Cynophobia: Overcoming a 'genetic' dog phobia that causes anxiety, panic attacks

Dilly Rusca has been scared of dogs since she was four years old.

She would get panic attacks, start shivering and, as she grew older, avoided visiting friends who had dogs.

A year ago, she thought she would tackle her phobia head on and bought a puppy.

“I really love dogs and I really wanted to overcome this fear,” Ms Rusca said.

“At the beginning, we had to make a lot of sacrifices because I couldn’t spend time with her and she had to stay in a pen.”

Frustrated that she couldn’t bear to be alone with her own puppy, Ms Rusca sought the help of Sydney psychologist Anthony Berrick.

“It’s like a nightmare because you can’t have a normal life,” Ms Rusca said.

“Small dogs are really scary to me, especially Chihuahuas.

“Usually dogs that are not very fluffy, because they don’t look sweet and aren’t lap dogs, even big dogs with very short fur; they look more scary to me personally.”

Overcoming cynophobia

Cynophobia, the fear of dogs, is a condition that can induce debilitating symptoms such as feeling anxious and panicky around dogs, constantly checking for dogs when out in public, avoiding places with dogs, and feeling like that fear interferes with normal life.

The condition is more common than expected, with studies in the US reporting 5 per cent of people have a fear of dogs, according to Mr Berrick.

“That’s quite a lot, that’s one in 20 people,” he said.

“I always encourage dog owners to think about that when they let their dogs off leads, perhaps in places where you’re not supposed to have them off lead.

“You might know your dog is friendly but there might be people there … who might be really scared.”

Mr Berrick, a former dog trainer, said the phobia might be linked to genetics.

It is, however, like other specific phobias, one of the most “treatable conditions there are in psychology”.

“We tend to have a baseline sensitivity to our environment, to threats, and that part is genetic,” Mr Berrick said.

“But what we become afraid of … seems to be more about your learning experiences, so whether you’ve had a scary experience with dogs or you just haven’t had much experience with dogs at all.”

Training the brain to unlearn that fear can take anywhere between one and 10 therapy sessions depending on the severity of the phobia.

In most cynophobia treatment plans the fear is treated gradually in a controlled environment, where the client has control over their relationship with the dog.

Therapy works

It took Ms Rusca six weeks to gather the courage to even sit and pat a dog independently.

In one of her last sessions, she coped with having a trained detective dog bite her on the arm and wrestle with her safety sleeve.

But she admitted there was still some more work to be done.

“I’m still scared but I’m also proud of myself because I’ve noticed that the therapy is working,” she said.

“I just want to continue until I feel nothing and it’s part of my normal life.”

Ms Rusca said she planned to buy a second puppy soon.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.