Therapy for fear of dogs

Facts about Fear of Dogs

Fear of dogs, or medically cynophobia, is one of the most common phobias affecting people. Namely, takinginto consideration that many people have dogs and that these animalsmay easily cross your path, people who suffer from this phobia aremore likely to have their fears triggered than those who, forexample, are afraid of spiders or snakes. Either way, living withcynophobia can be very hard and sometimes even impossible since youmight have problems getting out of the house, visiting people closeto you if they own a dog, etc.

Therefore, you need to become aware ofyour phobia and get it treated as soon as possible, overcoming yourfears.

What Can Trigger Cynophobia?

Fear of dogs is usually rooted deeplyinside one's childhood experiences. He/she might have been attackedby a dog while he/she was still a child, even though much less malignencounters such as hearing of a large dog's growl may be enough fortriggering the phobia later on. Both dogs and children are curiousbeings and thereby this might easily lead to contacts which cangive births to cynophobia. Children have a very vivid imagination andmay exaggerate some less dangerous encounters with dogs to be deadlyor terrifying. Thus, they are more likely to remember these fears anddevelop phobias as adolescents or adults.

Manifestations of Cynophobia

There are different extents of thisphobia, depending on every single individual battling with them. So,some people may feel uneasy even when they look at a photo of a dogwhile some may need to hear the actual bark of a larger dog in orderto get their phobia triggered. When fear of dogs gets manifested, itusually is expressed through panic, nausea, extreme fear, crying,shivering and giving your best to run away from the animal. Peoplewith cynophobia will want to hide from the animal at all costs. Thereare also cases where certain individuals react to the phobiaaggressively and confront the animal.

Additional Factors and Treatment

Dogs are all around us. Thus, theycannot be avoided completely. Having said that, something else needsto be done since, unless having your phobia treated, you will sufferfrom it for the rest of your life. Moreover, isolation will only givebirth to sadness, depression and other negative emotions, doinglittle to help you and more to possibly cause other phobias.

Flooding and systematic desensitizationare the best known methods for treating cynophobia. These aredesigned to remove fears and help one cope with dogs in the future.Through these methods, people learn to approach dogs with no fear,pat them and, gradually, enjoy their presence, letting the phobia go.Real dogs or images may be used in the process. If these prove toinefficient, medications are prescribed. Finally, with minimalefforts, everyone can overcome this fear, living in harmony with dogsonce again.