I am scared of dogs. Not so much of small ones that I feel I have a chance against if they attack me, but mainly of big dogs. I cross the street to avoid them, don’t visit friends who have big dogs, walk different routes in my neighbourhood, don’t take my kids to open parkland and don’t go running in the countryside that I love, in case there are dogs there. If they aren’t on a lead then I panic that they are going to run at me, bark at me or attack me. I also size up the owner and judge them as being ‘nice’ or not in order to predict if they’re more likely to have a ‘nice’ dog or not, because nice people have nice dogs that probably won’t attack me. I also question if the owner has control over their dog, even if it’s on a lead.
I have not had any bad experiences with dogs but I remember when I was about 7 years old, an alsatian was standing at the end of a lane my mum and I were about to walk down and she calmly turned around and walked the opposite way, away from the dog. She has a very fearful view of the world anyway and I think I must have picked up on this.
I got better with my fear when I started thinking ‘it probably just wants to say hello’ when I saw a dog. This made me feel less panicky but I don’t want to think my way out of a fear as some dogs can be dangerous and may attack me. The only difference between me and a ‘dog person’ is their thoughts. They know how to read and understand dogs and I don’t. I want to be like them!! Please help.