How do you teach a 3 year old that not all dogs are dangerous?

AMKC

So my 3 year old niece was doing OK untill one day my brothers German Shepard snapped. I am not really sure what happened but ever since she has been scared of dogs. So I decided I would bring my two dogs out to her yesterday as I thought she would like them and be OK with them but to make matter worse before I even got out there the poor girl managed to fall off her bike and knock one of her teeth back into her mouth. She fell onto her face. So when I got there her Mum, Daddy, her and her younger brother were all gone on the way to a hospital for her to be looked at.

So when she came home and seen the dogs two small Yorkshire Terriors is what I have she did not want them anywhere near her. She was terrified of them and they would not hurt a fly.

How to you get her over this?

Will it just take time or is she going to not like dogs for life now?

Faith

It takes a lot of time and patience, but it doesn't start with doubling the amount of dogs she's suddenly faced with!

Graded exposure would be the norm. You'd start with showing your niece cute pictures of dogs doing non-threatening things, then very gradually increase to showing her videos of same, then when she's totally comfortable with that (and seems responsive, like making comments about them being cute), then you might invite her to join you in some real life capacity - say, you bring one of your dogs to her house but keep the dog in the car so she can look at it but be separated. Then try letting her, at her own pace, approach a single dog. When she is comfortable with one single dog who is totally under your control at all times, to the degree that she's able to relax when the dog is sitting or playing nearby on a lead, then you could try repeating the above steps with both dogs. All the time, you keep showing her pictures and videos of other dogs too. Eventually, you work to her being comfortable with your dogs, and then you can try introducing another dog.

She can overcome her fear for sure, but we're talking weeks here, not hours, and it all needs to happen at her pace, not yours.

Apiarist

Get a puppy for her?

Dravokivich

Just takes time. I've been explaining to my kid for about 7 years what the dogs in my folks place are doing each time they start re-acting to things outside, when they get tired of each other, when they just want to be left alone by people or even when they are looking for positive attention from us (as opposed to being aggressive). He still finds it confusing at times but is starting to get a hold of it.

FlipperThePriest

In my opinion, all dogs have the potential to be a threat to a small child, big or small. Dogs that are not used to children get nervous around kids. Children are high energy, unpredictable and can invade a dog's space. So I would never trust a dog around a small child, even if they may seem incapable of hurting a fly. It's probably no harm in the long run that she has experienced this.

She's had a bit of a setback and she is going to have to see with her own eyes how fun and loving dogs are. I think you will have to tread carefully not to push or force the issue or she will see this as a threat too, and associate it with the fear of dogs, exacerbating the issue further.

We got a new pup last year and our wee one was loving it, until they were running around and the pup's tooth caught on her leg and caused a big scrape. It didn't help that he was going through the bitey phase and the teeth were like razors at the time. After that, she didn't want near the dog for weeks, very frustrating. It was just a matter of building her confidence, letting her play with the dog from a safe space. So we would sit her at the top of her slide and let her throw toys for the pup, or she could watch us play with the dog, and eventually come down and join in if she wanted, or leg it back up the slide if needed. The play was always on her terms. And she had a way out, if she felt scared of the dog. A few weeks later it was back to normal. Maybe take the dogs somewhere that there's a safe barrier between her and the dogs, or somewhere she won't feel threatened.. or just keep the niece lifted up off the ground for the encounters, until she's enjoying it, and then figure out a way to progress from there, slowly reducing the barrier.