Dog Phobia - conquered?!

When Evie was a toddler, she witnessed one of our friend’s daughters becoming hysterical over meeting a dog in the park. Since then, Evie has had a real fear of our four legged friends. Countless times we have spent ages explaining about which dogs are ‘happy dogs’, ‘waggy’ tails and how safe you are when a dog is on a lead. I don’t want her to wander up to any strange dog and try to pat it as you never know, but I wanted her to be confident meeting them in everyday life.

We went onto introducing her to friend’s dogs we trusted, and were lucky if she stroked their backs (the dog’s that is, not our friends!). It has been a long road with plenty of hysterics along the way, but today, we had a break through! We went on a walk with Nanny and Aunty Rene’s two dogs (small ones) and the result was this.....

She gave one of them a doggy treat from the palm of her hand and actually played with them! Yippee! Let’s hope for fear free walks from now on!

Jill x