The Tomcat „Mr. Tripod“ as a helper in the psychotherapy of five-year-old Anna suffering from phobia of cats and dogs

Dog phobia is a complex psychological phenomenon classified under the anxiety disorders. Twelve female students suffering from dog phobia participated in this qualitative study which included an initial screening, therapeutic intervention and eight-month follow-up. Initial screening was conducted by means of a Fear Survey Schedule and observational assessment of non-verbal behavior during a behavioral approach test (dog stimulus). Therapeutic intervention involved a combination of systematic desensitization and instructional learning. Qualitative data analysis followed a phenomenological approach. The results indicate that the onset age of dog phobia varied from early childhood to late adolescence. Two-thirds of the participants reported a direct traumatic event as the onset context of their dog phobia, while 17% reported vicarious learning contexts and 17% an inability to recall the onset context. The most widely used sensory focal mode of perception during contact with dogs was visual cues, followed by auditory cues. Half of the participants reported “eye” aspects as the fear-evoking stimulus. A wide variety of anxieties and fears were found to co-occur with dog phobia, although some participants were still able to accommodate dogs and other companion animals in their lives. The post-study follow-up indicated that the intervention yielded significant real life improvement in 75% of the cases. The implications of this study for therapeutic situations are discussed.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the opinions of individuals regarding the management of stray dogs and its relationship with dog phobia. The study was a cross-sectional analytical study, and data were collected online across Türkiye. Of 1,359 participants, 63.1% of the participants were female and 89.6% were university graduates. 69.5% of participants had any level of dog phobia. Younger individuals, those without pets or experience with stray animals, and those with a history of dog attacks showed higher phobia rates (all p < 0.001). Fear of stray dogs, being attacked, and contracting rabies were common concerns, correlating with higher phobia levels (p < 0.001). The rates of supporting vaccinating and neutering dogs were 92.3 and 49.8%, respectively. Of the respondents, 53.3% agreed with keeping neutered dogs in shelters. It has been found that people who do not own dogs [OR: 1.779 (95% CI: 1.005-3.150), p = 0.048] and cats [OR: 1.931 (95% CI: 1.044-3.572), p = 0.036]; who had never provided care for stray animals [OR: 2.034 (95% CI: 1.467-2.821) p < 0.001] and those with a personal or family history of having been attacked by a dog than in those [OR: 2.101 (95% CI: 1.631-2.706) p < 0.001] are approximately twice as likely to have a phobia. Participants with dog phobia were 65.5% less likely to agree that dogs that have been vaccinated and neutered should be left on the streets again [OR: 0.345 (95% CI: 0.270-0.441) p < 0.001], and those with dog phobia were 2.6 times more likely to state that dogs that have been vaccinated and neutered should be kept in shelters and given the necessary care [OR: 2.649 (95% CI: 2.078-3.377) p < 0.001]. Dog phobia is prevalent, and stray dog management significantly influences public fear levels and perceptions. Understanding the relationship between dog phobia and attitudes toward stray dog management can help inform policies that address both public concerns and animal welfare. More representative studies are needed to better reflect the general population.

Blood-Injection-Injury Phobia and Dog Phobia in Youth: Psychological Characteristics and Associated Features in a Clinical Sample

Active-imaginal exposure: examination of a new behavioral treatment for cynophobia (dog phobia)

This case report discusses the psychotherapy and supervision process of a 28-year-old female client with a dog phobia using the framework of cognitive behavioral therapy. The first section delves into the client’s life history, the reason for seeking therapy, the primary issues, and the progression of these issues. We describe the cognitive-behavioral therapy process and the clinical follow-up. We mentioned the topics covered in the sessions and detailed the techniques used. The therapy resulted in a decrease or even the disappearance of the client’s dog phobia. The therapist administered the Specific Phobia Scale in the first and last sessions, scoring 34 in the first session and 0 in the last session. We anticipate that the results of this study will shed light on the suitability of cognitive behavioral therapy for specific phobias and the impact of online therapy.

BackgroundDog bites are a concerning health problem in children and one of the leading causes of non-fatal injuries in this population. Dog attacks not only cause physical injuries but can...

The etiology of childhood dog phobia

Human brain evolution and the “Neuroevolutionary Time-depth Principle:” Implications for the Reclassification of fear-circuitry-related traits in DSM-V and for studying resilience to warzone-related posttraumatic stress disorder

Virtual reality is beneficial from a research and education perspective as it allows the assessment of participants in situations that would otherwise be ethically and practically difficult or impossible to study in the real world. This is especially the case where the assessment of human behaviour in the presence of stimuli (e.g. an aggressive dog) is being measured which could potentially constitute a risk in a real-world environment (e.g. a dog bite). Given that the dog is the most popular companion animal species, to date there is limited research that identifies and reviews the use of virtual and augmented reality directly relating to human-dog interactions. Furthermore, there also appears to be no review of the equipment and dog model specifications, such as dog breed and behaviours, which are currently used in these studies. As a result, this systematic scoping review searched ten databases to assess the current use and specifications of dog models which directly focused on human-dog interactions. Ten articles were identified. Six related to assessment or treatment of dog fear/phobia (cynophobia), three included multiple animal phobias, including dogs, and one article investigated the human and virtual dog interactions whilst walking. Six articles used a single breed (German Shepherd, Beagle, Doberman, and Rottweiler). Both the breed and behaviours displayed lacked justification and were often not evidence based. Specific measurements of model quality (e.g., polygons/vertices) were reported in only two articles which may affect repeatability and make comparisons between studies difficult. The virtual reality equipment (e.g. CAVE, head mounted display) and navigation methods (e.g. joystick, mouse, room scale walking) used varied between studies. In conclusion, there is a need for the accurate development and representation, including appearance and behaviours, of dog models in virtual and augmented reality. This is of high importance especially as most of the research covered in this review was conducted with the aim to treat the fear or phobia of dogs.

Multiple impact behavior therapy in a child's dog phobia

ABSTRACTPhobic fear can be regarded as an emotional response syndrome consisting of three groups of response patterns, namely cognitive-affective, motor-behavioral and physiological. In the present study, female students were assigned to two groups: an experimental group consisting of participants suffering from dog phobia, and a control group. The study consisted of three stages: the resting stage measured baseline values, while the pre- and post-intervention stages measured values in the presence of a dog stimulus. Cognitive-affective aspects were assessed by an anxiety scale and post-study questionnaire. Motor-behavioral aspects focussed on dog approach termination distances and the observation of non-verbal communication cues during behavioral approach tests. Physiological aspects were measured in terms of plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) levels. Systematic desensitization therapy was found to be effective in alleviating motor-behavioral and cognitive-affective aspects, while its effect on plasma ACTH levels was inconclusive. No significant plasma ACTH level changes occurred in the experimental group during the study. When comparing the experimental and control groups, the only significant difference was a lower plasma ACTH level in the control group during the post-intervention stage. Total stressor schedule values suggest that participants in the experimental group had a predisposition to be generally more anxious and fearful than participants in the control group.

There is currently a widespread interest in indexing and extracting taxonomic information from large text collections. An example is the automatic categorization of informally written medical or psychological diagnoses, followed by the extraction of epidemiological information or even terms and structures needed to formulate guiding questions as an heuristic tool for helping doctors. Vector space models have been successfully used to this end (Lee, Cimino, Zhu, Sable, Shanker, Ely & Yu, 2006; Pakhomov, Buntrock & Chute, 2006). In this study we use a computational model known as Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) on a diagnostic corpus with the aim of retrieving definitions (in the form of lists of semantic neighbors) of common structures it contains (e.g. "storm phobia", "dog phobia") or less common structures that might be formed by logical combinations of categories and diagnostic symptoms (e.g. "gun personality" or "germ personality"). In the quest to bring definitions into line with the meaning of structures and make them in some way representative, various problems commonly arise while recovering content using vector space models. We propose some approaches which bypass these problems, such as Kintsch's (2001) predication algorithm and some corrections to the way lists of neighbors are obtained, which have already been tested on semantic spaces in a non-specific domain (Jorge-Botana, León, Olmos & Hassan-Montero, under review). The results support the idea that the predication algorithm may also be useful for extracting more precise meanings of certain structures from scientific corpora, and that the introduction of some corrections based on vector length may increases its efficiency on non-representative terms.

Rapid treatment of dog phobia by a feeding procedure

Four self-management exercises completed by advanced psychology students as part of their course of instruction are summarised. The cases illustrate the level of sophistication of clinical replications that can be attempted in a semester unit. These cases were chosen because they targeted long-standing serious problems which none of the students thought would be responsive to behavioural-cognitive techniques applied by themselves. The problems were nocturnal bruxism, excessive urinary frequency, unassertiveness, and dog phobia. All were successful in meeting the initial therapeutic objectives that had been set, but gains were not maintained in the cases of bruxism and excessive urinary frequency. The value and problems associated with self-management exercises as a teaching tool are discussed.

Auditory desensitization of a dog phobia in a blind patient