Dog: Overcoming Your Fears

Recently my dog has developed a fear of walking on wooden floors. She seems to be okay with walking on wooden floors where objects are near, such as chairs or walls or stairs. But in places such as the kitchen or dining room, she refuses to cross. I think she does not want to slip and fall, because when she does cross (only in the most dire situations), she flops around in a cacophony of claws scratching and legs wobbling around. She also is afraid of vacuums. Yesterday, when my mother was vacuuming the house, I decided my dog needed to face her fears. I took several dog beds and flimsy rug things from the house and slid her around on them, yet she did put up a fight. She stiffened her whole body and outstretched her claws but I kept sliding her around the house. My mother had taken a break from vacuuming and had left the machine in the kitchen. As we slid around, I brought the dog and I to the vacuum. She became increasingly afraid, and her claws stretched out even more. I have come to the conclusion that the amount of claw stretched-ness is an excellent tool for measuring scared-ness. I hoped that vacuum sight-seeing would remove the fear that the vacuum was going to kill her. But my dog is still terrified of vacuums and probably even more afraid of wooden floors. As I reflect on this now I have realized that this was quite torturous to my dog.