[GennadiyRom]

a.k.a. Cynophobia.

has any one ever met somebody with this phobia while walking your dog? i did a few days ago and the lady started screaming and running away hysterically. i never got a chance to talk to her and find out if she had this phobia or if she was afraid of my staffy.

either way, it was an interesting experience.

[beonecenry]

I know some people who afraid of dogs, but their explanation is having a bad experience with dogs in general. I have had experiences with people in the general public avoiding me & Bella like we have the plague, but I know that's because she's an APBT. Sadly I'm still surprised by the ignorance that abounds. But I can't say that I've ever met anyone with a phobia.

[sitescools]

Actually my mom was very afraid of dogs before we got our first pit mix murphy, she was terrified of him at first, but my dad had always been around dogs and knew murphy was a good dog when he saw him at the shelter. Murphy cured her though because now she has 5 dogs, murphy, a ddb and 3 English mastiffs.

[Dwemadayday]

My stepdad has the fear of dogs bigger than a Chihuahua or small poodle. Its pretty irrational considering that he has never had a bad experience around dogs. He is just scared of them.

[kHy87gPC]

i had that happen once. the lady screamed like a psycho and ran across the street screaming DOGDOGDOG GET IT AWAY GO AWAY. (and i yelled out, YOURE ACROSS THE STREET WOMAN holy crap how much farther you want me to be?!) i figured it was cause of him being the breed. maybe she was like that too? eh. prolly not. my fat ass dog is prolly just flippin scary.

[GroosteFoessy]

No I haven't. I've met people who are somewhat uncomfortable with dogs. But not downright terrified. lol I don't know what I'd do.... Very interesting.

[somasideff]

Theres a woman who brings her cats in to the clinic for boarding every couple of months. She says she was attacked by three dogs as a child, and has never been able to recover, and I really feel a lot of compassion towards her for it, honestly. She has permanent scars on her arms and her face, and she has to be near sixty years old.

She told me that she hopes someday that she can have a dog, but as it is, she says when she even HEARS a dog, she breaks out in a cold sweat and her mind becomes blank with terror.

Whenever she comes to the clinic, she has to wait for the lobby to clear, and she will stand by the window so she can watch for people bringing dogs in. If a dog comes in, she will stand in the office hallway with the door closed until they are put in a room.

If she has to walk by a room that has a dog in it, someone has to walk in front of her so she has a 'shield'.

I can't imagine being that terrified of anything, and I hope that she does manage to overcome it, even just a little.

[Slonopotam845]

This girl at the facility I visit with Lily is very scared of dogs. Today, she and I were talking and I asked if she wanted to pet Lily. She was very apprehensive, especially when Lily turned around to look at her. I told her that Lily would not hurt her, I would make sure of that. Since she seemed to be very afraid of her face, I took her face and held it against my body, so her butt was facing her. I told her she could gently stroke Lily's back, and she wouldn't get hurt. Lo and behold, she successfully gave Lily a few pets on her back.
If she's still there when I go back, I'm sure we will keep improving.

As for people on the street, only 1 woman, who screamed at her child to "get away from that pit bull before it bites you in the face!" But I've never had anyone run away screaming. I would find that irresistibly hilarious.

[QwOpHGyZ]

I've only ever met one girl who I think had a real phobia... wether that little girls phobia was of dogs in general or the breed my mutt appeared to be (to most), I don't know..

I was at the mall with the mutt (RIP) on a short leash/muzzled (as it is required there) as I was walking, there is this little girl about 6 years old or so that started SCREAMED as if my dog was on top of her ripping her face off lol.
it wasn't even like the dog touched or walked up to her, I was actually at a pretty good distance from her and her dad.

now that she screamed and made everyone stop and turn around looking at me and my dog like he just did something horrible wasn't the worst part of it..
the worst part was when her incredibly rude dad actually had the nerve to walk up to me and yell at me for having my dog there and telling me to never, ever dare to take my dog back to the mall...

excuse me? lol
can't quite remember exactly what I said but I remember the words "idiot, bad education and fuck off" being part of my response however.
I definately didn't show the friendliest (sp?) side of me neither that day...

now I'm the first to admit I have a tendency to over-react in situations where really, a sain person wouldn't even react at all
but I can deal with people's irrational fear of my breed of choice, I can deal with people letting me know they are highly unconfortable around my dog..
heck, he could have asked me to move a bit further away with my dog and I would have gladly done it if it made his little girl feel better.

but I do demand some respect when a complete stranger adresses me with a concern about something I do or about something I have controle over..

so if you come spitting your bullshit in my face, which I'll gladly put up with without showing you how much it irritates me if you put it correctly, but if on top of that you're treating me without any respect whatsoever and yelling at me like I'm your 4 year old kid, at an age where you really should know better and where you are expected to be able to hold a mature, civil conversation, expect to get treated like shit in return too.

btw: "you" is not directed at anyone other that the people who confront me with their BS in a less than respectfull way, of course

[casinobonusnolimit]

I have 2 co-workers with small children terrified of dogs.

The first is a single mom and not a dog person (meaning she's never had one) - but she isn't afraid of them. Her elementary school daughter is terrified of dogs. She was mentioning it to me because everyone knows that I am a dog person and she was asking for advice. The last I heard the daughter was invited to a birthday party and they were trying to figure out how to introduce her to the family's Golden because they asked if the dog could be crated and for some reason that wasn't an option.

Another co-worker has 2 pre-teen girls. The mom & dad are again, not big "dog people", but not anti-dog either. The older girl wants the family to get a dog. They are open to it, but the younger child is terrified beyond reason. The mom said she actually worries if they are out walking somewhere because her daughter has gotten so scared seeing a dog that she actually once ran out almost into traffic.

Neither family reports the child had any sort of previous bad experience with a dog...and neither situation is breed specific. Apparently small dogs are equally terrifying.

[freeringtonesioo]

I had a lady the one time at our walking track scream and yelp because Odie sniffed her, I told her he doesn't bite people and she said she was only comfortable around little dogs. I had to laugh because Odie is the biggest baby and usually doesn't care about people on his walks, he sees it as an inconvenience.

[Bobdilan]

I've honestly never met anybody who was afraid of dogs, or my dog.

I don't know if we've just been lucky so far, but every time we've taken Dylan out, we've gotten nothing but compliments about how beautiful he is or how well behaved or how lovable he is. Not one bad comment in regards to his breed; maybe I just live in a very "pit friendly" area?

I know phobia's, in general, are mostly irrational. I wouldn't hold it against somebody for being extremely afraid of my dog if their only reason is just because he's a dog. And sometimes I wonder how those phobia's develop and how I got so lucky.

When I was really little, I was bit by a family friend's Chowchow. I was just giving the dog a treat but she decided my arm looked WAY better. I still have scars. But I'm not afraid of dogs, at all.

[WapSaibiar]

I've met a couple people at pet stores that a scared to death of both of my dogs. I thought to myself" damn Azull is only 4 months old. What could he do to you" but some people just see the breed and a scared shitless

[Qynvtlur]

I have seen first hand not really dog fear but what people consider a pit bull fear.

I have a couple friends come over that came over and were full of the media hype.After they meet my dogs a couple times they were both fine with the dogs for different reasons .Chris my boss at the time realized they were just dogs and they were not going to eat them,his attitude toward pits is changed for ever.Darrel after coming over and told he could leave if he had a problem,the dogs live here.well he stayed around them and in his own redneck way thought that since he himself was so bad ass that like a wild lion tamer they respected him.he will play with the dogs for hours.L.O.L.

Heres the sad one my adopted dad will never except them and does not see why anyone owns them,or take the time to walk them in the dark after driving to work two hours round trip and then working 8 hours.he continues to find story's about dog attacks .Christmas Birthdays and holidays are the only time we interact.I speak my mind he speaks his mind and somebody goes home.I try to be the better person and not start the conversation.I have not stooped so low as to pick on his cat.I do blow up his email with pics of my dogs and random kids petting them.L.O.L.

[Lenkapuppia]

My stepdad has the fear of dogs bigger than a Chihuahua or small poodle. Its pretty irrational considering that he has never had a bad experience around dogs. He is just scared of them.

thats strange i have a fear of dogs around the size of chihuahuas and small poodles

[Frdsdx26]

My mom is really, really, UBER uncomfortable with dogs. She was mauled by a german shepard pretty badly when she was a kid and really hasn't ever gotten over it. The only type of dog she has been okay with (before Peyton) was my aunt's min-pin, I'm guessing because she was so small and easy to get away from if my mom was uncomfortable (not to mention, the min-pin is uber friendly). She definitely was one of those "omg. big dog? NO THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!" no matter what breed, even a "friendly lab" or something. She just was really scared, and heck I don't blame her. She's been afraid of all family friends dogs etc and always politely asks if they can be put in another room until we either leave or my mom feels okay enough (which is rare)

But then my boyfriend and I let her meet Peyton when he was just 12wks old the day after we brought him home from the shelter and she was still apprehensive, especially because he was a pit bull mix. But some how....she fell in love. She realllyyy loves him now and he climbs in her lap and showers her with kisses and snuggles. I think its really helped her overcome her fear and now she begs for us to bring Peyton over to hangout. He makes her laugh which is good for my mom, she's been going through rough times with my granddad in the hospital and I think Peyton brings her just a little bit of joy.

[swissloveone]

It is really quite sad actually to see a person react like everyone has described. I HAD neighbors that were terrified of dogs period, but of course my PitBulls were especially heinous to them.
They asked me NOT to walk the dogs if thier little kids were in the yard. I told them I would do no such thing. If they were that scared of the dogs they could take thier kids indoors when my dog needed to pee.
The morons actually called the sherrifs dept to "come do a check on those dogs" and I got a 100% favorable report on my dogs.
Their little kids wanted to pet my dogs thru the fence and I let them.
I probably should not have but dam those kids were sincerely interested and cute too.
Poor kids.

[DrazAdwamoi]

My aunt is unfortunatatly terrified of "pit bulls" even when I got my pup at 3 months old she came over to meet him and i could still see how wary she was. Shethen went and told my sister "that dog is going to lock onto her arm on day and never let go" of course I was naturally hurt and offended by that.then of coursevit all hit the fan when my sister admitted to having her baby at my house with raja out of the kennel. My aunt FLIPPED. "That dog is vicious he's a maneater how could u be so irresponsible?" (Maneater later on became his nickname from her then on) which of course...hurt even more. Of course shemade refererence to "maneater" during thanksgving and then that's when my boyfriend hit her with the facts lol. She...thankfully didn't say anything about it since =)

[AbraroLib]

I have had a little kid that had a fear of dogs...I had Goren and jsut left my house, still on the porch and the mom had to grab his hand and drag him by he looked like he was ganna cry, the kid was about 6 so at least the parent did not let the kid run and the fear grow but yea that is about it. My sister claims she is not scared of dogs but she says "the only dog I ever loved was Dirky (the name she called Dirk our male keeshoud growing up) and I will not own another breed, and there will never be a dog as good as him" all that and such, she has fearful gestures when around any animal so I am not to sure..but this sister is 27 and scared of the dark, scared of a lot of things but that is one of her major fears, o ceiling fans falling on her...yea she is just screwy I can't believe I am related to her

[Bobdilan]

o ceiling fans falling on her...

I wont lie, when I have my ceiling fan on in my room, right above my bed.. I sometimes wonder if it'll fall on me. I'm sure it wouldn't kill me, it'd just really piss me off.