Fear of dogs

willie joe

Hi Guys,
I'm looking for a bit of advice again. My 12 yr old son, myself and our pet dog had an altercation with a couple of large dogs a couple of months back (separate thread Rottweiler attack). Since then my son is traumatised at the thought of walking past this house or even any medium to large dog. I'm worried that this could really effect his confidence. He won't hang out at one of his mates houses because of their pet(boxer). Do I give him more time to try and get over this fear himself with my help or do you think I should look for professional guidance. Maybe I'm just jumping the gun. What do you guys think?
Many thanks in advance.

Conchir

I was absolutely terrified of dogs around then too. I used to avoid going to my best friend's house because he had a German Shepherd, but any other dog would have had the same result anyway.

I'm afraid I can't advise you on professional advice, but I can tell you that keeping it quiet did me no good, even now I'm not fully confident around big or excitable dogs. So I would definitely try and do something, because from personal experience, it sounds like it would be helpful.

Good luck!

barbiegirl

Hi Willie Joe, I'd advise going over the the animals and pets forum and you'll find people with very friendly large dogs in your area, who would be delighted to work with you and your son. Having a fear of dogs is very disabling and upsetting, hopefully you can help his overcome this.

teacherspet

Find out if there is a dog club in your area and give them a ring. Explain the situation to them. Ask them can you come down and watch a training class. The trainer could introduce your boy to best behaved and best trained dogs there.
Maybe go to a few of the classes, so your son can see not all large dogs are bad.
I'm sure all the people there would help out with your sons fear. Maybe let him walk some of the big dogs in the class and every one praise him for how good he is with the dogs.

Lola92

Have you got a friend/family member with a friendly and well behaved larger dog? Encouraging him to spend time with the dog, walk it etc. accompanied and supervised properly of course. It might help to build up his confidence around them and hopefully ease his fears!

marley123

Hi There,

Firstly It must have been very traumatic to see your son have this "fear of dogs now "

- I would think the sooner you can get your son back socialising with dogs the better....slowly but surely...
How about going to a dog park eg Marley Park initially - dogs will be fully enclosed in the area but your son will be able to see them over the fence but the dogs wont be able to go near him..
I did some work 2 yrs ago with a family who were dead set on adopting a dog BUT their 3 yr old son was literally TERRIFIED of dogs, worst case I had seen in a long time.. - so I went over, for 2 hours & by the end of it the little guy was giving my dog High Fives & wasnt crawling under the table to get away from him or having panic attacks everytime the dog came within six feet of him... That same family went on to adopt a lovely adult lab & withing weeks the child & dog were inseperable...

I would say it will be VERY important when possibly he gets closer to dogs that it would be a very calm & placid dog.

If you are in Dublin or Wicklow am willing to help you out along with my Retriever who is the biggest loveable slob there is, not jumpy at all..