A good friend of mine showed me a hysterical collection of dogs trying to get statues to play ball with them (thank you Adam!). Here’s one of them:
You don’t have to work hard to find examples of dogs reacting to statues of people as if they were live humans. Here’s another one of my favorites:
Just google videos of dogs greeting statues for endless more entertainment.
I find it all delightfully amusing, but there’s an important lesson in it: Dogs pay attention to outlines, to silhouettes, as much as to any other visual cue. That’s why many dogs bark at people with hats on, or big bulky back packs–I’ve always thought in a dog’s mind it’s like seeing characters in a sci-fi movie who are mostly human, but not. Creepy, right? I don’t think that dogs get the “removable part” aspect of being human, so if we have on a hat or a huge coat, then we have morphed into BIG HEADED STRANGE SORT OF PERSON. You know, the kind you’d find at a bar in Star Wars.
But it’s also why cautious dogs can be afraid of statues, of any kind of animal. Recently Maggie crept up to a small statue of a lion as if it was a monster, and countless dogs go crazy at a statue of a dog. “It’s a dog, but it’s stiff and immobile!” Holy kitty litter, it must be about to attack!
Of course, there are always exceptions:
But it’s important to remember this when working with a fearful dog–men with hats or large coats can trigger defensive reactions in dogs who are already uncomfortable meeting new people, because of that scary silhouette. (Not sure how a dog would react to a dog as a hat on a dog statue).
And sun glasses? Oh, don’t get me started–the ultimate round-eyed, pupil-dilated nightmare face to a fearful dog. I reflexively take sunglasses off when I meet a new dog without even thinking about it.
Let’s hope your fearful dog never meets a statue wearing big, black sunglasses. ? Any statue stories to share?
Meanwhile, back on the farm: Finally a break in the hot, humid weather, at least for a day or two. Whew. I’ve been walking and working Maggie early in the morning, and it still felt just nasty outside. Like many of my friends and neighbors, my garden is verging on jungle status because of all our rain (over 4 inches a week the last few weeks), but it’s hard to work outside for long because of the weather. But I finally got some serious garden time on Sunday.
Mid July is lily time here. Lilies are one of my favorite plants because 1) they are so gorgeous and 2) they seem to love it on our lousy red clay soil, and 3) they need little care. Bless them.
Working in the garden led to the discovery of this cartoonish caterpillar.
It’s the larval stage of a Orgyia leucostigma, or a white-marked tussock moth. I picked it up with gloves on–those cute little hairs often signify trouble–and moved it off of my hybiscus bush. Turns out the hairs can cause a lot of discomfort, and the species is a common one in mid summer in the midwest. The adult moth is nothing much to look at, apparently having used up all its bling in its youth.
Here’s bud of a new flower I’ve added to the garden, a variety of blooming onion. I’m loving them in a new flower bed.
Looks like it’s going to get humid again soon, time for me to get outside as soon as it’s light and get Maggie out before it gets nasty. #whydoIlivehereagain?
Here’s hoping your weather is conducive to soaking up nature as much as possible. Best medicine ever.
Timaran says
Hi Trisha. Have you had any experience re fearful dogs and people with tattoos? I’m curious because my two GSDs are nervous of strangers. My next door neighbor has volunteered to help me socialize them more, along with our trainer. She’s been coming over for a couple of weeks now, but the dogs still react to her by barking and charging her and take a while before they can settle down. Now I’m keeping them leashed to me when she comes and each session is only about 10 minutes, but she was wondering whether her tattoos were making them uneasy. Just curious if you or other readers may have thoughts about this?
Chris from Boise says
Rowan met a life-sized statue of a black bear and cubs this spring. She wanted nothing to do with it. Wise girl! She hasn’t met human statues yet.
Obi seems oblivious to human statues (he didn’t meet the bear sculpture). Habi was freaked out by human statues; we were able to desensitize her to one, which generalized easily to all.
None of our dogs – calm or reactive – seem to have been discombobulated by hats, packs, coats, etc. We wear all of the above frequently, so perhaps they learned early on that “removable parts” are insignificant. But we know several dogs who are hat/sunglasses-skittish.
Love the lilies! And the caterpillar bling (though glad you knew about the irritating hairs)! That caterpillar is saying “I’m loud, I’m proud, and you REALLY don’t want to mess with me!”
Frances says
Not statues, but I thought I had introduced Sophy as a puppy to everything she was likely to encounter as an adult – I was wrong. Two headed humans! Humans moving without legs!! Cows walking along tree branches!!! (Man carrying baby in a back pack; people walking in a sunken path; cows on the hillside behind the tree…). Life is full of strange sights when your eyes are less than a foot from the ground, and even the bravest dog is wise to treat possible monsters with caution.
Terry says
Similar to horses. Unusual silhouettes, especially ones that are moving, scare them. Like mountain bikers. I ask them to please stop and say something in a human voice. As soon as my horse hears a voice, he puts them in a “no problem, that’s a human” category.
LisaW says
Without thinking, I parked the car with Olive in it, next to a larger-than-life sign of a dog advertising dog food of some kind. The sign swung back and forth in the wind. I came back to the car, and she was wide-eyed, stiff, and barking like crazy. Each time the sign swung toward the car, she must have thought she was done for! I felt terrible and she felt worse. One more lesson learned.
(She really hates hats of any kind on others. Even people she knows, but she is okay with us wearing hats.)
Margaret says
The local library has a life-sized statue of a seated woman, holding a book, with one arm stretched out. It’s designed so children can sit in its (her?) lap. My second guide dog puppy, Gerda, pulled her leash out of my hand, jumped in its (her?) lap, and licked its (her?) face.
The library staff and other patrons were hysterical. I was laughing so hard I could barely retrieve my dog. Not a shining moment as a dog trainer…
Bruce says
Local restaurant has a life-sized, bright red plastic horse out front. First dog is a Beagle-retriever mix who experienced the world through her nose. Walking along nose to the ground, dog sees red horse and jumped back three feet.
Dog walks around behind life-sized red plastic horse and, after a series of feints and retreats, gets close enough to the back end of the horse to give it a sniff. Smelling is believing and the horse didn’t smell real, so she ignored it afterwards.
Current dog is not quite as dramatic but displayed similar interest in a cast iron cow near the dog park, and cast iron dogs located throughout the downtown area. This dog has a high prey drive so the cow was especially interesting.
I expect the FDR memorial in DC would be especially interesting to dogs, with numerous life-sized metallic people and, of course, a bronze Fala (whose head is always shiny from people petting the “dog”). Hmm, maybe dogs are not the only ones who notice silhouettes . . .
Gayle says
My vet has a life-sized statue of a greyhound in her waiting room. Every time I take my greyhound in for a checkup, she sniffs it’s butt.
Love the lilies ❤️
Teddy says
This is great. We used to walk our dogs on the grounds of the Texas Capitol, where these statues of children are found:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/8087221095
They’d crouch and approach them very cautiously, especially our (probably) most intelligent and most cautious puppy, and do short alarm-barks at them. We called them the Weird Children. To me, the dogs always seemed relieved when we decided we’d had enough of (not) interacting with them, and moved along.
Leslie Sachlis says
More than one of my dogs have responded to inflated yard sculptures. Some have invited them to play. Others have warned them off or panicked at the sight of them. My neighbors were not excited about having a panicked pup near their inflatables (which I undsrstand) so I was forced to take evasive action (leave with pup). Inflatables that light up, make sounds when you approach, or worse yet have visible interior moving parts seemed to be the scariest.
Caroline says
I am really surprised. Dog’s noses are so sensitive, I would think they could tell right away the difference between real and statue….even if the outline was confusing.
Tracy says
My favorite statue experience was with a wonderful dog I had several years ago. It was Christmas and we were walking in the neighborhood at dusk, when we came upon a nativity scene and my dog started growling and barking at the Virgin Mary!
Lesly says
I had two of my dogs reacting to statues. Not helped by the statues being up on a pedestal. After lifting them to sniff and look, they were fine with all the other statues in the garden (various characters from Shakespeare plays.) We took a few walks past. Never thought to proof statues!
Tracy says
My rescue attacked a stuffed dog in a training session. In retrospect the trainer realized it wasn’t a good idea to use the “stiff” with a socially anxious dog. He’s shown reactivity toward objects (a ball down a alley, garden statues) but relaxes once he can sniff them. The only person he’s ever growled at was a man in a turban.
Anne says
My husband has a “monster hat”. It’s a kids’ winter hat actually that has huge eyes and a toothy mouth on it. He couldn’t figure out for the longest time why one of our dogs barked at him every time he came home with that hat. I kept telling him to take the hat off, or turn it inside out, but he never would. “Don’t blame me if the dog bites you then” didn’t really go over well. Finally he did believe me and started taking the hat off before he got in the yard. It was only the one dog, all the other dogs (we had 7 at the time) weren’t fooled at all by a scary hat.
Kandy says
We just started fostering a week ago and Zeus (border collie mix) has happily greeted everyone he’s meet! We took him to the foster meetup, and farming supply store (Farm & Fleet allows dogs, for the locals who don’t know), then to an outdoor concert. He was a total ham/gentleman until one man passed by us when he proceeded to bark and lunge. We were surprised! Well, it’s not until I read this post that I realized the man had on a sun hat AND sunglasses. Thank you for this post as we’d hate to lose a potential adopter over a summer accessory! 🐾💕
Trisha says
So glad it helped!
Trisha says
It’s that first sniff that relaxes dogs, isn’t it? I remember Willie freaking out over a fake deer until he finally got the nerve to stretch out his neck and sniff it. Then he had no interest in it.
Trisha says
No kidding about not thinking to ‘proof statues’! I’m glad your dogs generalized from one statue to another, lots don’t seem to.
Trisha says
Explain that to the neighbors!
Trisha says
Easy assumption to make, given how good dog’s noses are. But scent is irrelevant if the molecules aren’t drifting in the right direction, and dogs are highly visual animals too.
Trisha says
Every time? Love it… the power of an outline!
Trisha says
Absolutely true about this not just being about dogs. Look at our responses to smiley faces, and stuffed animals, and cartoon characters. We are all hard wired to respond to certain visual cues, and they are amazingly powerful (says the woman who still loves stuffed animals…).
Trisha says
Now that one deserves a video for sure!
Trisha says
Oh poor Olive! I can barely imagine how she felt . . . and how hard it would have been for me to not be laughing at her. (Don’t tell her.)
Trisha says
Love the horse connection. I remember riding a Tennessee Walker who spooked to a statue so hard and fast that I barely stayed on. Thanks for making this a multi-species conversation.
Trisha says
Okay, I got totally stumped trying to translate the “two headed humans” and other dog-based perceptions. Love this take on it all, especially the cows walking on tree branches. Who ever thinks about perspective and dog vision anyway?
Trisha says
Thinking about Obi and Rowan–I wonder what percentage of dogs react to statues and what percentage don’t. And what are those different reactions based on? Different levels of confidence? Different experiences when the wind was blowing just the right way? So many questions!!!
Trisha says
Wow is that an interesting question! I honestly can’t say, I don’t see clients like I used to now and tattoos, especially full sleeve ones, are so much more common now. Anyone else? I’m truly curious.
Rene' says
This topic is great! My very smart, golden ret. mix reacted to a fence post as ” extreme stranger danger!” The evil post was on our property but not one he saw on a daily basis. This happened several times, only on dark nights and was always the same post. I wondered if an animal had sent marked it.
Joan says
We humans can experience the phenomenon known as the uncanny valley. Perhaps dogs have a similar but even deeper ‘valley’. Maybe dogs are creeped out a bit by statues like we are when we see overly realistic infant baby dolls or robots that fall in the uncanny valley. We know they are fake. Also the doll evokes a conditioned emotional response at odds with what we know to be true. They may know that they are sniffing the butt of a fake dog, just as we know that there is no need to support the head of a realistic infant doll, but there we are supporting the head of a fake infant and there they are sniffing the butt of a statue not out of being completely fooled, but by starting a familiar motor pattern that the stimulus was close enough actual one to start. We even have a bit of trouble deciding what pronoun to use with Robots. Do we call Siri or Alexa it or she?
Trisha says
Love the “uncanny valley” term. Never knew what phrase to use to describe how creepy things that look sort of human, but not.
Wren Ingram says
So glad to learn that I’m not the only one with dogs that went crazy over sculptures, statues and big hats! One of my rescue mastiffs went into full alert/protect mode over the plaster lion statues that were placed on either side of a house walkway. And another one of my rescue boys was scared by Ben Franklin!!! A statue of Ben sitting on a bench at the University of Pennsylvania’s campus. I’m very sorry to confess that my boy got over the fear, sniffed Ben up and down and then…peed on him 🙂 I could keep going since almost EVERY rescue dog I’ve had (or transported or pulled or assessed) has a “thing” for sculptures and/or statues. Thanks for this post and comments that made me laugh and remember my history of rescues that don’t like ‘art’ 😉
Ellen says
I manage a group of volunteer puppy raisers for Southeastern Guide Dogs. We have a large community church with life size statues of Jesus and children and adults. I’ve seen dogs have reactions to manikins in stores, but they’re usually posed in unnatural or stiff positions. Sure enough, my group-ranging in age from 4-12 months were very relaxed among the ‘soft’ arms outreached and curved. Curved=good, friendly Straight, harsh=bad
Linda says
I once put on a home-made lion costume to show to my husband. When I entered the living room, our big orange tabby took one look at me and tore off under a cabinet. Within a few seconds after I started talking, he came out and acted like nothing had happened. So cats can be fooled, too.
Shirley Baumann says
We were at a flea market with our 8 lb miniature long haired dachshund. We walked around a corner and she bolted running as fast as her little legs would go and barking like mad. She ran the entire length of the long aisle to a statue of a doberman. I couldn’t believe how fast she picked up the silhouette and how far she was from it when she saw it. And the poor little girl only had one eye left after a run-in with a porcupine.
Ruth Olsen says
My very visual English springer was not usually fearful, but didn’t like weird things. A coworker was walking towards us with a pair of fishing waders draped over his arm. Clearly his extra legs and feet were in the wrong place! Also got a similar reaction at seeing him walking towards us while holding his young son. Probably back-lighting that made him appear to have an extra head! It was funny that it was the same person both times, always with extra body parts to make the dog bark that something was wrong!
Nannette Morgan says
Great article especially the videos! My first Siberian and I were up in the snow at a mushing camp (No. Calif.). The camp had a larger than life beautifully carved light brown bear statue. When my boy saw that from the car, he barked and barked at it! I’ll always remember that fondly.
MARGARET TUCKER says
My neighbor’s Bichon came across a snowman in the park and went berserk. My lab looked at the dog as if he was crazy.
Alice R. says
Those are hilarious! My guy had puppy class at a place with a dog statue out front. He was nervous the first time, then had to sniff and wag at it each visit. He is another one to notice anything different in the environment, but luckily, he asks to investigate them now. We also have a code if he’s nervous, “what IS it?” in a very sing song voice, that tells him it won’t get him and so he relaxes.
Tricia, you are so right about the garden going wild and being to hot and humid to work in for long, and now I have some kind of ground bees, as well as yellow jackets whose entrance I can’t find, in the bed I need to work most. It’s always something back there.
lin says
Mr. B is the most hesitant of the dogs we’ve owned, but he never seemed to be bothered by hats or sunglasses. However, when my husband recently wore a full-face respirator, Mr. B would not approach him. It didn’t help that the respirator also muffled my husband’s voice, to make him doubly alarming. Mr. B wagged his tail very low, but would not come near.
Finally, with the help of super-treats (peanut butter mixed with bacon grease), Mr. B came very carefully towards my husband and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d his neck out to take the treat. He greeted my husband happily later on, when the respirator was removed before entering the house. Poor Mr. B must have thought my husband had been taken over by an alien!
After reading your thoughts on sunglasses, I never wear them when walking the shelter dogs. I do wear a baseball cap, but the shelter behaviorist/trainer also wears one, so the dogs are pretty de-sensitized.
mnak says
Just wanted to say: “Holy kitty litter!” will be my new phrase of exclamation!
Trisha says
Love the “uncanny valley” term. Never knew what phrase to use to describe how creepy things that look sort of human, but not.
Trisha says
And do you call your husband Dr. Darth Vader now?
Erin says
My Chinese Crested Chloe has a thing about hoodies, hats, and jackets. If I wear something it’s fine, but watching my Mom or Dad put it on to go out or when they come back in from getting the mail makes her bark.
Kat says
Ranger showed us that there were all sorts of questionable roughly people shaped creatures in our neighborhood. There was the newly added chainsaw carved bear holding a welcome sign. Ranger didn’t think it was welcoming at all but over the course of a week we gradually worked our way close enough that I could touch it and put treats on its base and it ceased to be of concern. There were the giant inflatable snow people and Santas that appear around Christmas, that took trespassing on a few yards to get him close enough that he could smell them and of course the ever popular Halloween people in their strange get ups. That took a familiar voice inside the strange look and a comprehensive sniff before he figured out that even if they looked strange they were still people that would pet him. All of this took place within the first year of him living with us. As he got older nothing much worried him about people shaped objects or people dressed in weird ways.
After Ranger’s training on spotting weird people shaped creatures I fully expected that teaching Finna to navigate those hazards of suburban life would be a major challenge. But no, chainsaw carvings and inflatables hold no terror and no interest for her. The biggest reaction she had was to stop and observe the inflatable snowman bobbing about in the breeze for a minute before dismissing it. Because she still considers the majority of humans as unpredictable alien creatures to be avoided or driven off Halloween hasn’t been part of her life.
This isn’t strictly relevant to statues and hats but I have laughed about Finna’s ability to recognize growth spurts. My son was 12 when we adopted Finna. He’s 20 now and as you can imagine there was a lot of growing going on in those 8 years. Whenever he’d come down in the morning after a growth spurt Finna was stop dead and eye him up and down, for all the world like she was measuring him with her eyes, then once she’d assured herself that he wasn’t some stranger she’d dash over for morning greetings. After seeing this behavior a couple of times we started measuring him when she’d do it and sure enough he’d be at least a quarter inch taller.
Kat says
I was just reading through all the comments and Tracy’s story about the turban reminded me of something. I serve on the Board of Directors for Keta Legacy Foundation which is a small environmental non-profit https://ketalegacy.org. At one of our outreach events we had an interpretive Barred Owl from the local wildlife rehab group. This owl has an injury that prevents him from being returned to the wild so he’s been trained to show off owl traits to educate humans about his wild relations. He’d done his demo and his handler was taking questions from those lingering when a man asked if he could have his picture taken next to the owl. This is a pretty common request and the owl is pretty used to people standing near him. Except this time the man was wearing a turban and when he stepped over next to the owl the owl’s head shot around to focus very intently on this weird thing. The owl was so fixated that the handler immediately moved away with him and popped him back into his travel crate. Even though he’s a pretty calm and accommodating bird as a rule he’s still a wild animal and his reaction to the turban wasn’t one the handler was taking any chances with.
Jann Becker says
When our older dog had surgery we boarded her pushy little brother the first two nights so she could collect her wits before having him in her face. But we needn’t have worried–when he saw her in a cone he jumped back 3 feet and continued to be very careful around the Alien That’s Trying To Eat My Sister.
Jenny Haskins says
A number of stories
We bought a beautiful (large) cast-iron crab We put it on the floor when we got it home, and our little dog freaked out, barking at it. We laughed at her — when she got the courage to go closer and realise that it wasn’t live crab, you should have seen the dirty look she gave us!
I took a dog with me on a day trip. We stopped at an area called New Italy, where they had a statue of an Italian farmer with his dog. Poor Scott freaked out — he never did like other dogs, and it was too much for him that this dog just ignored him!
I got back one of my pups who failed as a Police Dog. Apart from the fact they on the way home with him, he was afraid to go into the Ladies Toilets with me, he also freaked out about a large Semi-trailer that was parked near where we were walking, but the worst was when we passed a shop with a mannequin in its door way. And he hadn’t failed through nervousness either — only that ‘All he wanted to do was love the villain up!’
Jenny Haskins says
After I’d had cataract surgery I found the glare unbearable, so wore the dark glasses for several weeks afterwards. My dogs got so used to them that they never ever worried about them.
One of my pet hates though is Obedience judges who wear hats for ‘Stand for Examination’. My poor Nervous Nellie is now competing in Masters RallyO , but still doesn’t have our baby Obedience title (CCD) because she cannot ‘stand for examination’ with anybody she doesn’t know — especially if they are mal
e and wearing a hat ;-(
Jane says
This weekend I fostered four Maltese, rescued together from a dismal situation and still recovering their health. They were all resting on the floor when one very suddenly had a grand mal seizure: she flipped onto her back, legs completely stiff and facing upward in unnatural directions. She made no sound, there was no drooling, peeing, etc., but her silhouette had certainly gone from normal to very abnormal in a split second. The other three dogs instantly went absolutely nuts, running to her, trying to crawl on top of her, and whining/crying. There certainly could be instantaneous changes to her smell, maybe the others could even have been responding to electrical signals, but I also did find myself wondering if they were reacting to a changed and frightening silhouette. I know my amygdala was responding to that unnatural shape! By the way, she was whisked off to the emergency vet immediately, appears to have recovered fully from the seizure, but may go on anti-epileptics soon.
Charlotte Kasner says
Does anyone know of any studies about how dogs see high visibility clothing? I have lots of anecdotal evidence that some dogs react fearfully. I wonder if it flares in their vision as I would expect it to appear less bright than to humans?
marymark says
Re Hi Vis- normally my dog Max (large mixed breed mutt) is ok-ish with hi vis but we came across a man with a very dark complexion in dark clothes wearing hi- vis jacket at night. Max gave his ‘proper growl’ the one that raises hairs on the back of your neck towards this man who did give the impression of a disembodied bright jacket hovering along at above waist height by itself. Other than that high vis is fine unless it flaps – which often it can if people are wearing loose vests over clothes. The other thing is that often high vis is combined with helmets and/or machinery etc . So not sure if it is the hi- vis or the combination of abnormal ‘stuff’
Ravana says
I was surprised my dog didn’t lose a tooth when he suddenly lunged off the sidewalk and grabbed a concrete rabbit statue in someone’s garden on one of our walks. Poor guy was so sure he had won the lottery.
Mary says
The neighbor kids build snow people every year. It takes weeks for my dog to figure out that they’re not a threat
Karen DeBraal says
My little collie mix (since passed on) moved to a suburban area with us, from a remote village in NM. As we began taking neighborhood walks in our new place, we would pass a house that had a child-size statue of Buddha in one part of the yard and about say a 60 lb dog size pair of stone lion statues by the beginning of their walkway.
She barked at Buddha for months without fail. He never responded (!) but simply continued peacefully gazing. The lions were also barked at but her interest in them faded more quickly. Sometimes she would pause and just sit by one of them for a minute and I would pat a stone nose for some sort of possible luck. But Buddha — he did not inspire the same sort of peace!
Pat says
Hi Trisha,
Another fascinating topic! I don’t have much experience with Kona and statues, but as a pup it was hoodies that freaked him out. I had to go and buy a hoodie and wear it around the house a lot to get him used to it. That seems to have desensitised him to hats too!
It seems to be not just unusual human shapes but, as someone in an earlier post mentioned, new shapes appearing in a familiar environment. A recent walk at dusk along a regular route saw Kona crouching low and growling at some looming silhouettes that had appeared since our last walk. It wasn’t until I walked over and sat on the new bench seats that he relaxed enough to approach and sniff!
Helen says
Ah. . .(just to be completely predictable). . . loved the post and all the comments. My mini poodle as a puppy once freaked out completely in the local dog park at the Chinese guy/priest/whateverhewas and his white billowing robes. I kept retreating to a safe distance but he just did not “buy” it!
And my bichpoo (love calling him that, toy poodle x bichon frise) adopted at 1 year old, clearly very limited socialisation. He will bark at men, men in hats, men wearing sunglasses or the holy trinity: men wearing high viz clothing, hat AND sunglasses.
We have got most of it sorted but the unexpected appearance of the holy trinity does result in a high pitched “Holy Kitty Litter” reaction. (Also my new favourite expression! )
Tamasin says
Had this interspecies experience in my yard yesterday with two Western Pileated Woodpeckers sharply pounding high up in Douglas firs. Several times, one reached its head around the trunk, peered directly at me, then withdrew behind the trunk to continue. They knew I was there but stayed busy. I trained my binoculars on them, but by the time I was in focus, the birds were gone. Maybe they were about to leave anyway. Then again, maybe they thought caution a better choice when confronted with a nearby animal now staring straight at them unblinking with giant black eyes on stalks.
None of my rescue dogs of all sizes and kinds has ever been spooked by clothing or glasses, but the most social and curious of them used to sniff the rear ends of my little caprine garden statues every day, occasionally giving an endearing play bow until she finally gave up on those unresponsive rascals.
Julie says
What is known about how scent and sight work together in dogs? Like others, I am surprised that the dogs don’t quickly realize the statue is not human or alive once they sniff. My fearful hound usually triggers from things he sees and hears but if he thinks with his nose, he processes the new item or event much better.
Jay Wootten says
Here in the Midwest, lots of folks make silhouette lawn decorations out of painted plywood. One winter, my neighbor made reindeer, and I thought it would be cute photo to have my dogs wear their reindeer antlers posing next to the silhouettes. NO WAY.
Another time we were driving past a large display of silhouetted people and animals, and my Keeshond went ballistic in the car.
And Beau the border collie attacked a stuffed dog in reactive dog class–he ran up, sniffed its butt, bit it and ran away. In another reactive dog class, he was terrified of “Stuffy,” the stuffed dog on a leash. It was scarier than the other dogs in class. So scary for him that the instructor stopped using it.