According to a study, four in five (85%) of dogs have been found to have some sort of fear, with one in five (21%) resulting in misbehaviours such as excessive barking, chewing, or chasing the appliance.

Of course, nobody wants to see their beloved dog afraid or unsettled, as well as having to fork out for new appliances due to damages, so why not consider helping them overcome these worries and avoid expensive costs?

• New research by comparethemarket.com reveals the home appliances that dogs are most afraid of, as well as expert tips on what pooch parents can do to help ease their fears
• Over four in five (85%) dogs are afraid of household appliances, with owners citing them becoming anxious, nervous, or afraid around them
• The most feared everyday household items include the vacuum cleaner, hairdryer, and lawnmower

Household appliances dogs find most frightening

• Vacuum cleaner (45%)
• Hairdryer (24%)
• Lawnmower (21%)
• Washing machine (15%)
• Food blender (13%)
• Sweeping brush (10%)

Looking into the level of fear experienced, the study found that nearly two in five (38%) will leave the room entirely until the appliance is no longer being used, whereas over one in five (22%) dogs will go and hide under something, such as a table or sofa.

Other reactions include shaking (21%), excessively barking, chewing, or chasing the appliance (21%), as well as crying or whining (20%).

Not only that but rather worryingly one in twelve (8%) dogs were found to pant in response to certain household appliances which is a rather serious fear reaction compared to leaving the area.

So, what can doggy parents do to help ease their dog’s fears? Dr. Heather Venkat, a veterinarian consultant, says that fear-related accidents in the home are not uncommon but that it is possible to help avoid them. Here are her five top tips:

• Pet owners can ease their dog’s fears by giving them space to move away from the noise. If your dog chooses to avoid the appliance, leave them be.
• Should your dog be part of the 21% that become destructive and cries or chases after the appliance then further separation and boundaries may be needed, such as putting your dog in a kennel or X-pen.
• Extremely noise sensitive dogs may need further attention including natural supplements such as probiotics or even anti-anxiety medication from your veterinarian.
• Pet owners can also play calming music when using loud appliances to try to drown out the scary noise and help their dog to not worry as much.
• To avoid dogs becoming afraid of home appliances when they’re puppies, pet owners should gradually introduce their pups to noises at a low volume or from further away. Pairing the noise with a treat also helps the puppy associate the noise with something positive.

Also commenting, Chris King, head of home insurance at comparethemarket.com, says: “As our research highlights, one in five dogs misbehave and can become destructive in response to various common household appliances, something many pooch parents will have experienced.

“It has been found that 62% of owners said their dogs had caused damage to their home at some point, averaging a cost of £165.47 each year! In fact, a fifth of homeowners (20%) haven’t even informed their home insurance provider about their dog, meaning they risk their claim being rejected should their pooch cause any damage.

“Ultimately, it’s inevitable that your dog is going to be near these items daily, so owners must try to ease their worries and avoid any potential accidents or damages that may arise due to them being frightened. Therefore, having the right home insurance policy in place and checking what is and isn’t covered will give you that extra peace of mind, just in case.”

At least 1,400 dogs have died as a result of an ongoing rabies outbreak scare in Thailand – a scare that by all verifiable accounts is not real, according to Thailand based charity, Soi Dog Foundation.

The animal welfare charity tells us that a couple of weeks ago three thousand dogs were rounded up in Nakhon Phanom province, which borders the Mekong River, and dumped in a government pound. In the crowded conditions, diseases, particularly deadly parvo and distemper, spread like wildfire.

In such close quarters, fights between dogs and death by starvation of small or sickly dogs, unable to compete for food, added to the toll.

However for the 1,500 dogs who remain, there is now some hope because an Emergency Reaction Team from the Soi Dog Foundation were given permission to go into the pound to treat the dogs inside.

The sight that greeted them was grim.

One member of the emergency medical team described it. “I would like to stay positive, but I can’t,’ he said.

“The pound is overcrowded and dog fights break out all the time. When it is feeding time, the weaker dogs don’t have the strength to eat. So the stronger dogs take all the food and the weaker ones don’t survive.

“The dogs are scared, depressed, and traumatised by their experience. It’s hard to stay positive about this place. It’s simply heartbreaking.”

Upon arrival, the team first sorted the dogs.

The small dogs, the puppies, and the weak were separated from the large dogs, and as none of the animals are yet sterilised, the males were separated from the females.

They also did the same with cats that had been rounded up by the local office of the Thai government’s Livestock Department.

They then vaccinated every animal in the pound – injecting 60 an hour and daubing them afterwards with green dye so that no animal would be vaccinated twice by mistake.

The animals may survive but they now face spending the rest of their lives in captivity. This is because officials kept no record of where each dog came from, so they cannot be returned to their home territory.

In any case, those territories have already most likely been taken over by stronger, fitter or more wily dogs who managed to avoid the government dragnet.

The deaths in the pound are not the only ones to result from official knee-jerk reactions to a public panic over a “rabies outbreak” in Thailand that started in the new year. The panic has resulted in public calls for all eight million street dogs in Thailand to be killed, a “solution” dubbed “Set Zero”.

In March, 20 dogs in a Buddhist temple in the upper south of the country, including a family of puppies, were poisoned by government officials, causing outrage among animal lovers.

Poisoning – in Thailand usually using strychnine – results in a horribly painful death for the animals, that spend hours shuddering and spasming in agony, drowning in their own fluids, before death finally comes.

The officials later claimed that tests had shown that 16 of the 20 poisoned animals had rabies, but the test results were never released, leading to widespread suspicion that they were made up.

A number of activist groups have come together to bring criminal charges against the officials concerned, under Thailand’s Animal Cruelty Law.

The Thai Livestock Department has come under fire for not reassuring people that there is, in fact, no rabies outbreak at all, and for its inept and understaffed handling of captured dogs.

In March, fuel was added to the flames when the department also came under scrutiny over alleged irregularities in its procurement of poor quality canine rabies vaccine.

An internal investigation came to the conclusion there had been no irregularity, and that inferior-quality vaccine had not been the cause of a spike in rabies deaths at the beginning of the year.

However, the reports of poor quality vaccine had already spread, resulting in the calls for “Set Zero”. The department has denied having any plans to kill all stray dogs in Thailand.

Thailand has in fact been effective in reducing human deaths from rabies from hundreds a year in the 1990s to single figures in recent years.

In 2018, to date, there have been just seven human rabies deaths.

The Nakhon Phanom emergency is not the first time that Soi Dog has stepped in to save animals, particularly dogs, after the government has proved unable or unwilling to do so.

In 2010 it sprang into action to successfully contain an outbreak of parvo disease through a massive vaccination programme. In 2011, it rescued thousands of dogs from devastating flooding in Bangkok and in 2016/17 it did the same during floods in the south of Thailand.

Soi Dog – founded in 2003 by husband and wife John and Gill Dalley from Leeds in the United Kingdom – also played the leading role in stopping the horrific trade in dogs from Thailand to the dog meat restaurants of Vietnam.

It has launched an appeal for funds to help tackle the fallout from the rabies panic, such as the horror in Nakon Phanom. People may donate through the Soi Dog website at www.soidog.org

Two people have been disqualified from keeping dogs for life for a string of animal welfare offences following an RSPCA investigation into the underground puppy trade.

Inspectors from the animal welfare charity and police found a wheelbarrow of dead and dying dogs at a farm in Bradford after launching an investigation following calls from members of the public who had bought puppies which became ill.

On Friday (18 November), a man and a woman appeared at Leeds Magistrates’ Court for sentencing in connection with a number of animal welfare offences relating to puppies and dogs seized from the property, in Tyersal Lane, following the warrant in September last year.

Farm manager John Wilcock (DoB: 09/07/80) of Sticker Lane, Bradford, admitted five offences while Bernadette Nunney (DoB: 04/11/91), of Tyersal Lane, Bradford, pleaded not guilty to six offences. She was found guilty on 20 October following a four-day trial.

Today, the duo were both sentenced to 20 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, and were each disqualified from keeping dogs for life.

Nunney was also handed a 12 week curfew order, ordered to complete a 15-day rehabilitation activity, and ordered to pay £500 in costs.

Wilcock was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and a 20-day rehabilitation activity. He was also ordered to pay £100 in costs.

When RSPCA officers and police executed the warrant they came across a wheelbarrow of dead collie puppies. As they filmed the heartbreaking scene for evidence they realised that one of the pups – a black and white female, buried beneath the dead bodies of her littermates – was still alive.

She was rushed to the vets but later died. Post mortems revealed that she and her siblings had died from parvovirus.

Nunney and Wilcock were accused of causing unnecessary suffering to the seven puppies, as well as a number of other offences [full details below]. They also faced three further allegations of causing unnecessary suffering to a total of 10 dogs, and two offences of failing to meet the needs of 30 dogs.

RSPCA inspector Emma Ellis, who investigated, said: “What I saw that day will stay with me forever.

“The sight of the live puppy buried within the pile of dead puppies was heartbreaking. There was nothing we could do to save her. The way those puppies were left to die highlights how these people simply see them as commodities which I find totally unacceptable.

“Dozens of dogs were being kept at the address in stables and kennel blocks. Many had no food, no water, no bedding, and all of them were living in their own filth.”

Inspectors found 43 dogs – including collies, spaniels, bichon frises, Labradors, beagles, Chihuahuas, and some terrier-cross types – most of which were seized by the police and placed into the RSPCA’s care.

RSPCA special operations unit chief inspector (CI) Ian Briggs, said: “There is a growing demand for certain breeds of dogs – such as chihuahuas, spaniels and bichon frises – and genuine, regulated breeders simply cannot meet demand.

“Unregulated puppy breeders and dealers are plugging this gap in the market by producing dogs on a commercial scale and putting money and profits ahead of the health, welfare and happiness of the dogs.

“When our investigations bring us to places such as this farm, we often find dogs living in squalid, sub-standard conditions meaning the unsuspecting public often end up parting with hundreds and hundreds of pounds for puppies who have behavioural issues or health problems throughout their lives. In some of the worst cases, their beloved family pet dies in their arms just days after bringing them home.”

The case came to court following an investigation by the RSPCA as well as a sting by journalists from BBC’s Watchdog. During their investigation, reporters bought a dog (pictured above) from the Bradford farm which was then rehomed with animal behaviourist Carrie Evans.

“Gizmo was exceptionally frightened and very poorly,” Carrie said. “He was grossly underweight, had worms, had an intestinal infection, and infected ears.

“Due to bad breeding, Gizmo has horrendous deformities in his legs and feet, and his feet can sometimes rotate backwards. He also has an undershot jaw.”

CI Briggs added: “When our investigations bring us to places such as this farm, we often find dogs living in squalid, sub-standard conditions.

“Unsuspecting members of the public end up parting with hundreds and hundreds of pounds for puppies who have behavioural issues because they’ve not been properly socialised, or health problems, due to poor conditions and no veterinary treatment. In some of the worst cases, their beloved family pet dies in their arms just days after bringing them home.”

The RSPCA has launched a campaign to tackle the underground market in puppies following a 122% increase in the number of calls the charity’s cruelty line receives on the issue. The Scrap the Puppy Trade campaign is calling on the Government in England to introduce stricter legislation around the breeding and selling of dogs, and also seeks to help the public in how to responsibly buy a puppy.