I am inclined to think it's more the motion and the sound it makes when swishing through the air. My Jasper is terrified of the fly swatter. He is pretty sound sensitive and I believe he is afraid of it because of that. He also is afraid of the yard stick, the measuring tape and of kids swinging their arms like they are throwing something. He has been with us since he was 4 1/2 months old and didn't used to be afraid of these things, it has developed as he has gotten older.
The kids swinging their arms came up when several skateboarders came rushing past us while we were walking at the park. They have their arms up to keep balance and to turn, he associates the arm movement with the skateboards, which scared him.
I would caution to NOT comfort him when he acts frightened like that. Though that is our first instinct, it actually reinforces the fear that they are feeling. Basically, when you comfort them, you are saying "it's okay to be afraid of that. Good dog for being afraid". Even though that's not what you mean.
Oh, what I have done with most of Jasper's sound fears is to have plenty of good treats on hand when I suspect that something might scare him (such as walking at the park). Every time a skateboarder or rollerblader came near, I would say "YES!" and give him a treat. We did that every single time. It got to the point where I didn't even need to treat him anymore. I just would say "YES!" and you could just see him do a little prance because he was so happy that he made me happy.
I had to do the same thing when people are fishing. Poor Jasper got tangled in an electric fence up at the lake one time. Well, besides zapping him, the sound it made was almost identical to the sound a fishing pole being casted makes. So he became terrified of people casting fishing poles (this is another place where swinging arms came into play in his fears). Same thing. Every time we walked past the fisherpersons, I would feed him treat after treat after treat. He started to associate the people fishing with something good. To this day, when we walk past where they are fishing, he does this little prance because he is happy.
The kids swinging their arms came up when several skateboarders came rushing past us while we were walking at the park. They have their arms up to keep balance and to turn, he associates the arm movement with the skateboards, which scared him.
I would caution to NOT comfort him when he acts frightened like that. Though that is our first instinct, it actually reinforces the fear that they are feeling. Basically, when you comfort them, you are saying "it's okay to be afraid of that. Good dog for being afraid". Even though that's not what you mean.
Oh, what I have done with most of Jasper's sound fears is to have plenty of good treats on hand when I suspect that something might scare him (such as walking at the park). Every time a skateboarder or rollerblader came near, I would say "YES!" and give him a treat. We did that every single time. It got to the point where I didn't even need to treat him anymore. I just would say "YES!" and you could just see him do a little prance because he was so happy that he made me happy.
I had to do the same thing when people are fishing. Poor Jasper got tangled in an electric fence up at the lake one time. Well, besides zapping him, the sound it made was almost identical to the sound a fishing pole being casted makes. So he became terrified of people casting fishing poles (this is another place where swinging arms came into play in his fears). Same thing. Every time we walked past the fisherpersons, I would feed him treat after treat after treat. He started to associate the people fishing with something good. To this day, when we walk past where they are fishing, he does this little prance because he is happy.
