Hi, welcome to another episode of
#DrAlexAnswers and in today's episode
I want to talk to you all about how to
overcome a fear of dogs I had a message
from one of my email subscribers Kate
and she wrote that she is not at ease
with dogs
she felt okay when she owned a dog
herself and she felt that when she owned
a dog she just related to them much
better and much more naturally at the
time she did get bitten once by a
nice dog when feeding him so she's
just wondering how is it best to behave
with a dog when you're slightly scared
of them it's actually really quite
common I've certainly come across people
who are very scared of dogs it's not
unusual and that can be children but it
can also be as an adult and that they
can develop as an adult certainly when
we get a bad situation such as being
bitten especially when you consider that
dog to be friendly so that's perfectly
understandable so I'm certainly not a
human behavioural expert but I've got 11
tips and strategies that hopefully will
just help you get over that fear and help
you to be more comfortable around dogs
okay so my first six steps are really
the first thing to work on to try and
control the situation a little bit
better while you're then working on the
other strategies to help overcome that
fear and my first step is to just
wherever possible try and keep your
distance from dogs and try and avoid
high dog areas so this really will set
you up for success rather than failure
certainly know from pet behavior point
of view for every bad experience we have
it becomes harder to get over that
experience all that fear so I imagine
it'd be the same for us so if we can try
and set ourselves up for success and to
be comfortable rather than failure then
we're much more likely to succeed step
number two is just not to force any
interaction so it's easy to think oh I'm
being silly you know this dog looks
friendly
I'm just gonna get stuck in we really
don't force it and also don't don't
allow anyone in your family who's close
to you any friends to try and force a
situation of you coming into contact
with dogs on you so they might have the
friendliest dog they might think that
that's never going to cause any problems
and that there's no way you should be
scared of it but don't force their views
onto you so again you want to
yourself up for success I just be clear
that you're not comfortable and just
avoid those situations and then step
number three is just to ask strangers
when you're out just to hold on to their
dog to control their dog
don't be embarrassed explain the
situation say you're not comfortable
around dogs when would they mind please
just restraining their dog it's
something that any responsible dog owner
should be more than happy to comply with
and if we're avoiding dogs if we're
avoiding high dog areas in the first
place then it won't be something that
you're going to have to ask a lot of
people to do but definitely voice your
concerns ask people to control their
dogs I mean it's only polite anyway and
yeah that's something that you should
really do and it's really the
responsibility of all of us as dog
owners to control our dogs to have a
really strong recall to get them to sit
at heel to have them on a leash in kind
of areas where there are other people
around who may not be comfortable with
dogs so don't be embarrassed about
asking someone to do that okay step
number four is to just learn to read dog
body language so if you put in a little
bit of effort to try and learn kind of
the signs that a dog show when perhaps
they're not very comfortable with a
situation when they're starting to get
stressed when they might be becoming
aggressive if we can understand more
about the signs that our dogs are
showing us then we'll be much more
comfortable when it comes to interacting
with dogs that's her later date and dogs
are really very good at showing us what
their feelings are like if we learn how
to interpret what they're telling us so
if their eyes are wide if their ears are
erect pointing forward or if they're
flattened at the back of their head they
might be scared if their lip smacking if
they're actually pulling their lips back
and kind of smiling and again that can
be signs that they're stressed and and
maybe a bite risk so if we can learn how
to interpret these signs it can make us
more confident when we're interacting
with a friendly dog to know that they
are friendly to know that they are
relaxed and to know that they're
enjoying that interaction and so less of
a risk to us and that can help us get
over any fear of dogs okay so step
number five is learning how to react to
dogs that you're that you don't know
that you don't know if they're friendly
that are coming up to you it's it's easy
to panic and
run away and that kind of thing if we're
really scared but that's certainly not
we what we should be doing so a couple
of hints here would be to stand up stand
up tall actually kind of look up don't
stare directly at the dog if you're
standing up tall with your head up if
you just have your arms gonna by your
sides if you actually kind of make a
fist and that's not to to defend
yourself or anything but it will just
stop them trying to kind of you know nip
you or anything like that on your
fingers which is obviously what we want
to avoid and don't run away just slowly
withdraw from that situation so slowly
walk away if you can be side onto them
as well then that can help just because
a big dog like I said before they kind
of if they're running if they're jumping
up on you if we're facing them or if
we've got our back to them it would be
easy for them to knock us over which we
don't want to happen so if we're just
trying to stand side on where with our
legs kind of wide apart we're just much
better balanced and less likely to be
knocked or tripped over so that's some
strategies to help you cope with the
situation should you have a strange dog
or any dog can have come up to you I'm
in a really uncomfortable or
enthusiastic or even aggressive way okay
in step number six is just to learn some
relaxation techniques so there's lots of
different ones out there it can be
taking deep breaths that kind of thing
and that can just help to calm out calm
ourselves down too to get over that
initial shock that initial anxiety calm
ourselves down able to make us able to
think kind of more level-headed Lee and
more rationally and make better
decisions so that can really help as
well okay so those are some tips for how
to act around dogs and how to kind of
set ourselves up for success in the
early stages let's move on to how to
actually try and get over that fear so
my next step is to try and analyze
exactly what it is that you're afraid of
are you scared of all bugs in all
situations or is there only big dogs is
there only small dogs is only a certain
breed is it only when they're doing
certain activities too in Kate Cates
case it might be related to feeding and
food because of that bad negative
experience so just try and have a little
think about exactly what it is that you
are afraid of because that will help you
narrow
things down to have a much more focused
strategy for how to get over that fear
okay step number eight is trying to
interact with known dogs in controlled
environments and this is going through a
process of progressive desensitization
so we want to have a really controlled
environment we want a dog that we we
know logically is is safest friendly is
happy and is really unlikely to to bite
but we want to take small steps at a
time so if for example we were scared of
all dogs then we might start off by just
being in the same room as a dog who is
on a very short leash
being controlled by their owner once we
get comfortable with being in the same
room and that might be at the other end
of the room it might be in a playing
field and being at the other end of a
playing field you know it might need to
be that distance for you to be
comfortable with then want to slowly
reduce that distance between you so no
point to you actually interacting but
you're just getting comfortable having
dogs around you in your in your area in
and becoming into your personal space so
we want really small steps we don't want
to get to a stage where you're really
uptight where you're really frightened
because that's that that will only
emphasize our fear and perpetuate that
so just really small steps don't rush it
it's going to take a long time and then
you might want to just slowly increase
that interaction so you might once
you're happy with them it might even be
once they're sitting next to you you
know you're still not touching them you
might then want to to start stroking
them to start petting them that kind of
thing just to help get you more
comfortable so just really take it slow
also if you've analyzed what it is
you're scared of you know if for example
it's a big dog that you're scared of you
might want to start this off with small
dogs get really comfortable doing things
with small dogs and then kind of find a
friend who's got a slightly bigger dog
and then a bigger dog again just again
to slowly get comfortable with that
situation
if it's small dogs that you're scared of
then the reverse if it's old if it's
younger sorry if it's younger
enthusiastic dogs that you're scared of
there maybe start off with a an older
more Placid more gentle dog just to help
you get used to two dogs themselves
before then introducing slowly the thing
that you're actually scared of and then
my next step is to actually just
practice so we can't expect to get over
a fear of dogs just by reading just by
thinking we actually have to practice
interacting with them so once we're
going through the socialization process
we want that to be kind of pretty
regular just so that we get used to it
and then once we're happy we then need
to practice we need to continue our
interaction with with dogs because there
would potentially be a risk that our
behavior will revert back to what it
what it was before and will again become
scared of dogs so practice makes perfect
and this is no exception okay and step
number ten is really the power of
positive thinking so if you're about to
interact with a dog and all you're
thinking is that it's going to be scary
I'm really afraid this is going to be
terrible I'm gonna get bit and then
there's no way that you'll ever get over
that that phobia instead if you're
thinking right we're going through a
simple step today I was comfortable
yesterday it's gonna be easy I'm going
to be fine I'm going to get over my fear
of dogs then you're much more likely to
to experience those those events you're
much more likely to be comfortable
you're more likely to get over your fear
but if you're going in with a lot of
negativity then that's only that's only
going to prove itself to be the case so
really the power of positive thinking is
very important and then my final steps
of step number 11 is depending on how
scared you are is to consider
professional help so consider talking to
a therapist consider approaching your
doctor severe phobias can be absolutely
debilitating and you know as adults it
might see you might think of them as
silly or not important but they
absolutely are they can affect our
quality of life they can affect the kind
of activities that we're able to do the
way that we live our lives the lifestyle
that we want to have so consider seeking
professional help would be my final step
okay so I hope those simple steps help
you get over your fear of dogs I hope
they help you Kate and anyone else out
there who's suffering from this fear I
certainly know how scary dogs can be if
they want to be aggressive they're
absolutely terrifying that's why police
use them army used them because a dog
who wants to bite is a very scary
thought so go easy on yourself except
that this is
problem that needs to be address but
except there is actually a perfectly
rational problem as well so don't be too
hard on yourself let me know how you get
on with getting over your fear let me
know which step you found more most
interesting or most helpful or let me
know some other strategies that you've
had that helped you become more
comfortable around dogs and get over
your fear of dogs I'd really love to
hear and just leave me a comment down
below but until next time I'm dr. Alex
this is the show where you ask the
questions and dr. alex answers