, who knows what goes through the girl's head.... Keep up the good work with her!

 

[LapDog]

Classical conditioning...she associates the bad sound of the crashing of ice whenever she sees the bag now. just like pavlov's drooling dog...they rang a bell every time when it was time to eat...and then the dog drooled every time that bell rang. She might have just developed the reaction since New Years when first hearing a loud crash like that. If she wasn't scared when you first brought the bag in with ice then it probably just developed through that later experience. I think it was John Watson (as an experiement )...he did a terrible thing and made a little 3 year old boy terrified of white bunny rabbits...on purpose...by banging a loud gong whenever they showed the bunny...later he was scared of the bunny...b.c of the loud gong noise he associated with it.
Our lab was abused badly before we adopted him...he still will crouch down if something loud in general happens...But he is scared of sooooo many things...With Jeddah...if it is ONLY the bag and the crashing of the ice that made her scared...hopefully its the only time she has been scared. If you really are up to it...you can desensitize her scared feelings about the bag of ice. Unfortunatly it takes MUCH longer to take away scared feelings than how fast scared feelings can be created.

My old dog had a weird thing about helium balloons...i think just because they are tall...and big... i dont think she associated anything with the balloons...but she would run down the hall and growl...and totally avoid the room they were in.

Hope you and Jeddah had a great New Years all Ice bags to the side!! hehehe

 

[Luv_my_Bruno]

First it's great you've taken her in!!

It's sad if anything happened to her I hate when ppl abuse animals. When I was younger my mom went to get our dog from the pound (got loose). While she was there. She found out there was a female husky who needed a home. She had been badly beaten.
Once my mom got her home, we soon realized it must have been a male that abused her. Because she refused to go near my dad or any other adult male. She'd always shy away from them. Plus for the longest time she'd only eat bread. She wanted nothing to do with her kibble or anything else. But bread and pizza crust. It was so sad She was such a good dog too. We got her when she was prolly 2-3yrs and she lived for a good 10yrs after. She also refused to go down into our basement...So it just makes ya think. So glad we were able to get her tho She was a sweet heart.