I know you're thinking how does a dog owner fear dogs, but if a dog is over 30 pounds, I have an innate fear of them. I was bitten pretty severely by a neighbor's dog out of nowhere as a child, when we were playing softball in my best friend's yard, and it was a St. Bernard.
He ended up getting loose, and he ran straight for me as I was running around the bases. I was in such shock that I tried to climb their pool fence, which is absolutely impossible, and so he kept attacking me, until someone distracted him, and I was able to run for the house.
I was rushed to the hospital, and they had to do a lot of stitches, and then, came the news about how they didn't know if the dog was up to date on its rabies shots. Here I was this little girl, and I'm told I might have to have a series of painful shots. It was awful, and I literally ran out of the room, which in the end I did not have to have the shots (thank god).
Anyway, it's not that I can't eventually become friendly with larger dogs. It's just that initially my first instinct is almost to freeze. I shake severely because this dog never bit a soul until he went after me, and so those feelings all come rushing back again that perhaps this dog could turn on me. This is even with dogs I've known for years. My first instinct is always that distrust and fear, and I am very scared they could hurt my dog as well.
Does anyone else have this same issue, and how do you deal with it? I have tried everything in terms of breathing and counting, but my body betrays me every time. Luckily, thus far no dog has attacked me again years later, but that memory just never leaves me.
