Scared of hot air balloons
Rick Haslip
I have noticed some personality changes in my dog over the last year and
was wondering if it is just part of the maturing process.
Hobbes (an English Fox Hound) is now 2 years and 3 months old. In the
last 5 months or so he has become terribly afraid of hot air balloons. They
did not concern him at all before and it is very unfortunate because Ottawa is
lousy with the things! If he is outside he puts his tail between his legs
and runs for the back door to be let inside. If he is inside, he will
start shaking and attempt to climb inside my skin (if you know what I
mean). I'm able to calm and reassure him to a certain extent by closing
the blinds and curtains in the living and dining rooms and by speaking in
a calm and gentle voice to him, but he KNOWS the balloon is still out
there. He usually ends up lying down in the front hall, as far away from
the back door as he can get.
I recently read that this is probably because Hobbes feels the balloon is
infringing on his domain or that the noise from the burner is the cause. I
don't buy the burner argument because my stereo can be on and the balloon
can be a mere speck on the horizon and it has the same effect. My
neighbour's dog (Hobbes' pal, Murphy) is the same way. Could this be a
behaviour he learned from Murphy?
I wish I knew of a way to help. This is the only thing that fazes him at all.
When he was younger he was scared of going in a boat, but now he will go in
any boat or canoe and seems to enjoy it. He has even started going in
swimming by himself this summer whereas he used to be deathly afraid of water.
Anyone else have a similar problem? Any suggestions or advice are welcome.
Thanks.
Rick Haslip
Amy Shinpaugh
>
>I have noticed some personality changes in my dog over the last year and
>was wondering if it is just part of the maturing process.
>
>Hobbes (an English Fox Hound) is now 2 years and 3 months old. In the
>last 5 months or so he has become terribly afraid of hot air balloons. They
>did not concern him at all before and it is very unfortunate because Ottawa is
>lousy with the things! If he is outside he puts his tail between his legs
>and runs for the back door to be let inside. If he is inside, he will
>start shaking and attempt to climb inside my skin (if you know what I
>mean). I'm able to calm and reassure him to a certain extent by closing
>the blinds and curtains in the living and dining rooms and by speaking in
>a calm and gentle voice to him, but he KNOWS the balloon is still out
>there. He usually ends up lying down in the front hall, as far away from
>the back door as he can get.
>
>Anyone else have a similar problem? Any suggestions or advice are welcome.
>Thanks.
>Rick Haslip
My 8 year old labX just had her first encounter with hot air balloons
this weekend. A couple flew over pretty low and she went nuts!!
Growling and barking like crazy. At first I thought she was
just mad at the intrusion (she doesn't like those killer kites
the neighbor kids fly, either :) ) But when I tried to calm her
down, she moved away from me and kept on barking and growling. Almost
like she was sort of afraid. Nothing I did helped, so I just let
her bark herself hoarse. She finally stopped after abut 30 minutes
or so.
Amy
----------
Amy Shinpaugh "Dogs' lives are too short.
st...@jetson.uh.edu Their only fault, really."
--Agnes Sligh Turnbull
Wendy Harrison
>
>I have noticed some personality changes in my dog over the last year and
>was wondering if it is just part of the maturing process.
>
Well, my dog is afraid of blimps. We lived close to the Skydome until
last year, and whenever there was a big game on, there was a blimp
circling over our yard. Sometimes during the summer, there are as
many as three travelling around Toronto. Fortunately, we have moved,
and our yard is not directly on their flight path. But still, if
she sees one in the distance, she gets very wary.
But then she is afraid of the weirdest things, and seem to be getting
increasingly set in her ways (she is three and a half). We have
countered this tendency by trying to expose her to more stimuli,
and we will continue to do this. There are certain streets she
doesn`t like, certain kinds of trucks (garbage, hydro, streetcleaners).
She has been frightened by people rollerblading, and by people
carrying umbrellas. All I can do is keep at it, and I think that`s
all anyone can do.
I suspect that certain breeds, or groups, are worse. My dog is
an Alaskan Malamute, and the breeder warned me that they were very
conservative dogs, and needed lots of exposure or they would be
overwhelmed by the city environment. She is generally fine, and
by nature a very friendly, outgoing, well-socialized dog.
The more I know my dog, the less I know about dogs. I think their
intelligence is quite alien from ours.
Rosemary Hoffman
>In article <CCKtx...@freenet.carleton.ca>, ad...@Freenet.carleton.ca
>(Rick Haslip) writes:
>Hobbes (an English Fox Hound) is now 2 years and 3 months old. In the
>last 5 months or so he has become terribly afraid of hot air balloons.
>
>..anyone have a similar problem?...
>Thanks.
>Rick Haslip
>
We once lived on the side of a hill in Nashville. Our Elkhound/Husky, Kiri,
loved to observe her world from our second floor deck - until a parade of
hot air balloons came by and the FACE OF MICKEY MOUSE was staring and
smiling directly at her! She put her tail between her legs and barked all
the way into the house.
Our current Elkhound, Kodiak, was immediately afraid of the first hot
air balloons he saw. But then, dog of the wimpy Vikings is afraid of
almost anything, so that's not a surprise.
Rosemary, mom to Kodiak (Norwegian Elkhound snuggle-bug)
and Annie (ACD, afraid of nothing)
Diane Bassett
I went ballooning in Napa one day, and when our pilot turned the burner
on, every dog in the valley barked its head off.
Stephanie, Library Office, 6124
> In article <CCKtx...@freenet.carleton.ca> ad...@Freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Haslip) writes:
>>
>>I have noticed some personality changes in my dog over the last year and
>>was wondering if it is just part of the maturing process.
>>
>>Anyone else have a similar problem? Any suggestions or advice are welcome.
>
> Well, my dog is afraid of blimps. We lived close to the Skydome until
> last year, and whenever there was a big game on, there was a blimp
> circling over our yard. Sometimes during the summer, there are as
> many as three travelling around Toronto. Fortunately, we have moved,
> and our yard is not directly on their flight path. But still, if
> she sees one in the distance, she gets very wary.
>
> But then she is afraid of the weirdest things
>
> she is scared of deleted to save space]
>
> we...@sq.com
As well as blimps and hot air balloons, you can add hang gliders!
We used to live next door to a hang glider and para gliding school. It
was run out of the owner's home, an acreage high on a hill, and the owner
held all kinds of national records in hang gliding. As a result, he got
stacks of people leaping off his property into the wind and sailing
around the sky.
Our dogs HATED them. I can't say they were scared, but they always went
nuts when one of these things glided overhead. We always had to make sure
that they were confined when the gliders were gliding, because the odd
learner would crash on to our property, and I was always concerned that
if our dogs got to him/her first the poor learner would be torn limb
from limb, and nothing would be left but the aluminum struts.
Stef
Jamie J Ferguson
We have a dog who barks at contrails! Talk about silly.....
And eventually they go away, so she must think she has
something to do with it!!!
Jamie
**********************************************************************
Happy First Birthday to Harry!!!!!
**********************************************************************
Judith L. Hardin
over my house. No matter how hard I try to be blase about it, I can't keep
myself from running out to watch when they go overhead. When I had 3 dogs
(2 GSDs, l Golden), I would take them out (into the fenced yard) with me.
The older of the GSDs and the Golden seemed to be afraid of them and would
run back to the door and sit there, hoping to be let in. The younger of the
GSDs would sit beside me and watch them go by, which I thought was pretty
smart (a little mom-brag there--sorry), esp. since the other dogs in the
neighborhood were barking their heads off. Nixie seemed very interested in
them, though--I've always wondered if she thought they were really big
birds?
--
Judi Hardin | Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
ms...@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu | Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho
James Long
> In article <CCKtx...@freenet.carleton.ca>, ad...@Freenet.carleton.ca (Rick
Haslip) writes:
> >Hobbes (an English Fox Hound) is now 2 years and 3 months old. In the
> >last 5 months or so he has become terribly afraid of hot air balloons. They
> >did not concern him at all before and it is very unfortunate because Ottawa
The most plausible theory amoung ballonists (though I don't know that it's ever
been proven) is that the burners give off a high-pitched (ie, only the dogs can
hear it) sound. The burner is maed up of a coil of stainless steel tubing,
that allows the liquid propane to become vaporized. This happens very quickly
during a burn, which could account for the high-freq. noise.
The strang part is that only some dogs are bothered. My Husky has been right
next to a basket on the ground, and never even looked annoyed during the burns.
As for the balloonists, they aren't intentionally trying to frighten your
dogs, but don't have a lot of control over which way they go :-)
Hope this helps,
James
--
jl...@emcnext2.tamu.edu * "Once you have flown, you will walk the *
Electron Microscopy Center * Earth with your eyes turned skyward, *
Texas A&M University * for there you have been, and there you *
College Station, TX 77843-2257 * long to return." Leonardo di Vinci *
***************************************************************************
Insert favorite disclaimer here:
Linda Book
thought her fear of hot air balloons was simply an "outgrowth." Last
summer this developed into fierce barking at hot air balloons, the sun and
alas, the moon. When a balloon flew over very low this summer, she went
beserk. Broke a screen door in a futile attempt to get in the house,
jumped over a wrought-iron railing and took of in a wild frenzy.
Fortunately, she ran in the vicinity of where my son was playing. He began
the chase, tackled her, and carried (all 50 lbs of her ) home. She
limped for a few days because of cuts to her leg, however it took weeks
for to stop constantly searching the sky. (even overhead paddle fans
made her quite restless) She is normally quite calm, but this incident
revealed an altogether frantic, petrified and nearly uncontrollable dog.
I can't figure it out.
Linda
Bo...@pps.pgh.pa.us
uni...@delphi.dasd.honeywell.com
> > In article <CCKtx...@freenet.carleton.ca>, ad...@Freenet.carleton.ca (Rick
> Haslip) writes:
> >Hobbes (an English Fox Hound) is now 2 years and 3 months old. In the
> >last 5 months or so he has become terribly afraid of hot air balloons. They
> >did not concern him at all before and it is very unfortunate because Ottawa
> [stuff deleted]
>
> The most plausible theory amoung ballonists (though I don't know that it's
> ever been proven) is that the burners give off a high-pitched (ie, only the
> dogs can hear it) sound. The burner is maed up of a coil of stainless steel
> tubing, that allows the liquid propane to become vaporized. This happens
> very quickly during a burn, which could account for the high-freq. noise.
I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico which is frequently referred to as the Hot
Air Baloon Capital of the world. Every fall for over 20 years we have hosted
the International Hot Air Baloon Fiesta and for 9 days we have around 500 or
600 baloons floating over the city. Talk about stressed out dogs! :)
Every year the newspaper has an article about the effects of the balloons on
the dogs in the newspaper.
Fortunately, the dog I have now couldn't care less about the baloons floating
by, however, one of the dogs I had when I was young would bark at them
sometimes. One thing that is interesting is that it doesn't seem to just be
the burner sound. On a cool, calm day, the baloons can float quite a way with
minimal burner use. I've seen dogs get quite upset when a baloon quietly
floated over and the dog could hear *people voices* coming from up *there*!
Voices are not *supposed* to be up that high! :)
Sheri