Hi all! I have a question about anxiety. I don’t want any hateful comments about dogs please! We have two dogs (staffys) that have been in the family since before our children were born. They have always been great with the kids and the kids love them and other dogs they meet. Every other staffy we have come across has been beautiful. the other day my 4yo and I went to visit my sister at her friends house. She had 3 staffys, all of which were great, didn’t jump and just wanted to have a sniff. My sister then jumped in and went to move the dogs as they were getting abit close and making my 4yo a little overwhelmed. Out of no where, one started growling at her and went to go her. (She did nothing to the dog as we were all watching). My sister thankfully had the dog in her grip and they were taken outside. Since then, I have extreme anxiety when any dog I don’t know goes near my 4yo. We walk every day and now I’m too scared because a couple of days ago, a big black lab off the leash spotted us and come bolting up. Usually this doesn’t worry me if the owner is there and says the dog won’t bite but I grabbed my child so quickly and felt my heart just stop. The owner was apologising but laughing at the same time and inside I was screaming and I held back the tears all the way home. I’ve never had anxiety that bad over anything and I don’t want our daily walks to be ruined by one bad experience. How do I get past it and not freak out so much?
8 Replies
Keep facing other dogs....don't give up ur walks! The more u avoid other dogs the worse the anxiety will become! Anxiety is a bloody bitch but uve got this!
The incident still sounds pretty fresh, so I think in time the panicky feeling will subside.
If there's any positive here, I think it's taught you a valuable lesson: Even the most placid, friendly dog has the potential to act unpredictably if they feel threatened, hungry, in pain or even just from growing less tolerant than they used to be.
It's not a bad thing to be wary of unfamiliar dogs, just instead of getting anxious and panicking you can use this eye opening experience to teach your 4 year old about protective behaviours around animals, how to recognise an angry/scared dog etc - there's actually a good program online about dog safety if you Google it it may be helpful.
It obviously has shocked you seeing a dog change so quickly, thats why your anxiety is warranted, it's your mumma instincts doing it's thing. Maybe learning what to do in the event of a dog attack and learning which behaviour to be wary of will help put your anxiety at rest? There would be a tonne of you tube videos on this!
This is an owner issue. They have no right to say 'its Ok'. They should not let their dog off lead in public areas and you have every right to tell them it's not ok and to leash their dog.
Agree with this!
My kids have been flat out bowled over by big unrestrained dogs, their owners give a little laugh and "it's fine, he won't bite".
Actually, no it's not fine.
Not alright at all!
Oh also, a big stick for walks.
I have this same anxiety with my own children, thank you for posting