LoL It is, its one of DH's construction extensions cords :D

Okay, as I was typing I remembered you said you husband was in construction, but I wasn't sure if he'd let you borrow a cord! :D Anyway, it sounds good what you're doing!

Well he didn't "let" me borrow it lol i kinda just took it- he has like 30 around the garage so i dont think he minds !

My husband is so possessive of his and he only uses them for Christmas lights!

Katie Scarlett hates fireworks too! When we were at my parents for New Years and they started going off, she barked like mad. She jumped up on the bed with me and just trembled. It was so sad and I couldn't do anything to make them stop. After a while, she calmed down and just listened. But she didn't like them.

I'm a big fan of Cesar, so try to make sure my body language and energy are always calm and assertive. When Oz gets scared of something, rather than pick him up or try to baby talk to him ("it's ok baby" kind of thing), I will purposefully bring him to the thing scaring him and stand and wait for him to accept it. This has worked on garbage cans and many other things. The new thing he's scared of is posters. We hung one over where his playpen was, and it fell into his playpen and onto him. Now I think I will have to get an old poster and make him walk on it. Sometimes, you just have to calmy lead them through the thing that scares them, and once they realize it isn't hurting them, they learn not to fear it.

I remember a Cesar episode where there was some sort of poodle that had run into a screen door and it was terrified of the sound of the screen door after that. In about 10 or 15 minutes Cesar had the dog going through the door like a pro. Remember that the dog's fear is often OUR fear projected. We get afraid FOR the dog, and they pick up on that. I think this is especially true for small dog owners. Calm assertiveness is the only way to tackle these things!

Caser too, he is amazing!! Even Dh thinks he is amazing!! Thank you for the advise, I am starting to work on him with his issues.

I have learned that Dori will look to me for my reaction if anything out of the ordinary happens. I just say, "you're ok" and go about my business.
For desensitizing, I use the "check it out" command. This means get as close as she can to the object and get a treat. Objective is to eventually touch it with her nose. We have used this method on vacuum cleaners, plastic bags, fireplace, garbage cans, new objects brought into the house, canes, bicycle wheels, etc.
Noises are a different issue. Usually "you're ok" and my calm demeanor seem to work.
Again, consistency and practice.

I am so glad you posted this question, not because I have a solution to the problem but because its nice to know that I am not the only one with a "fraidydog"

Lol. I just wonder what the next thing will be scared of !!!