The fear of (certain) animals is representing over a third of all phobias experienced by people. Following the lessons held in school, the AMP education team has concluded that in every classroom there are 2-3 students who have phobia of dogs. In an attempt to overcome this fear, students at School no.5 had a special lesson: meeting with a psychotherapist specialized in animal assisted therapy and her assistant, Igor. Igor – a shepherd of Russia, as big as a house and as black as coal, assumed the ungrateful role of “bogy dog”.
Meeting Igor
Initially, the children were afraid to approach Igor. Some said from the beginning that they won’t approach him. It took few seconds for three children to break the ice. When Igor spilled the beans that he’s gentle as a gazelle, most children rushed to pet him and walk him. Children learned that a phobia is an unreasonable fear that instead of helping us to get out of a certain situation, it will do the opposite. We could say that a dog phobia child, is more likely to be bitten. One of our goals is to facilitate the children’s approach to animals”, said the education coordinator, Liviu Cioineag.
Dogs are also afraid of people
Ana Szonda psychotherapist explained how children should behave around a dog. “Firstly it’s advisable to try to maintain calm, do not run, scream or make sudden movements, do not raise your hands. Any sudden movement can be interpreted by an animal as threatening. In response, it’s very likely for the dog to attack. Therefore, a fearful child should move away slowly and calmly from the dog, without talking to him, without looking into his eyes, raising hands or throwing stones. We must understand that – despite the people’s opinions – dogs don’t feel the fear and take advantage of it, as we often hear. They can see it. The dog can observe that we are afraid of the reactions we have, specifically of our behavior. Even if we are afraid, keeping a safe attitude, the dog will not know how we feel.” said Anna Szonda. In order to understand why some dogs have an aggressive attitude, we must understand how a dog thinks. The first reason is fear- as we are afraid of dogs, a dog can also be afraid of us, in this case the dog would run away or would fight with us (show an aggressive attitude). We must show him that we are not a threat to him, keeping us calm and moving slowly and without hesitation away from him. Another reason is the hunting instinct of the animal. Same as lions, wolves or other predators, the dog will also have the instinct of running to catch the “pray”, whenever he sees us running. That’s why it’s not advisable to run from a dog because this instinct can be easily “lighted up”. And finally, dogs can be aggressive because they are defending a territory. A normal and balanced dog will never attack for pleasure. Moreover, if our reactions are controlled and inspire safety, dogs should not be a threat to us”, said the psychotherapist.
The “psychotherapy” lesson turned out to be a success in the Education program, and AMP will hold such meetings in the future – practical lessons are as important as theoretical ones.
Watch a short vide with Igor HERE
