Dog spooked

[machohorn]

I have a 2yo lab, last week he started to become spooked coming from the bedroon hallway through the kitchen area or back again. he stops at the end of the hallway and barks, he will not even go over to go outside or eat his food. This morning it took my wife almost an hour to talk him into going out side. we haved moved everything in his path, we have not changed anything. could it he smells mice? we had 1 in the house about a month ago and trapped it under the sink. we even try bribing him with treats, now when a lab will not eat something is going on. Please help if you have had the same thing happen or can think of anything I am missing. thanks rick

[jeffreyd]

i have a 2 yr old lab also. in one of the corners i had a small metal plate leaning against the wall while cleaning behind the stove. my dog knocked it over onto the tile floor. this was over 15 months ago. he will not go on that side of the kitchen now and it was were we use to feed him. had to move his food bowl to the other side. last night he and i were playing, he was on one side of the island took off toward the corner where the noise was and stopped, backed up and gave up.

One thing you may have to do is put a leash on him and drag him down the hall to show him that it is ok. my dogs are very finicky during meals. if i have my shoes on my older lab wont eat as he thinks we are going somewhere. if i kick my shoes off he will go eat. just love him up and show him that it is ok.

[machohorn]

Thanks I will look again and try the leash thing.

[Farmboy1]

My dog is deathly afraid of the vacuum. I am slowly working her through it by putting her on leash and training in the area. Basic sit, come, heel stuff. She is slowly becoming less fearful of it, but it will take time.

My advise is to slowly work with them around the hallway. Make it fun, use lots of praise, treats if you use them in training, and maybe even bring the food bowl into the area. Make them associate the area with a positive instead of a negative.

That or you could have a ghost hanging out in the hall

[Harmonica Bear]

Dogs are funny that way, that's for sure. I hung a mounted fish on the living room wall once. The dog I had at the time simple couldn't handle that thing on the wall. You swore it was an evil alien. Bark, bark, growl, it was crazy. pretty funny too. Finally had to move it to a different room. The dog never did get used that fish on living room wall.

[machohorn]

But nothing has changed,everything is exactly where it was 2 weeks ago and that is why I am stumped, last night I even tried removing pieces like the table and chairs, Phone table, shoes etc. everything not nailed down and he is still spooked! keep them coming I need help/

[Ufatz]

Years ago we had pup who happened to walk through kitchen just as the dish washer kicked into HIGH SPEED cycle. Poor little guy when nuts and scrambled for the door. Every time he would have to come through the kitchen after that he would ever so cautiously slink along the far wall. He did the same even in a NEW house.

Try to just find the exact area that seems to spook him and then YOU sit down right there with one of his toys, or a treat. Keep trying that in various areas right near the "danger" spot. You can work him out of it. It IS funny to us, but boy our canine pals can really psyche themselves up.

I'm laughing with ya on this one. Patience will do it.

[Hossienda]

Are there any floor vents or something like that there? I had a lab that for years had no problem going across a floor vent in an older house and then one day she went over it and air starting coming out. She never went over it again. The bonus was she no longer tried eating the cat food...

-Hossienda

[DaSwede]

My sister's lab all of a sudden got a "hardwood floor phobia." She never did figure out why, but all of a sudden he just wouldn't walk across it. She had to put rugs down to get him to the door. Crazy animal.

[Hookmaster]

It's interesting what dogs are afraid of and what they aren't. My 16 month old yellow lab will come right up to me running a chain saw full throttle, lay down right next to a running vacuum cleaner but will go into the other room when I run the air popper. She has learned though that when it stops there might be some popcorn on the floor.

[nofishfisherman]

My dog is afraid of basements. When we got him as a pup we already had a cat and her food and litter box were in our basement. For this reason we didn't let him down there, we just trained him to not go down the stairs. To this day he won't even put a paw on the top step. This works out well at our place but we bring him with us to my parents and my in-laws houses and we want him to go downstairs there. But there is nothing i can do to get him to come down. Treats don't work, toys don't work, no amount of sweet talk, nothing. I've even tried picking him up and carrying him but he fights you to the end and I've never been able to get him down there.

Of course then when you leave him upstairs and you go downstairs he whines like you just left him forever. I'm convinced he thinks the basement stairs are a gateway to he77 and that we are never going to come back.

Other than that my dog is fearless. He loves to follow me around when I mow the lawn (I kick up alot of new smells), he doesn't mind the vacuum (we actual use the brush attachment on him when he's shedding), he'll run up to the biggest dog in the park and show him whose boss, but he won't go down into the basement.

[randallt]

He can smell the spirits that live down there.

[311Hemi]

My sister's lab all of a sudden got a "hardwood floor phobia." She never did figure out why, but all of a sudden he just wouldn't walk across it. She had to put rugs down to get him to the door. Crazy animal.

My parent dog had the same thing, basically because her paws would slide around on the smooth floor and it was hard for her to walk.

[machohorn]

Well 2 weeks into it and He is still skittish, I have done everything except, tear the kitchen out and leave a great big ole hole there for him. Oh well I'll keep working him until something pops.