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Puppy terrified of hats

5 replies

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 29/10/2011 22:28

This is probably me over thinking it, but please bear with me. We were visiting my parents, with Jasper, when my father's friend popped in. He was wearing a beret (don't ask). Pup went mental. He was growling and barking, yet hiding with his tail between his legs and even tiddled under the table he was that wound up. As soon as the friend took his hat off, Jasper ran over to him licking and cowering. It was really odd and upsetting to watch, but I put it down to him being a stranger. Anyway, this morning DS2 wandered in to the living room wearing a baseball cap and the pup reacted in exactly the same way. He was clearly frightened, but showing false aggression iyswim? Of course, DS2 took his hat off and put his hand out to Jasper, and he ran over to 'make up'. You may remember that I'm the numpty that fell for what might well be a puppy farming scam. So now I'm feeling awful for him and wondering if he has been mistreated by someone in a hat. Is this total bollocks and just the sort of thing bonkers puppies do? Or is this potentially a sign he was mistreated? Either way, how can I help him to not panic/react if someone walks past in a hat? Because with winter around the corner, there will be a lot of hats...

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TarquinGyrfalcon · 30/10/2011 17:08

We had a puppy who would growl at people wearing hats, gloves or carrying umbrellas.
I know she had never been mistreated by anyone so it was just her funny way.

We did lots of desensitising - we wore goves/hats etc in the house and introduced her lots of dog friendly people doing the same. When we were out for a walk and she was having lots of fun we would put hats on and carry on playing with her.
She grew out of it by the time she was about 12 months old.

TarquinGyrfalcon · 30/10/2011 17:09

I've just reread my post and realise I sound quite mad - I probably looked it as well [hgrin] but it did work

rubyrubyruby · 30/10/2011 17:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TarquinGyrfalcon · 30/10/2011 18:22

We used to ask friends to wear hats when they called round - luckily my friends are either mad about dogs or resigned to the fact that we are mad about dogs.

It takes a good friend to sit outside wearing gloves and a woolly hat in July. DH used to wear gloves and a hat when he was feeding her as well so she associated it with good things.

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 30/10/2011 18:47

Thanks Tarquin and ruby. Because I knew his start might have been a bit iffy, I had convinced myself some hatted bastard had beaten him or something Blush

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