When your fearful dog has an elephant memory
Five tips to help your dog get over a scary experience
The minute I saw her fall to the hardwood floor and down the side of my bed, my shoulders slumped. I already knew she had a long memory, and she wasn’t going to let this moment go. While I wasn’t initially thrilled with the idea of a dog sleeping with me, this wasn’t the way I wanted to avoid it.
Recommended Read: “Sleeping with dogs and bed hogs ~ When you finally give up on sleeping alone”
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As a dog boarder, I always put crochet blankets on my couches and over my comforter for dogs that are used to jumping on furniture. (It is an absolute waste of time to try to convince a dog who has jumped on his family’s furniture to not jump on yours. You’d spend the entire boarding assignment trying to un-train the dog. Good luck with that.) My crochet and knitted blankets “catch” fur in a way that cotton blankets simply don’t and save me a lot of vacuuming and sweeping time once the dog leaves. Throw the blankets in the washer and dryer on delicate, and voila, my home is back to normal.
Recommended Read: “Dogs and dating: The no-dogs-on-bed rule ~ What do you do when your significant other doesn’t like dogs in your home?”
Oddly, my favorite dog is the one who made me give up on my dogs-off-of-beds rule. I found out she was a warm, furry pillow — who hogs covers — and that was it for me when it came to housesitting. Now sleeping with dogs in my own bed was the one rule I was stubborn about — until I wasn’t. However, the same dog who made me shrug my shoulders at this habit was the only boarding of several who refused to sleep in my bed. Here’s why.
Crochet blankets have small loops in them. If a dog’s claws get caught in them, it can tangle in their paws. Without a firm grip, they slide down instead of being able to jump forward. Imagine what a rope net looks like in the forest. That is about what happened. Her paw and nails got trapped. She slid down and promptly took off running. Mind you, this is the same dog who has flopped down next to me countless days and who ran right into my home and took off to lay in my bed — in the dark. But one fall, and that was it for her. While it appears to be a perfect trick to keep dogs off of your bed, in this case, it was unintentional.
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Dogs have elephant memories. Once they’re scared, they usually remember why they were scared and avoid getting themselves into that situation again. I remember watching a dog go flying through a screen door before it was fully open. She got caught in the screen door and never again would she go out of the door unless I fully opened it, held it and stood close by.