Plastic Bag Phobia!

[Ruth]

I was walking my Goldendoodle, Sky when an empty plastic bag blew across our path. He swore it was alive and hid behind me!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Our Springer Spaniel (you know that they are bird dogs, right) is terrified of feathers or items perceived as feathers!  He is not afraid of birds, however.  Go figure!

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

AWWWW. Those bags can be pretty scary!!! We have them blow by our house quite often (ther's a gas station across the street) Myla will growl and bark FOREVER at it.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

when the girls were little and we were going through training our trainer taught us to use "touch it" when we encountered scary things.  Our first thing was a baby stroller.  That is what got the conversation stated.  She said that you just quietly walk up and touch whatever it is.  Say see, ok, Touch IT and encourage the Doodle to reach out with their paw and touch it!  You might have to give them a minute to calm down, put your foot on the bag or have someone else retrieve it and bring it back and then just work slowly.  We have done this with everything from a baby stroller to a back hoe.  It usually always works.  I would add that you don't want to do it in a babying way to let them think that there was reason to be afraid, you want to just do it in sort of a matter of fact way like there was no reason to be afraid.

[Gail+Kathleen,(Sydney+Olivia:)]

Not just plastic bags......Olivia is spooked by anything new we bring into the house.  It could be a basket, a box, and especialy anything that moves from wind or air blowing.  She will bark and back up.  We gently try to get her close and let her smell it, then she seems OK.  So strange, but who knows what goes on in their little noggins!!!!!!  Olivia is NOT a "change agent"!

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Luna gets scared of things that flap, fly and wave back and forth.  She uses her "What... is that?!" bark (a quiet wuff wuff), circles and tries to back away.  I hold my ground and let her figure out that it's not actually scary and if it's in a place we can get to I try to get her to sniff it.

[Kimmy & Chewie]

Chewie gets spooked by empty plastic bags too. Especially the big plastic bags that covers my dry clean.
He's fine with bags which have groceries in them but keeps a distance from empty ones.
If there's a breeze and the evil plastic moves in his direction, he jumps 2 feet in the air and 3 feet back.
I try to reintroduce him to the plastic and he'll sniff it only if I'm right next to him.

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

Sedona's been startled by or barked at all kinds of "scary" things - my mom's deflating birthday balloon, a shirt hung over the shower curtain rod to dry, flickering flames in the fireplace, etc.  I wonder what Sky thought the plastic bag really was?!

[Charlotte and Bo]

Bo attacks and shreds those evil plastic bags:-)

[F, Calla & Luca]

I remember when Luca was a puppy he was scared to death of a balloon tied to a sign,