I’ve been thinking about some of the quirkiness that goes on around here related to specific sounds.
There’s a lot. An awful lot.
I’m hoping we’re not the only one with these noise-induced quirks…
Of course, there’s the sound of the UPS truck rumbling down the street. As soon as we hear that, John and I both cringe: Here comes the barking frenzy!
There’s the slight jingling sound that happens when I take a leash off the rack, and all three come a’running to see who gets to go where. And the rustle of any plastic packaging (obviously it should be treats for them). I think those are fairly normal dog sounds.
But there are some odd ones, too.
For example, if you want to eat a hard-boiled egg in this house, you have to be crazy sneaky. As soon as you tap the edge of the egg to start peeling it, Lucas and Newt will come running from wherever they are, even from a deep sleep, to beg for a bite. Newt goes so far as to jump up and try to swat it out of your hand.
Also, when I’m doing laundry, my pattern is to take the clothes out of the dryer, dump them on the bed, then move the clothes from the washer into the dryer. Totally normal, right? But as soon–literally within five seconds–of me opening the washer to start moving the clothes, the sound of that triggers Cooper’s Cuddle Reflex. As soon as I’m back in my room to fold the clothes, he’s sound asleep in the fresh, warm pile of clean clothes. Every. Single. Time.
Then there’s the ice cube maker on our fridge. Anyone who presses that lever better be prepared–Emmett and Cooper want their ice! Anytime someone gets ice, those two dash over to collect a treat. So then, if it’s a guest, we have to say, “Can you please give them one?” or else they’ll follow him or her around relentlessly for as long as the glass is clinking!
A few others: Our oven drawer makes a sound when we open it that sends them into a frenzy–no clue on that one–and any can opening anywhere immediately makes them think it’s time to eat. When I slide in my keyboard tray, they all pop up (“she’s done!”) and run to my desk to see what their next activity is, and when the alarm goes off on my phone at 9:30, Emmett starts drooling for his spoonful of peanut butter (with pill jammed in).
So many things are routinized by sound around here!
How about at your house?
We used to have turkeys and every time the turkeys would gobble the poodles would bark. Turkeys gobble a lot, so I can’t say I miss that!
Too funny!! Something I never would’ve thought of! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Well my dog is pretty odd. I don’t think she has any sound triggers. She just doesn’t care about much and she’s too lazy and uninterested in food to get up to beg for anything.
You know, it finally occurred to me: Scout is FAR more cat-like than she is dog-like! 🙂
Pavlov would love this post! Melvin could hear things that barely existed and would react (barking, salivating, running to kitchen). The oddest one was the episode of Modern Family when Phil couldn’t find which fire alarm needed the battery changed so it kept chirping. Melvin got so worked up and upset, he would run into the basement! It took me forever to figure out what it was that was upsetting him! To this day, I still check to make sure that episode is not coming on (and he lives in Heaven now!).
Jake could care less about noise. He’s a lazy beast.
Yes a million times. That. exact. episode. These guys went insane. Every time our real smoke detectors chirp for low battery, it’s a traumatic meltdown. That episode did it to ’em, too. Poor guys.
Sweet Jake! 🙂
Mine trigger to some of the same sounds yours!! Milah and Justice especially. They are like two peas in a pod when it comes to sounds. Dogs barking in the distance – goes without saying, even with all the doors & windows closed and the TV on. UPS truck, if I want to torture Milah I can say “Is that the UPS truck”? She is skidding across the floor and up in the chair looking out the window blinds!! Open the freezer door and drop a cube in a glass, they are both there, waiting. Leash or car keys moved from the hanger by the door, they are there. Hubby’s car pulling into the drive is another one. They don’t bark, but sit in front of the door waiting for him to open it. Annoying as heck to him!!
Okay. Why UPS and not FedEx?? At least, these guys don’t do it for FedEx… just UPS! So strange!
Callie & Shadow are triggered by the sound of my recliner when I’m getting up to do something. It must mean people food to steal off of the counter! Ducky? She’s triggered by the ice dispenser in the freezer door — I want some! — and hubby moving anywhere inside the house. Can’t figure that one out. And the doorbell – no strangers allowed yet. (We’re working on that one!)
I finally put a strip of black electrical tape over our doorbell. For some reason, knocking doesn’t send them into the frenzy that the doorbell does. Nearly 100% of people who come to the door now knock. Phew.
Electrical tape over the doorbell is a genius idea! I might have to try that! The doorbell sends Bronson into an absolute frenzy! He reacts to a lot of noises but seems to be getting better with that. Dogs barking in the neighborhood always get him going. He sprints into his crate when he hears the freezer door open because we give him a frozen kong with peanut butter & boiled carrots when it’s time for him to get into his crate 🙂 Some days it seems as if a pin dropped he would stand up and try to identify the noise, and other days he seems to not care so much.
Peanuts. Rodrigo can hear the crack of a peanut shell from miles away. Last night, he heard me, came running into the family room looking around. I was at the kitchen table – he’s used to me eating my shells in front of the TV. He got off the sofa and came and sat, like a good boy, for his peanut. I really need to stop feeding him from the table.
Oh, my gosh! Kimberly, that is HILARIOUS!! So super specific! And cute! 🙂
The big trigger sound in our house is the crack the neck of a banana makes. Both dogs come running.
Too funny, Robbin! I guess that’s like our egg tap… they know what they like 🙂
The swiffer commercials with the door bell and the baby food commercial where the kid gets ahold of the car alarm button on the key fob? No other commercials EVEN WITH THE SAME SOUNDS are a problem. But when those start up, she KNOWS. Long before the “bad sounds” come on, when it’s just human voices talking about the products, she knows what’s coming and she gets up for her chance to bark like a crazed animal. It sends me scrambling for the mute button! She also comes running when she hears the very quiet kitchen cabinets opening. Because maybe I’m getting out some tupperware to mix kong filling in and she might get to lick the bowl. Or maybe I’m getting out her medicine and some peanut butter. Who knows? The world is a crazy wonderful place!
YES!!! OMG. Those dang Swiffer commercials. WHY!?!
I never actually put this together until Ray the Vicktory dog’s mom mentioned he didn’t like bells ( I assume for him it was a “fight” trigger) but every time the Facebook messenger on my phone chimed, Julius would slink out of the room with his tail tucked. Other “bell” typ sounds were ok, but that one, I had to disable.
When our dog was still a puppy and behave very bad during our meals I and my girlfriend used to close the doors for living room or bedroom depending where we wanted to eat the meal.
That used to help for some time. One day, though my girlfriend asked me were I want to have a dinner “living room”, I said, and that was more than enough for the dog. The very same dog didn’t know even basic commands was smart enough to jump to the living room before we even recognized what’s going on. We never close the doors behind him anymore and started to train him instead of isolating – he was just too smart 🙂