Why do dogs hate vacuum cleaners?

The family dog was absolutely terrified of my guitar. Just the sight of it would make her run away. I tried to get her to sniff it so she could see it was OK, but she just kept backing up.

 

This is weird. I have exactly the opposite experience.

When I was a kid we had a boxer and every time my mom or dad turned on the vacuum, Rocky would sit in front of it so that they'd run the vacuum brush up and down his back.

He'd start barking if they ignored him.

 

My cat hates it, too. We call it "The Monster" because he freaks out when it comes into view.

 

My cat really doesn't object to the vacuum. She doesn't wanna cuddle with it or anything, but I don't believe she takes off hiding or anything. She'll sit under something, but she does that all the time anyway.

Of course, I'd have a better idea of how my cat reacted to the vacuum cleaner if I used it more than three times a year, but that's another story...

 

My dog hates the vacuum, the second I get it out she takes off. But like Twogloves dog, I've taken my dog to the Fourth of July fireworks and she's just fine. She curls up under my chair and sleeps.

 

I've always suspected that vacuum cleaners give off intense high-frequency noise. Back in the 1970s when TV remote controls used ultrasonic sound instead of infrared light, the TV in my parents' bedroom would switch itself on and run through the channels when my mother vacuumed. If dogs can hear these high pitches (and we can't), it's easy to understand why they would hate the infernal suction machines.

 

So pets do resemble their masters then...

 

My dogs (well, including the one we just put down) had no issues with the vacuum. We had to run it at least every other day, so I figure they've become used to it. Now if the kitchen gets too smokey for the smoke detector, or if a thunderstorm comes about, they will (or did) run upstairs and hide under the covers of our bed.

 

Because they can.

(Oh wait ... wrong dog joke ...)

 

The whole "sensitive to sound" thing is a bit of a ruse.

One night when I was up late drinking with our golden retriever (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for me, Kensington's Liver Schnapps for her) we began to talk about our biggest fears.

Mine was the dangling participle.

Hers was that giant dog in the vacuum cleaner. Seems that for years, she has seen shed dog hair disappear up that nozzle; sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. According to her, there has to be at least a 3-ton dog in there by now. And it growls whenever it's turned on.

 

Ummm.....my dog hates it the three times a year I run mine.

 

Our cats aren't big fans of our regular upright vacuum cleaner but they're fascinated by our Roomba. When we fire it up they sit on the furniture and watch it wherever it goes.