Does anybody else have a dog that barks at unusual objects?

Question

I go through this every year. Currently the US Open Tennis Tournament is being held in NYC. I live on Long Island. The Goodyear Blimp is currently moored at a small airfield not far from my home. Every day (during the tournament) the blimp flies over my house en route to the tournament (it's actually kinda cool).
When my dogs see the blimp, they stop what they're doing and they bark at it until it completely passes over my house. My dogs are bird dogs, so it's not unusual for them to look up and observe movement above, but they don't bark at any other flying objects. Surely other people here must have dogs that bark at unusual objects ...

Answer 1

I used to have a dog that barked at weird things. He would bark at a baseball mit that was in our backyard! He would also do the funniest things, whenever he dropped a bone that he was chewing off the couch he would bark until someone came and picked it up for him! He was such a crazy little pup. RIP! Anyways, I think a lot of dogs do things like that. You aren't the only one! -Audrina

Answer 2

How about nothing? Is that unusual? (LOL) My mini dachshund, Hannah, will sit and bark while she's looking up a tree.....I look and there's nothing up in there.....I think she maybe saw a squirrel run up earlier and she's waiting for it to come down. I also have a chipmunk that lives under my shed..... Hannah goes crazy when she hears it.

My cocker, Zoe, will bark at usual things like other dogs or people who are taking a walk in the neighborhood, or if she hears someone at the door. My oldest dog Tailor, will only bark when he wants to come in from outside. He's 15 and pretty much deaf and almost blind.
Zoe and Hannah will sing at the sirens....I have a fire station at the end of my road and they always use my street to get to the main road......So, I get to hear their howls a couple times a day.

Other than than...my dogs are pretty quiet.

Answer 3

Well,your dog probably barks at unusual things because they're,well...unusual.Not many dogs are used to seeing blimps on a daily bases,so they bark out of curiousity.If a dog was to interact with a blimp then he or she wouldn't bark as much.It's the same for people,too.If a dog has never seen a certain person,they go to get a scent of the person that way they know whether to bark or not.

Answer 4

The issue is that dogs are poor generalizers - it's not that the dog is "sneaky, greedy" etc, but that they have no intrinsic sense of morality or "rightness" and so only think something is "bad" if it has bad consequences. If it has never had bad consequences except with a human in the room, then how on earth are they to know that the rules still apply with the human out of the room? You need to train in such a way that corrections and rewards occur when the dog does not think you are present - i.e. hiding around the corner. Read here https://tr.im/7q5sH

I personally owned a Labrador Retriever (read: chow hound) that could be left 6" from a hot dog in a sit-stay for half an hour and not touch it - the word was "mine" and it meant that you don't touch that, even if I am not in the room, even if whatever, you DO NOT touch that. You could leave a plate of food on the floor for hours and not only would she not touch it, she would also keep the other animals (dogs and cats) from touching it.

In all probability, these dogs studied were just not properly trained/proofed before the experiment. With "proofing" to set them up and catch them in the act to give

Answer 5

I have a dog that watches TV so when my husband watches the National Geographic channel, my dog barks at all the unfamiliar animals, such as the tigers and elephants. He also goes nuts, barks and tries to attack the little red light from a lazer pointer.
One time a stray kitten, maybe 4 weeks old, got into the yard and you would have thought we had an alien intruder. He went into a barking frenzy until we came out to see what he was barking about and took the kitten inside.

Answer 6

LOL!!!

I so wish I could see that!

My dog is cool, she doesn't bark much. Thank goodness.

Have you ever seen that America's Funniest Videos clip of the dog on a whale watching boat? They see a whale off in the distance, and the dog freaks, jumps into the ocean and starts after the whale barking it's fool head off! They are able to call him back, but I just thought of what if he caught up to it! Same with the blimp, what would they do if they actually caught it!!!

Sorry, sometimes I find the strangest things funny!

Answer 7

LOL I have the same problem! There is a river fest going on near me this entire week end and their have been planes with banners flying over the house. My dogs have been going nuts.

Just like yours as soon as they spot them their barking as soon as their gone they are quiet!

I also have bird dogs! Also if a squirrel dares to try to come into the yard, or a bird they chase them off barking! My younger Golden caught a small wild Turkey recently and was very proud to bring it to me! Ya I really enjoyed that! LOL

Answer 8

Dogs bark at things they don't recognize, although the blimp is not something you can fix, but for objects you can get to, just walk up and touch the object and your dog will follow you and sniff it and figure out if you can touch it, he'll be OK.

Answer 9

Lady here barks at EVERYTHING she can't get into her mouth or things that she has learned are "no-no's" LOL! I have 4 cats she likes to play with (and is afraid of) she barks at my canteloupes growing in my garden, a frog that got into my garden, oh and at Christmas, we have a 7 ft air filled Santa on our front lawn that she goes NUTS over untill we close the door so she can't see it!

Answer 10

We have the "Spiedie Fest"..AND balloon rally. DOZENS of hit-air balloons hovering overhead. The dogs don't seem freaked by them, but bark at them for hours until they are gone.
We get a lot of low flying helicopters also, but they don't even notice those.
They hate inflatable floats also.....like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade floats. We avoid those too.