Why do dogs hate vacuum cleaners?

Serious question. Is it just the loud noise? Is there some frequency the thing operates on that irritates the hell out of them? Every time I vacuum, our little rat terrier not only barks, she attacks the vacuum cleaner. She'll bite the bottom of it. Last night, she got up on the bed and was trying to bite the top of it (near where it's neck would be if it were an animal).
She also barks when we run the paper shredder, blender, hair clippers, hair dryer, or anything else that makes any kind of noise. When we run the shredder, she'll even nip at my legs. What gives?

 

My cats hide whenever I run the vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, etc. I always thought they were scared of noise made by motors. I could be wrong.

 

I think it's the noise. Dogs are much more sensitive to noise than we are. Any sudden noise scares the daylights out of them.

That's why you should be especially careful about fireworks displays. Don't take your dog to them. The damage you do may be permanent.

 

My dog hides from a vacuum cleaner but would chase a diesel pickup truck down the road. Only the diesel engines, though.

 

The low tones, maybe?

 

i'd guess that vacuum cleaners hurt dogs' ears. funny how the same sound often calms crying babies, too. 8) 8) 8)

 

I always kind of figured it was because there was a loud noise down at their level.

 

Like SC, my cats HATE the vacuum cleaner. My older one is such a wimp he goes scurrying when I run the dust buster. He's so smart/so wimpy that he's hissed at me just for bringing the vacuum INTO the room.

 

Weird thing is, she'll attack the big vacuum cleaner but when I break out the dustbuster (which is about the same size as her) and put it on the floor she'll run from it. She still barks at it, but she runs away.

 

My golden retriever is scared to death of the vacumn cleaner. He'll run upstairs or into the other room when it's on. But I took him to a fireworks display July 4 and he never noticed them. He was too busy trying to get the attention of all the people around us.

 

Our dog is the same way. As soon as I start sprinkling carpet freshener in the room she starts barking, like she knows what's coming. Then when I pull out the vacuum from the spare bedroom where we keep it, she'll ambush it when it gets into the hall. Not just nips, either. Serious, attacking bites. If it were flesh instead of plastic she might even latch on.
And we have a gift bag on top of the shredder. The instant we take it off to shred something, she starts going nuts.
So much intelligence, yet I can't teach her to shake paws or push a loose door open *sigh*

 

My cats can't get away fast enough. And they hide afterward...for hours. I'll finish vacuuming and a while later, after they haven't appeared in the living room, go look behind the bed. There they are, staring at me like I just sent their mommy and daddy to chase mice at the family farm upstate.