My 5 month barks like crazy and bites the vac any time I use it. This habit includes dust busters and car wash vacs. His barking seems like a stress bark. I've tried to just ignore but it's not getting any better. Obviously, I can remove him from the area. I prefer to not have him so sensitive to this type noise if I can do something about the problem. No other type noise including sirens bother him. It seems to be worse when I'm actually using the item. Any ideas?

i am not an expert,my dog has just become a therapy dog,nothing scares him .but i just got a pooper scooper,it makes a clicking sound ,he is scared of that!fireworks,sirens,thunder dont phase him,what a silly dog,who knows what they are thinking.

oh another thing about my dog,he is a lab,now who ever heard of a lab that didnt like water?i had a small pool in yard for him all summer,never went in,hated hose,now we go off leash in woods,doggy heaven,jumps in the creek and swims in water for hours

Have you tried treating him when the vacuum is turned on? I'm no expert, but I would probably turn the vacuum on very briefly, give him a treat, then turn the vacuum back off. Maybe if you do this a few times, he'd get the idea that the vacuum being on was a good thing. Just a thought.

 Quote: Kori Bigge

Have you tried treating him when the vacuum is turned on? I'm no expert, but I would probably turn the vacuum on very briefly, give him a treat, then turn the vacuum back off. Maybe if you do this a few times, he'd get the idea that the vacuum being on was a good thing. Just a thought.

Sounds good as long as you don't give him a treat while he's barking. Otherwise you would be rewarding his bad behavior.

IMO the dog is too young to correct him for this behavior. I think he's just being a puppy and having fun. If it gets worse, and when he's a little older, I would correct him with a prong collar when this happens.

My dog didn't let me mop the floor when he was younger. Chasing the mop, trying to bite it... When he got older he stopped doing it, without corrections or anything.

When my dog was a pup he hated the vacuum. Fairly common, I think, and who could blame them for hating it? It's loud, tall, and moving around.

At 5 months I crated him while I vacuumed. He could hear and see it but he was safe in his space. When he was older I left him out but made sure I didn't box him in with it.

It took a long time for him to relax around the vacuum but now he'll follow me as I move around the house.

Since I knew that some dogs are scared of vacuums, I started off gradually introducing Nickie to it when he was very young. I would leave the vacuum out in the room and put a couple of yummy treats on top of it (vacuum was not turned on at this point.) This progressed after a few times to the vacuum being turned on but not moving with the treats on top. Then it progressed to my moving the vacuum around the room (not turned on) with treats on top. Then turned on and moving around the room and treating Nickie a few times. In no time at all, he totally ignored the vacuuming.

This worked for me - I'm sure all dogs are different in this approach!

However, sweeping my patio with a broom is a different matter. He tries to bite the broom, chase it, etc. etc. So I just sweep when he is in the house.

My dog hates the following items:

Snowblower
Shovel
Lawnmower
Rake
Vacuum Cleaner
(Hair) Blow Dryers
Brooms & Mops


He barks & attacks, or at least tries to. I'm thinking it is PREY DRIVE. He doesn't actually ACT SCARED.

When I vacuum, he is in his crate now. If he is in his crate, he doesn't react to it. He's gotten better around the broom, et cetera. But I still try to do it if he's crated or outside.

When I shovel I take him outside with me ... and I tell him to lay down. He has gotten better with that. With the snowblower and the lawnmower, now we're talking matters of safety, so he stays inside.

 Quote: Sarah Morris

When my dog was a pup he hated the vacuum. Fairly common, I think, and who could blame them for hating it? It's loud, tall, and moving around.

At 5 months I crated him while I vacuumed. He could hear and see it but he was safe in his space. When he was older I left him out but made sure I didn't box him in with it.

It took a long time for him to relax around the vacuum but now he'll follow me as I move around the house.

Good post Sarah!

I never crated Oscar when he was young and I needed to vacuum, but I never got near him with it. Everytime I vacuumed I started at the opposite side of the room as him and slowly worked my way around. I would intermittantly put the vacuum down (leave it running) and go give him a little pat and tell him he was a good boy, then go back to vacuuming. When I needed to vacuum wherever he was (standing watching or laying on his bed) I would tell him to get up and move out of my way well before I came over - coming right at them with the vacuum and bonking them in the feet or elsewhere is a sure way to make them really dislike it.

I think the fact that I made it very obvious that the vacuum had nothing to do with him eventually made it an easy thing to ignore. Of course when he was a pup it made him excited and he'd want to charge at it then run away, but in his maturity, he knows it's nothing to be afraid of.

Along with all the other great suggestions (I like the crating and vacuuming ), you could try just vacuuming VERY regularly, for very short bursts, but in a place as far away from him as possible, where he can still see/hear it - desensitizing through distant exposure. He'll learn it's just a noise in the house sometimes but that it isn't coming after him.

~Natalya