Kenyas behavior around broomsticks.. a bit scary!

[Fran101]

Kenya has always been weird about brooms.. she will run away, hide, whine, and shake like a leaf under the bed, in the closet ect..

well tonight i was sweeping under a table for crumbs and dog hair or w.e and i thought i had let her outside.. but she was under there and when i bent down with the broom she snapped at me. it didnt hurt..but her teeth did nip my hand and i could tell she was very scared (her head was low, tail between her legs, shaking) and she even peed all over the floor.
i put the broom down and she layed over my lap, shaking and licking my hand. i could tell she was so sorry but what could explain this kind of behavior?
i knew i wasnt supposed to "encourage her state of mind" or w/e but i didnt care, she was so frightened i just held her and let her lick me and she eventually calmed down


what could be the reason for this?

 

[Maxy24]

It's possible she was beaten with brooms. I know my uncle did that to our dog (I was a young child at the time) because he would chase after the broom when you swept so uncle beat the crap out of his and he stopped. He had no after affects that were apparent but then again he never was required to be near the broom. If something like that had happened to Kenya and she felt cornered by the broom or thought you were going to hurt her with it or just had all sorts of bad feelings and anxiety because of the broom then I can see why she would react that way.

it's also possible that she was just never socialized with brooms and like all things that are new to a dog they can be scary. I would begin to immediately desensitize her to a still broom and work up to a moving broom. If you can teach her to target things with her nose and then once she's good lay the broom down and ask her to target it, using scary things as props can really help. Or simply bring out the broom and start popping treats, put broom away and stop treats, then repeat. Brooms mean good stuff for Kenya now!! remember to take it slow, she sounds like she was horrified, I hope both of you are okay and will recover from this event.

 

[bubbatd]

Any fear like this I fault the breeder ! Pups should be exposed to all house hold things before they go home . No , I didn't vaccum my garage but I would take it out so that they knew it wasn't a monster ! I commend you for understanding her fear ! Put the broom on the floor and set a few nummies near it . Good luck !

 

[Fran101]

Any fear like this I fault the breeder ! Pups should be exposed to all house hold things before they go home . No , I didn't vaccum my garage but I would take it out so that they knew it wasn't a monster ! I commend you for understanding her fear ! Put the broom on the floor and set a few nummies near it . Good luck !

I adopted her from the pound in November. she was abandoned there by her "breeder" because she was too small to be bred, so her "breeder" was crap.

She was used to living outside in a kennel run, so we went through all that initial fear of new things, from furniture, the laundry machines ect... but this was different, i think that its a deeper embedded fear than that

 

[bambee]

It could be that she had some bad experiences with brooms which explains her fear whenever she sees a broom. Or maybe she associated it with something traumatic from her past. You can slowly "introduce" her to the broom so as not to startle her in any way. Make her see that the broom will not hurt her.