I have a one-year-old Australian Shepherd that is devoted to me. She follows me everywhere and wants to be with me every second of the day.

Until I put on the boots that I wore hunting in Africa. If I put these boots on, she runs and hides, actually shaking in fear. She won't come near me until hours after I take them off and still acts really leery around my stocking feet.

These boots have made trips to Zimbabwe, SA, and Namibia and I haven't used them anywhere else.

No other hunting equipment bothers her. Blood on my other boots or my knives or guns doesn't bother her. The older Aussie and the Border Collie aren't fazed by the boots at all.

I've got a brother tat when he was young he was terrified of the old green deodorant sticks. Blind unreasoning terror. For all I know he may still have that fear. Had a bird dog was they same way about being in a car going faster than 30 MPH. Never outgrew it.

I think I'd put the boots away for about 15 years, probably be a lot easier than figuring out a phobia like that, much less curing it.

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Frank, Have you cleaned and polished the boots since the last trip ? Sounds really strange but hey we cannot smell what they are smelling ?!

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I know my lab didn’t care for the pair with lion/leopard/hyena blood on them. He didn’t hide, but sniffed and raised his hackles at them.

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Originally posted by Charlie64:
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Frank, Have you cleaned and polished the boots since the last trip ? Sounds really strange but hey we cannot smell what they are smelling ?!

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No, they've never been cleaned except when the USDA sprayed them with disinfectant on one return to the US years ago.

I just noticed that she won't go near them where they're stored in the basement.

Just strange that the older dogs don't care about them at all.

I had a Boerboel that when he was young I would play a YouTube video of lions shouting and every hair on his body would stand on end where he retreated under my desk to hunker down and growl. Before he was house trained (and a little after) he would hold a shit all day so he could leave it on a zebra rug. They can be strange creatures with inherent tendencies.