Irrational dog fears

Do you think that hearing stories about the bites pit bulls have done made me afraid of dogs?


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Mario60866iPod13

Banned deucer.
All my life I have been afraid of dogs for no reason. I have never been bitten by one, I have never seen one bite anyone else or anything else, and I have only been around friendly dogs for the most part.

However, I have heard stories about terrible maulings and killings done by pit bulls. Has this contributed?

Is anyone else afraid of dogs like this? I have been afraid of dogs since before my first birthday.
 
Nothing wrong with that

My only negative experience with a dog was when we brought a stray to my Grandpa's house and he ended up jumping me. Never saw him again. But I still do like dogs, especially golden retrievers. I tend to stray away from "mean" dogs like most pitbulls and chihuahuas
 
I don't think any fear of dogs is irrational, especially right now where because of What Looms there's been limited amounts of socialization available for our poor puppos too. There are a lot of dogs out there that just aren't well trained and body language between individuals really isn't consistent enough for me to feel comfortably sure about any unknown dog.

It's really easy to forget, especially when dogs can be very well trained by caring owners and be lovely and gentle is that their mouths are full of teeth and they are sharp.
If you met someone new who was always carrying a knife in their hands you'd be unnerved too.

Chihuahuas was mentioned as a mean breed up there but that's not really what's believed to be average breed temperament, it's just so frequent that people are either too scared to do proper training techniques because they are so small and there's a concern about harming the dog in some way or that the owner is lackadaisical about correcting bad behavior because "they're so small they're not hurting anyone"

Dogs can be lovely kind caring amazing companions we mutually benefit with but it requires time, effort, compassion and intelligence that I would never assume to be a given.
Once I know a dog and their owner I'll relax greatly but until then...
 
Lol dogs are great. My stupid dog would die for me and I would die for it. 15,000 years of side by side evolution wasn't for nothing. They're amazing companions.

Most dog fears are irrational. In the US 16 people per year die of dogs. You are about one thousand times more likely to die from falling than from a dog and ten thousand times more likely to die from being hit by a car. If you aren't panicking when you're driving to work / school but you're afraid of a 50 pound dog then yes, you are being irrational.
 
from what ive read theres a lot of factors that can contribute to such a phobia. while its surely possible that the stories you heard about pit bull bites have contributed to said phobia, it doesnt mean theyre the driving force or even a very relevant reason for it. i remember there was an experiment with newborn babies (6-8 months old), where they were shown pictures of spiders (which they likely hadnt been aware of they existed at that point) and the babies were showing stress reactions. its also known that children in particular imitate behaviour of the people around them (usually their parents obviously) which can also be a trigger for a phobia (if the mother is scared of spiders and shows a reaction, the child might react as well or even adopt said behaviour). lastly i think phobias are irrational basically per definition?! therefor being scared of dogs (cynophobia) is irrational per definition; make of that what you want i personally dont think the question if its being rational or not is really important.
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
I used to be really afraid of dogs as well, even though I don't think I've ever had a bad experience with them. When I was young, I would get scared whenever a big dog ran up to me for no real reason. These days, I'm alright around them. I think I just sort of grew out of it.
 
I have a very rational hatred of dogs because my neighbour's dog won't fucking shut up

I used to have a very bad phobia of spiders, and now I can handle them just fine and even enjoy looking at them. Whenever I saw a spider, I just forced myself to stay near it. I researched a lot about the spiders in my area and eventually let a wolf spider walk on me. It's freaky as all hell at first but phobias can be cured.

If your dog phobia is crippling I strongly recommend therapy. Therapists deal with phobias all the time.

Dogs I imagine must be especially hard to be afraid of given that most people seem to love them.
 

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