Having a pet is one of life’s great joys. It’s incredible to watch their personalities develop, to form a real bond with a creature who doesn’t even share a language with you, to snuggle up on a cold winter’s night and enjoy their company. As many joys as you can find in pet ownership, there’s no doubt that it’s a lot of work! From pet-proofing your home to training your pup not to jump on people, there’s a lot to keep in mind if you want your furry friend to stay healthy and happy. Like everything else in your home, the way you look at your furnace will change when you get a pet.
Sometimes, animals can be afraid of the furnace; there can be a wide variety of reasons for this. Pets are great detectors of things that you can’t see; it’s possible if your pet is shying away from an appliance that there’s an unseen underlying problem. A dog who got close to a furnace might get an electrical shock if there’s a short; if your furnace or air conditioning has been running inefficiently, the best air conditioning repair professional or furnace repair guru can take a look and make sure there are no shorts in the circuitry. Your pet may also be smelling something unusual; it may mean it’s time to change the filter of your unit. You may also have rodents or another vermin dwelling around the furnace that your animal has noticed; if you have a cat, you might soon get an unexpected present.
The most common reason your pet will be freaking out by the furnace is that it’s an unknown item, and animals have a healthy dose of fear for the unknown. There may be unusual noises or smells; even the sight of the furnace may be somewhat daunting to an animal. Positive reinforcement can be a great way of getting past this problem; when your furry friend is close to the furnace, give them treats and pets for being good; speak in a calm, even, positive tone. Soon enough, they’ll realize that the furnace isn’t scary at all, and you won’t hesitate to put it on full blast when it’s cold.
While your pets might be afraid of your furnace, would you believe your furnace is afraid of your pets? “No way Mr. Blogger”, you might say, “You need to have a certain level of sentience to feel fear, and furnaces aren’t even alive, let alone aware enough to feel”. Well, rhetorical reader, you’re right, but also totally missing the point. Pet dander is a problem for your furnace since it can get into the fan if not properly filtered, causing a mechanical breakdown. Insofar as a furnace is “alive” and can “die”, and insofar as death is something that’s generally feared by beings when they are sentient, if your furnace was sentient it would, in fact, be afraid of your pets. So there.
To alleviate your furnace’s fear of dying from pet dander, be sure to change your filters regularly, and choose higher MERV filters to keep the dander out. Your furnace will thank you.