Why is my CC scared of an umbrella?

[dayankis08]

Since it has been raining here for sometime I went to take my 10 wk CC for a walk and once I opened the umbrella he took off like a bat out of hell. Now he is afraid when I walk around with the umbrella.

Is this normal? What should I do?

 

[Krazy4Kenzi]

Our puppy was afraid of the umbrella too. We left one out and open so she could get used to it. Now she's pretty ok with them. We have a great video of her barking at it like it was the scariest thing in the world.

 

[CorsoCorso]

Our puppy is afraid of the most random things too: a box, the oven, a table, a swiffer. Whenever he barks like he's afraid we go over to the item, touch it while saying "look, it's ok" and then give him a treat. He'll usually then walk a bit closer to it and he gets another treat. This continues until he's sniffing or touching the item and he gets a final treat and a big "good boy!!".

 

[DennasMom]

Yep - not unusual!
Like Krazy4Kenzi did - I'd put the umbrella out in the room, somewhere in a corner where your puppy can warm up to... maybe you go "say hi" to the umbrella, just in passing, so he eventually will want to go check it out, too. Be sure to praise when he replaces fear with curiosity!
If you want to actively work on it - you can use clicker training to mark every step toward the umbrella as a positive thing. There are some youtube videos on the method...somewhere...
Here's one: [video=youtube;3-CCJxF-9U4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-CCJxF-9U4[/video]

 

[dayankis08]

Thanks guys, I will star leaving one opened to see what happens. Clicker training interesting I have been told about that, I think I will try it out.

 

[musicdeb]

Titan used to be terrified of the umbrella and plastic grocery bags/boxes he sees on his walk. I left the umbrella out for a few days so he got used to it. Here in TX, we do not need our umbrellas a lot.