Fear of Dogs

Since nearly the time she could speak her first words, Olivia has been wanting a pet.  She's had a few goldfish and from last fall to this spring we've taken care of Hammy the hamster, before he died recently.

We've never agreed to have any bigger pets, such as a dog or cat which is what she really wants. We have told her point blank that she is not old enough or responsible enough to care for such a pet.  We've also made the excuse that she will need help from Evan, and he simply is not old enough to assist in walking a dog etc.  She seemed to accept that logic, but I know that Olivia has since been counting the days, watching Evan grow, waiting for him to be big enough so that she can ask again.

It may be a little longer now.

This past weekend, both Olivia and Evan were outside catching bugs and collecting them in a cooler. Ants, roly-polys and worms seemed to be the big attraction.  As they were digging in the dirt, a neighbor pulled into her driveway, with her two large dogs in the back of the truck.  Although Evan has never been too close to large dogs, he did pet a couple of cute puppies before. So at first he was very happy to see the dogs, as he laughed and pointed at them.  When they jumped down, Olivia was inching closer to ask the neighbor if she could pet the dogs which she does all the time. 

Meanwhile, Evan was already much closer.  One of the dogs, who apparently had just returned from playing with a bunch of other kids, started to jump at Evan and gave a bark.  The fact that the dog was about the same height as Evan didn't help.   Evan shrieked, turned around and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him right into the road, screaming the whole way as the dog gave chase. 

I grabbed Evan as he was running and brought him out of harms way, but he was inconsolable.  Thinking that it was better to keep the dogs there and show that they really were nice dogs, we tried to bring the pets closer and pet them, but Evan continued crying and would not pet the dogs, especially “That One” which had run after him.   

“I don't like That One,” he would point as tears rolled down his cheeks.

The neighbor put the dogs back into the house and instead we tried getting him to pet the cat, but Evan was not even interested in that either.   

After he had calmed down a little, Evan said, “That doggie tried to eat me up!”

Oh, poor little guy! Hopefully he won't hold that memory too deeply.  Some people who had bad experiences with dogs at a young age can never overcome that fear (I was one of them, but that’s another story).