[Lhamilton]

Hi,

My 3-year-old yorkie has always been nervous of the fireplace in the family room when the gas fire is turned on. It rarely is so it hasn’t been a problem. However, this week he’s decided that he’s afraid of the fireplace entirely (despite it not having been turned on this year — we fiddled a bit with it to get it to work and it won’t so we’ve got a repairperson coming on Monday so we will have the fireplace if the power goes out and we need it for heat).

We’ve checked and there’s no gas smell. The fear is keeping him from going into the family room entirely where we usually sit. We’ve put a gate up occasionally so that he must spend some time with us but does it sleeping in the farthest end of the room. He’ll come into the family room to eat his dinner and then leave fast. For a while our other Yorkie stayed with him and we were dogless essentially but the other pup (a year old) has decided there’s nothing to fear and is back in our laps.

We miss him! And I’m pretty sure he misses us!

Any idea what we can do?

Thanks.

Linda