Strange thing

[LovaBelle]

Well, we've had Jake for a little over 3 months and have discovered that he has a strange fear. We adopted him from the local humane society and before that he was in "hell" with a hoarder who claimed to be a rescue, so we have absolutely no background beyond that. Anyway, a few weeks ago I was frying bacon for breakfast and he was scared out of his wits. He refused to come near the kitchen and would sit by the front door just shaking. It was so sad. I didn't tie it to the bacon until tonight. Then I thought he just wanted to go out, so my guy took him out and Jake tried his hardest to pull him across the street. He came in and still sat by the door, shaking. We had breakfast, the dogs were sitting across the room minding their own business. I offered them each a little piece of bacon and they both took it, and enjoyed it! Well tonight, we were making Halibut Chowder which calls for crisp bacon again, Jake wouldn't come near the room and sat by the door shaking. I took a piece of bacon and split it between the two dogs, again they enjoyed it. I just wonder what the heck happened to him that he reacts this way. My guy thought it was the sound, but we've pan fried hamburger and chicken and he doesn't react this way. Has anyone else had your dog be frightened of something that seems so innocent?

[mbc1963]

Interesting!

 

I don't know if this is the secret to your dog, but my mother's old dog used to be terrified of the sound of the smoke detectors. They usually went off during a frying incident of some sort. Eventually, the dog would run and hide if my mother so much as removed the frying pan from its hook.

 

Maybe your dog lived somewhere that frying bacon always = smoke detectors?

 

(My mother's old dog used to also go hide when my mother inhaled as if to sneeze - the sneeze itself was the scary thing, so the dog used to try to get away before it came out. Also, she'd run if my mother took down a jar of spaghetti sauce - my mom used to whack the lid on the counter to loosen it, which also scared the dog. Poor little neurotic old girl she was! )

 

Mary

[SincereArtisan]

Bacon does tend to 'pop' more in the pan than other meats.....maybe thats it?

[Anda]

Hey, you've hit on the one and only fear, or better put, unpleasentry, Ouzo has: smoke! He associates smoke with smoke alarms (yup, I've almost burnt food a few times ) so now, if there's smoke coming from the kitchen, even though the vent is on and windows open, he heads straight for the balcony and waits there, looking at us carefully, as to say: "Guys, you're on your own, I smell smoke, I know the smoke alarm WILL sound, meanwhile, I'll be out here, waiting for you to silence it!"

 

When we went camping about a month ago, he didn't like being downwind from the camp fire, either. You know how crazy those forest smoke detectors can be

[LovaBelle]

I never thought about the smoke detector thing. I'm sure this winter, when we aren't cooking on the grill nearly every day, I will burn something and I'll have to keep an eye on how he reacts. It's the stuff like this that makes you really want to know where some of these guys came from and what they lived through.

[silhouettestable]

Here's another thought, if it's not related to the smoke detector, but rather to the smell of cooking bacon. If there's any chance he's ever been abused, maybe he's been caught counter surfing and stealing bacon and severely reprimanded? Or, again, counter surfing and burnt himself if he stole it out of the pan? Just a couple of other possibilities.

[Jack & Co.]

Our smoke detector was chirping several months ago and I didn't discover it until I got home. Jack was a nervous wreck, shaking, etc., and actually got in the bed with me until I fixed it. It must be a horrible sound to dogs.

 

Jack came from the animal shelter and ever since he was tiny puppy, he can't stand to see people wearing gloves or the sound of a Nextel phone. We don't know anyone who has a Nextel, but even the Nextel commercials on TV will send him barking to the front door.

[BustopherJones]

Annie goes into hiding whenever DW is cooking dinner, then comes out when dinner is served. I am pretty sure that it has nothing to do with DW's cooking, because Annie has no problem consuming any leftovers that might get mixed in with her kibble. On rare occasion, when DW has cooked bacon, the smoke set off our ultra-sensitive smoke detector; so perhaps Annie associates the cooking with the potential of the acitvation of the detector. Then again, perhaps it has something to do with the harmonics of the electric stove. As with all things related to Border Collies, who knows?

[ZoZo]

You could try cooking the bacon in the oven next time to see how he reacts (much quiter that way). My guess too is that he's associating the popping with some other experience. My dog gets more more worked up over visual things than sounds. She saw a 12" branch on the sidewalk (that we travel on three or four times a day) near our house last week and she had a barking fit over that. She seems to be particular about things being in the "right" place.

[Lyric]

Strange, my first BC had the same reaction to the smell of lamb. We found her as a stray when she was around 9 months old and were never able to locate her original owners. The first time we cooked lamb around her she went into the yard and stayed there in the very back until after 10pm that night. Short of dragging her into the house there was no way she would come in while the scent was still in the air. She's 15 now and still will not touch treats or food made with a high percentage of lamb. If you toss a handful of those multiflavored crunchy treats on the floor she'll gobble down all but the lamb-flavored ones. The only thing we could come up with was that she had been so severely corrected for touching lamb at some point that it created a phobia of the scent. We don't have a history on her though so we'll never really know. Of course since your dog will eat the bacon, I agree with previous posts that it's more likely a fear related to the cooking process rather than the meat itself. You could try frying a slice of ham though, to see if the pork scent does have anything to do with it.

[LovaBelle]

I think I will try to cook the bacon in the oven or the microwave next time to see if that makes a difference. I would have thought that of the two dogs, Belle would be the one to shy away from bacon as she did eat an entire pound of raw bacon when she about a year old. Amazingly, she did not get sick either. The more I think about it, it's amazing that that the bacon is the only thing that has made either dog show fear. They don't mind fireworks and they like to lay by the front door during thunderstorms, I swear they are watching the lightening. Curious creatures these border collies.

[silhouettestable]

Strange, my first BC had the same reaction to the smell of lamb.

 

When I was a kid our family had a Kerry Blue Terrier that started howling when my mom cooked some lambchops! I think it was the first and last time she ever did it. I really don't ever remember eating lamb, I just remember her cooking it that one time and the dog howled.

[iluvlucy]

aaaah if only they could talk!!! but maybe we really wouln't want to hear.

[DeltaBluez Tess]

A few months ago the fire alarm started chirping in the middle of the night. It woke me up and while I was thinking of waking Jeff to remove it, Tess leaped b/w us, smashed herself into the pillow and whined and licked my face.

 

This is the same dog that will take on a cow but was terrified of the fire alarm chirps. She was terrified. She is not terrified of gun shoots, thunder or those type of noises.

 

I then woke Jeff up to remove it (it requires a ladder and I am clumsy on a ladder) and Tess then settled down but for the rest of the night, she was huddled b/w us and her nose was in my neck.

 

Tess does sleep with us in the bed, all stretched out with her head on my pillow but that night, she was a tiny ball on the pillow and in terror.

 

Diane

[AKB]

Arthur has a million of these little fears. He hates when we sweep, he hates when we empty the dishwasher, anything that makes noise makes him cower. Sometimes I worry that he's never going to be happy and well- adjusted.

[philip4420]

I have aneighbour with a rescue collie cross who's terrified of lamb. Its so bad they've given up eating roast lamb. They don't know his whole story but Murphy's been abused in the past and he obviously associates the smell with a bad experience. He's a lovely dog and fine in other ways, just can't cope with the smell. Really sad