Useful Techniques to Help You Cope with a Fear of Dogs

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Learn how to confront your fear of dogs with gradual exposure

Co-authored by Evan Parks, PsyD and Bertha Isabel Crombet, PhD

Last Updated: July 29, 2025 Approved

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Managing Your Fear

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Understanding Causes & Triggers

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Symptoms & Treatment

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Expert Q&A

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Tips

A fear of dogs, also known as cynophobia, is very common. Different people will have different levels of fear towards dogs, depending on a variety of factors. Some may need to be in the presence of a dog to feel the fear, while others simply shudder at the thought of a dog being nearby. Keep reading to learn how to overcome your cynophobia, with expert tips from Licensed Clinical Psychologist Evan Parks, Psy.D., and Dog Behavior Consultant Amanda Marshall-Polimeni.

How to Get Rid of a Fear of Dogs

According to psychologist Dr. Evan Parks and dog behavior consultant Amanda Marshall-Polimeni, overcoming cynophobia begins with understanding that our scary thoughts are generally untrue and won't happen. Learn as much as you can about dogs, observe from a distance, and consider exposure therapy with puppies to start.

Section 1 of 3:

How to Manage Your Fear

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1
Develop an exposure plan. This plan should include each step you’re going to go through between now (no dogs) and actually being in their presence. Marshall-Polimeni encourages you to begin by learning as much about dogs as you can and observing them from a distance. She says, “Perhaps you may visit a dog park and observe how they interact with one another from the outside. Read books like The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell to understand more about animal communication and behavior.” ^{[1]
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Expert Source

Amanda Marshall-Polimeni
Dog Behavior Consultant

Expert Interview}
- Customize your plan based on your specific fears. Put the exposures in order from least fearful to most fearful so you work your way up to conquering your most fearful situation. ^{[2]
  X
  Research source} Here's an example plan:
  - Step 1 - draw a dog on a piece of paper.
  - Step 2 - read about dogs.
  - Step 3 - look at photos of dogs.
  - Step 4 - look at videos of dogs.
  - Step 5 - look at dogs through a closed window.
  - Step 6 - look at dogs through a partially opened window.
  - Step 7 - look at dogs through an open window.
  - Step 8 - look at dogs through a doorway.
  - Step 9 - look at dogs from outside the doorway.
  - Step 10 - look at a dog (who is on a leash) in the next room.
  - Step 11 - look at a dog (who is on a leash) in the same room.
  - Step 12 - sit beside a dog.
  - Step 13 - pet a dog.
Meet the wikiHow Experts

Amanda Marshall-Polimeni is a Dog Behavior Consultant, specializing in using non-coercive, reinforcement-based approaches to generate desired behaviors.

Evan Parks, Psy.D. is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with over 25 years of experience working with others on topics ranging from stress management to mental flexibility.
2
Request the assistance of a trusted friend with a dog. At some point, you will have to place yourself in the presence of an actual dog. You need this dog to be handled by a competent and trustworthy person, and the dog needs to be predictable and well-trained. Talk to the dog’s owner in advance of executing your plan and explain to them what you’re trying to accomplish. They should be patient and understanding as they may need to simply sit there with their dog for a while as you acclimatize to the dog’s presence. ^{[3]
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- Eventually, if you’re able to, have your friend teach you basic commands for the dog so you can control the dog yourself. Being in control of the dog may further help you to alleviate your fears once you realize you have the ability to direct their actions.
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3
Practice deep breathing exercises to help you relax. When you’re anxious or afraid, it's common to react by breathing too quickly and hyperventilating. Hyperventilating can intensify your feelings of anxiety and fear and make the situation worse. Breathing deeply can help you relax, reduce your tension, and make you feel less anxious around dogs. Follow these steps to relax using deep breathing: ^{[4]
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Trustworthy Source
HelpGuide
Nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free, evidence-based mental health and wellness resources.
Go to source}
- Sit or stand somewhere where you’re comfortable and keep your back straight. Put one of your hands on your chest and put your other hand on your stomach.
- Take one slow deep breath in through your nose while counting to four. The hand on your stomach will rise while the hand on your chest shouldn’t move very much.
- Hold your breath while counting to seven. Then, exhale through your mouth while you count to eight. Push out as much air as you can using your abdominal muscles. This means the hand on your stomach should move downwards, and the hand on your chest shouldn’t move very much.
- Repeat these steps until you feel calmer and relaxed.
4
Use guided visualization to reduce anxiety. Using visualization is exactly what it sounds like — you visualize something that you find extremely relaxing in order to reduce your anxiety and reduce your fears. A guided visualization is where you listen to a recording where someone talks you through the process step-by-step. There are many free guided visualizations available online, some with background music or sound effects to help make the process seem more real. ^{[5]
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- Guided visualization recordings will provide the instructions on how to prepare yourself and what to do. They will also vary in length, so you can select the ones that work best for you.
5
Expose yourself to dogs regularly to keep making progress. Start with the first item on your plan and carry it out. Repeat this until you feel less anxious and fearful doing it. If the step you’re doing allows you to stay in one place (i.e. watch dogs through a window), slowly expand the length of time you perform the activity as well. Use the relaxation techniques you practiced to help keep yourself calm. ^{[6]
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- Use a journal to keep track of your progress. Write down each attempt you make and how it went. Rate your level of anxiety and fear before and after each attempt.
- Remember that your exposure to dogs should be planned, prolonged and repeated.
- Don’t feel you need to rush. Take your time on each step of your plan until you feel comfortable moving onto the next step.
- When you’re ready, Marshall-Polimeni suggests that you “volunteer your time to help socialize young puppies,” explaining, “Puppies are easier to handle than an adult dog. You’ll be doing both yourself and the puppy a great service by the experience. This should be done in conjunction with either a trainer or professional organization.” ^{[7]
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  Expert Source
  
  Amanda Marshall-Polimeni
  Dog Behavior Consultant
  
  Expert Interview}
6
Consider cognitive restructuring. Many phobias, including cynophobia, are based on how your brain comprehends a specific situation, rather than the actual situation itself. For example, you’re not likely afraid of the actual dog in front of you, but rather, your brain is interpreting the dog as being a threat, which is then causing you to be fearful. Cognitive restructuring helps you to identify these thoughts, understand that they are irrational, and slowly helps you to rethink, or reframe, your thoughts about a specific situation. In this case, dogs.
- It is important to go into cognitive restructuring with an open and willing mind, which means accepting the fact that your fear is probably not based on rational thought, and as such, means that you can train yourself to think differently.  
- If you go into this type of treatment pessimistically or with the belief that you’re being completely reasonable in your fears, you may make the process much harder to overcome. ^{[8]
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7
Seek help from a professional therapist. While not required, a therapist will be able to help you overcome your fear and anxiety through psychotherapy. Therapists have a very high success rate treating people with phobias. Therapists will use something called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which can help you alter the way you think and they can teach you skills that will help you overcome your fear. They can also use exposure therapy to help you regain control of your emotions when in the presence of dogs. ^{[9]
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- Consider searching for a therapist in your area using the Anxiety and Depression Association of America's (ADAA) website .

Section 2 of 3:

Understanding Your Fears & Triggers

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1
Consider your personal history with dogs. Many, but not all, people who have a fear of dogs developed that fear when they were younger. You may have had a bad personal experience with one or more dogs in the past. You may have been scared, cornered or even bitten by a dog, and now that’s the only memory of dogs you have. Encountering a dog now may bring about the same feelings you had during that bad experience, making you scared of dogs in all circumstances. Other possible explanations include: ^{[10]
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- You may have been inadvertently taught to be afraid of dogs by someone else, such as your parents.
  - Maybe when growing up your mom always talked negatively about dogs, or told you stories about people she knew who had been attacked by dogs.
  - The fears she had, essentially, transferred to you. You wouldn’t have known any differently and grew up assuming dogs were terrible and you should therefore be afraid of them.
- You may have witnessed something bad happen to someone because of a dog.
  - You might have seen someone attacked and injured, or you might even seen a movie about dogs at an impressionable age.
  - This event, whether fictional or real, may have caused you to develop a fear of dogs even though nothing ever happened to you personally. ^{[11]
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2
Identify your triggers. The first step to overcoming your fear is to identify what is causing the fear in the first place. Is it dogs in general that cause you to be fearful? Or do you become fearful when a dog does something specific, like growling, barking, or jumping? Dr. Parks says that the fear can simply be born out of a cognitive connection. For example, if a child sees their mother react in fear to nice, friendly dogs, they may develop a fear just like hers. ^{[12]
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Expert Source

Evan Parks, PsyD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Expert Interview}
- This is a great place to start a journal where you can record all the information about your fear of dogs that may be helpful for future therapy and analysis.
3
Analyze your existing beliefs. Once you have a solid understanding of the specific events that trigger your phobia, you need to evaluate what you are thinking when this fear occurs. What are you telling yourself? How are you interpreting the trigger event in your thoughts? What are your specific beliefs about that event the moment it is happening? Here are some questions to ask yourself: ^{[13]
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Trustworthy Source
Mayo Clinic
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Go to source}
- All or Nothing — do you view ALL dogs as bad, no matter what? Or do you categorize dogs differently depending on some type of feature? E.g. ”I can’t be friends with anyone who has a dog.” ^{[14]
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- Should, Must, Ought — do you see a dog and automatically assume you have to be afraid of it? Do you feel like you have no other choice in the matter? E.g. ”My mom said I should never trust a dog.”
- Overgeneralizing — have you tried to overcome your fear before and weren’t able to, and now you assume you’ll never be able to overcome your fear of dogs? E.g. ”I tried to be near dogs before and it didn’t work. I have no choice but to be afraid of dogs.”
- Jumping to Conclusions — do you see or hear a dog and automatically draw a conclusion about what’s going to happen? E.g. ”That’s a pit bull, they’re awful and nasty dogs that can’t be trained properly.”
4
Find a rational explanation for your fear. At this point, you have tried to prove your fear of dogs is perfectly reasonable and found that you can’t find any evidence to back up your beliefs. In fact, you’ve probably found evidence of the complete opposite. You now need to think about the beliefs that are causing your fear and work with your therapist to develop rational explanations for your beliefs. These rational explanations will start to make sense, and make you realize that your resulting fear doesn’t make sense. ^{[15]
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Trustworthy Source
Mayo Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals
Go to source}
- While this may sound easy, this is going to be the hardest step in your process to overcome your fear of dogs.
  - Our beliefs can be entrenched in our minds so deeply that it can take some time (and convincing) to realize that they make no sense. After all, your irrational beliefs may have helped you avoid bad situations, so what’s wrong with them?
- Dr. Parks explains that fear is “less powerful in our lives when we realize that we can let our noisy mind say what it wants while we focus on three things: letting go of the struggle with our mind, staying connected to the present moment, and moving toward those things that are important to us.” ^{[16]
  X
  Expert Source
  
  Evan Parks, PsyD
  Licensed Clinical Psychologist
  
  Expert Interview}

Section 3 of 3:

Symptoms & Medical Treatment

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1
Figure out if your fear qualifies as a full-blown phobia. People with cynophobia experience several symptoms. In addition to looking at which symptoms you may experience, think about when you experience them. Do you need to be in the presence of a dog, or can a photo or story of a dog trigger your symptoms? And is it just seeing the dog in person that scares you or is it something the dog specifically does, like bark or growl? Here are some common symptoms of cynophobia: ^{[17]
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- Feeling an imminent sense of danger.
- Feeling the need to escape or flee.
- Heart racing, sweating, trembling or shaking, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, dizziness, or chills.
- Feeling like what is happening is unreal.
- Feeling like you’re losing control or going crazy.
- Feeling like you might die.
2
Work closely with a therapist if you have cynophobia. This is a great chance for you and your therapist to determine if there is an underlying medical or mental condition that may be exacerbating your phobia. Underlying causes may be an anxiety disorder, depression, or maybe even a specific, yet unrelated, event that started the phobia. Phobias are actually considered anxiety disorders, which may be worsened by specific circumstances that result in a specific fear of something.
- If you have a true phobia of dogs, working with a therapist to identify the extent to which your fear affects your mental health is key. ^{[18]
  X
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  Cleveland Clinic
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  Go to source}
- Dr. Parks notes that the main issue with managing fear is knowing when to stop fighting it: “Once we let go, we can willingly accept our discomfort, get grounded in the present moment, and put our energy into doing things that are in line with what matters to us.” ^{[19]
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  Expert Source
  
  Evan Parks, PsyD
  Licensed Clinical Psychologist
  
  Expert Interview}

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Question

What causes a fear of dogs?

Evan Parks, PsyD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Evan Parks is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. With over 25 years of experience, he specializes in helping people manage chronic pain through the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Approach at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital. He also has experience working with others on topics ranging from stress management to mental flexibility. Dr. Parks is also the author of Chronic Pain Rehabilitation: Active Pain Management That Helps You Get Back to the Life You Love. Dr.Parks holds a BA in Theology from Cedarville University, an MA in Counseling Psychology from Western Michigan University, and a PsyD in Clinical Psychology from The Forest Institute of Professional Psychology.

Evan Parks, PsyD

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Expert Answer

Fear of a dog, like any kind of fear, is caused by treating our thoughts, feelings, and sensations as true, valid, and important. For example, a 9-year child can watch his mother react in fear to nice, friendly dogs and then develop a fear just like hers. He has never experienced a dangerous dog before, but his mind links the word and the image of a dog with fear and danger. This link is called "fusion" in psychology, but this type of connection is not always helpful.

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How do you overcome animal phobia?

Evan Parks, PsyD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Evan Parks is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. With over 25 years of experience, he specializes in helping people manage chronic pain through the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Approach at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital. He also has experience working with others on topics ranging from stress management to mental flexibility. Dr. Parks is also the author of Chronic Pain Rehabilitation: Active Pain Management That Helps You Get Back to the Life You Love. Dr.Parks holds a BA in Theology from Cedarville University, an MA in Counseling Psychology from Western Michigan University, and a PsyD in Clinical Psychology from The Forest Institute of Professional Psychology.

Evan Parks, PsyD

Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Expert Answer

Start by recognizing how quickly and easily the mind can make unhelpful connections. Our minds do this all the time, but it's only when we treat these connections as true and important that they start controlling our lives.

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When you have gotten over some of your fear, you may want to try playing with dogs if you know someone with a well-behaved dog. Learning how dogs play can also help you to better understand how to interact with them if you must.

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The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

Breathe through your noise and just relax. Think in your mind about what makes you happy. Keep that thought while walking towards the dogs/puppies. If that doesn't work, just relax and walk back and if it follows you, just take a deep breath walk away.
If you know a person you trust that has a dog, you can be around their dog with them and get used to dogs. Then every time you go to their house you can take a step forward (petting it, walking it, etc.).
Be confident and realize that if your friends are petting the dog and it's not hurting them, it probably wont hurt you. Then you can be more confident in other dogs and start getting over your fears.

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Useful Techniques to Help You Cope with a Fear of Dogs

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