[url=http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/rc/phobia.html]DOG PHOBIA[/url]

By Mary Ann Roser
American-Statesman Staff
Monday, June 5, 2000

A scientist holding a clipboard jots down notes as his subjects confront their worst fear. A few people try to run away. Others break into a sweat. Most freeze and stare. Hearts pound; panic rules.

What scares them so?

Joey, a springer spaniel, who lies on the floor and licks his paws; Susie, a tail-wagging, laid-back Labrador-basset hound blend; and Pugsley -- the scariest of all -- a gentle bulldog who snorts but barely moves.

Though to the average person these family pets may seem overly docile, if not borderline comatose, they are frightening to the folks who meet them in a unique experiment at the University of Texas.

UT researchers in psychology are conducting what is believed to be the first controlled, clinical study on people who suffer from dog phobia, a marked, persistent fear of canines. The researchers expose the subjects to dogs so they can conquer their fear.

Using a Rottweiler, even a friendly one, was not a good idea, the researchers quickly learned. "Some people wouldn't get near it," said Tim Rentz, a UT doctoral candidate who is doing his dissertation on dog phobia.

For those who are phobic, the fear bites hardest when they encounter a dog or anticipate seeing one. The fear interferes with their lives, keeping them from doing such things such as visiting parks, bicycling or visiting family and friends who own dogs.

"Most subjects have been attacked by a dog or have seen someone attacked," said UT psychology professor Michael Telch, director of the UT Laboratory for the Study of Anxiety Disorders. "Our goal is to take away the panic."

Besides dogs, Telch said the lab also has studied claustrophobia and the fear of spiders. a specific phobia, said Telch and Rentz. But previous research has determined that about 11 percent of the population suffers from a specific phobia, one of the most common mental-health disorders, Telch said.

Women are much more likely to fear animals -- 12 percent vs. 3 percent of men. At UT, 3 to 5 percent of the students surveyed in their introductory psychology courses reported a significant fear of dogs. Of those, 35 percent to 45 percent in the study were Asian students, possibly because dogs aren't as common as pets in those countries, Telch said.

Being afraid of aggressive, threatening dogs is not unusual or unreasonable, said Rentz, who admitted to having a specific phobia -- of snakes. But fearing all dogs and interpreting every behavior -- from panting to tail wagging -- as aggressive is phobic.

It's not easy to avoid dogs.

More than 62 million are owned as pets in the United States, Telch said. Nearly four in 10 households have at least one dog.

And there are problems. Each year, more than 4.5 million dog bites are reported, 60 percent on children. An average of 20 people die each year from dog bites, Telch said.

No one has been bitten in the UT study, he added.

So far, just UT students have been used. But Telch and Rentz said they hope to draw half of their subjects from the Austin community -- adults, ages 18 and older.

The researchers expose people to the friendly dogs and gradually move them from a distance of 10 feet to within a few inches, where they can pet the dog. The researchers also do an exercise in which they ask people to imagine being near a dog and then interacting with it.

So far, preliminary data on 54 individuals indicates that when exposed to a real dog in treatment, the average person in the study reports a 58 percent reduction in fear. In the "imaginal treatment," the average fear fell 36 percent, Rentz said, adding that he was surprised at how effective it was.

The study will determine which exposure works best.

Telch said exposing people with phobias to the object of their terror is "one of the few powerful treatments we have in mental health."

Last week, Rentz tried it on UT student Jule Murphy. She has been afraid of dogs since age 7, when she got caught between two that were fighting.

"I was really terrified," Murphy, 20, said. "I was trapped in the middle of them, and my legs got scratched up."

Now, she avoids dogs.

Until last week. Murphy walked into a narrow hallway in a UT building that's used for the treatment. Two doors posted signs warning of dogs inside. "Do all these rooms have dogs in them?" she asked Rentz.

Interesting.  I know many people who are absolutely terrified of Dogs. Same people wouldn't back down in a firefight, but want absolutely nothing to do with dogs. Large, small, does not matter.

Planded? I simply wanted to know what percentage of this Board had a dog phobia. I don't. I also have two very large dogs that any MORON in his right mind [b]should[/b] be afraid of, they are extremely teritorial.

Only You would try and turn this into Cop Bashing. Sad, very, very sad.  

Aggie1 as to the [:K] research, seems that at least one showed up so far [:D]

[ROFL2]