Dog fearing children

Looks like we need to get another pet.

There was a time when our kids would run rudderless onto the road if they caught sight of a dog. They were petrified. When we realized they weren’t even remotely aware if there were cars on the road, so were we.

To fix this we got ourselves a great dog (a free dog) named Jazz (originally Jasmin) whose presence immediately (within a year) fixed our little kids’ canine phobia (yes, actually did).

Jazz came to us when she was 9 months old from a family who were renting an unsuitable, fenceless home. She was fluffy, trained and an absolute saintly ball of patience with the kids, who would scream and rock-climb up our legs and torsos to wrap themselves around our heads whenever we walked in the gate.

But familiarity has resulted in huge progress and we can now cross ‘fear of dogs’ off the list. Unfortunately, as of today, we have something else to take it’s place.

Master6 was in the backyard on the swing when he was attacked. Tracey heard a blood curdling scream, followed by even more quality screaming of the highest order, and raced out of the house expecting blood and broken limbs. Instead she found him trying to claw his way over the fence in an effort to escape from……a tiny tree spider.

Half an hour later, after a change of pants and lots of hugs from mum, he was playing happily again, although this time on the balcony where there’s less nature and minuscule attack bugs. So now, I’m informed by Tracey, we have to look at how to get him over this fear of creepy crawlies. She’s suggested a pet spider.

I know this approach worked well for the dog but I’ll tell you one thing, if Tracey ever discovers any of these kids have a fear of snakes, I’m out of here.

What do you think?

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