[Shaly78]

Any suggestions on how I can help my bio-son 12 years with a phobia of dogs....The only back story, is he saw his brother get bit and had a bloody wound, then also heard about the rabies shots he had and how painful that was....This was a few years ago, my other other son, that one that got bite doesn't seem to be phased are scared...His irrational fear me makes me vigilant and protective when we are walking, but I rarely show fear even if the dog is stray walking alone. His other parent also coaches him on the this seemly irrational fear of dogs. Is there anyway to get him to copy cause I don't want this constantly cause his other younger brother& sister to follow suit on something so miniscule....Why doesn't he just copy us and show no fear?...Is he trying to share something else and this is the only way he can express it? Yes, he is in therapy, so hopefully he can share his own stuff Any suggestions?

[gayleggg]

Sometimes there is no explanation of fears. Is he scared of puppies, too? I thought maybe you could introduce him to small puppies to start with. You might check your area for therapy dogs and see if you could introduce him to one of them. That would at least be safer than a stray. Fears are hard to overcome so be patient.

[ScientiaOmnisEst]

Well, your dismissive attitude probably isn't helping much. :/

"Why doesn't he just copy us and show no fear" - because in his mind, there is danger there, reason to be afraid? It's called an irrational fear for a reason - it doesn't seem to have much bearing on the reality of the situation. Also, phobias don't catch, so it's unlikely his siblings would start copying his behavior.

I honestly wonder if animal phobias come more from secondhand experience than actual experience. I've noticed this trend where people who are attacked by dogs seems less likely to be afraid of them than someone who witnessed an attack or was almost attacked.

I had a phobia of dogs since very early childhood - part of it still lingers, particularly if the dog is unleashed, or aggressive. Exposure and thought seemed to work best for me. Maybe see if you can get help from therapy dog groups, or maybe even a local kennel that will let your son play with a puppy for a bit, then move up to interacting with larger dogs. Basically he needs to learn that most dogs are not threatening.

what about going slowly and introducing him to other stuff related to dogs (but not actually a dog)

what i mean... i remember seeing a programme on TV where people were trying to cure their animal phobias (it could be dogs, birds, what ever)

what they did is first show that person a picture of that animal (nothing more, just a picture), then a video of that animal, and then they'd slowly introduce the person to the actual animal.. so if the fear was say, horses, they'd go to a stable and watch horses over the fence until that person felt they could actually go and be up close to them

so what i'm saying is.. if you show him a picture of a nice dog, a video of a nice dog, and then try to find 1 (but don't actually get too close at first), it might work

[lilypup]

Honestly, I am nervous around dogs I don't know. I have three of my own.
I have never been bitten but I think any dog can bite, given the right circumstances.
People scare me who leave babies and toddlers around strange dogs.

[handheart]

Well he live a bad fear when its see this accident and thats way when he see dogs its feel bad .I think the specialist and therapy will help him and i think you also take a litle nice doc and play with him and show him that they are inofensive