Evil Christmas Lights

[Sally M]

The other day I opened a cardboard box that came in the mail. The noise scared Penny. She's really getting weird lately. When I took the makeup mirror out of the box, it became her worst enemy and she barked at it something fierce. I was holding it in my hand and it freaked her out.

That's nothing compared to the Christmas lights. We bought one of those red/green laser light contraptions that put spots on your house. We stuck the thing in our yard and well, Penny didn't take too kindly to it. It's not very big...about the size of a blow dryer.

In the dark, Penny spotted this thing right away. OMD, she gave it a good barking! She was close enough that Penny's cream colored coat had green and red dots all over it. My DH and I couldn't stop laughing. What's green and red and cream all over? A wonky Goldendoodle! We have 1/4 of an acre and she finds a small item and "attacks" it. I mean, really? Not once but twice! We moved it after first putting it in the ground so I assume since it was in a different place, Penny felt she should defend herself again since it wasn't where it was originally.

I don't know how to describe this bark. It's a loud, fast, high-pitched fearful bark almost as if she was barking at something/someone that is animated. Normally this is Penny's stranger-danger bark. So I assume this Christmas light projection thing was a stranger to her.

To make matters worse, this morning when we let her outside, she went directly to the light. She then pulled it out of the ground and threw it on its side. I assume Penny thought she killed this "intruder".

This will probably start all over again, tonight, when we put it back in the ground and turn it on.

[Sally M]

Penny still knocks the main light thing over. And a squirrel bit through the wires. So, I brought the thing inside. Got a box-cutter, cut the wire covers off of 2 wires, pealed them, and spliced them back together. It still works! Much to Penny's disappointment, I'm sure.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Oh no...I just bought one of those lights. LOL Hope Fudge and Vern react better than Penny!!

[Sally M]

So true. We aren't fluent in "err" or ar-err". LOL!

[LORRY SWETLAND]

Turbo goes ar-err until you get up and feed him in the morning or whenever he wants something and you have to guess what he wants and the whole time he is giving you this soulful stare.

[DonMarie and Picco]

That's funny!   Maybe she doesn't like all this holiday fuss!  Bah Humbug! 

Picco is a growler. It's his way of talking.  He and my husband will go back in forth in the mornings as if there is a real conversation going on.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

AnnaBelle does that same little "groan" thing.  Always has.  Her's is more like a "errrrr"   kind of like a "grrrrr" but no "g".  She does it to go out to potty, if something isn't making sense, to get her head rubbed, etc.  So I know what you mean ... speak English puppy would you.

[Bonnie and Kona]

Sally, it sounds like Penny likes vocalizing quite a bit!

[Sally M]

LOL, Bonnie! To my knowledge Penny has not peed on the Christmas light. But she hasn't made friends with it either. She still "investigates" it everyday (as though it's going to change somehow) but she hasn't pulled it out of the ground anymore. I guess it was considered "touching" when she attacked it. She doesn't bark at the light anymore either but she groans at it. She's going through this phase where she makes this groaning noise at everything...when she's waiting to be fed, when she wants to play with the other dogs, when the other dogs annoy her, when she's begging for popcorn, when she wants attention from us, and so forth. We don't understand "groan" so we don't know what she's saying. Ha!

[LORRY SWETLAND]

I can honestly say that TURBO isn't afraid of  any person place or thing. He does let me know when UPS guy is here only because I get a package and the guy gives him a cookie.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Our girls are this way.  Anything new in the yard they have to bark at it.  The other night the neighbors had put up their christmas lights so Lucy had to bark at those.  Our trainer taught us a "touch it" command that we could use for some of these things.  This might work for your christmas light thing.  Just have her on leash, walk up to it and say "touch it" and you touch it and show her it is ok, then encourage her to touch it ... might take a few tries, but she should learn it is ok.  We had a problem with our original doodle Sophie with baby buggies and things the size of bulldozers ... we used touch it for all of them and it worked.