Interacting gently and in limited amounts with dogs can help desensitise you to what happened with that othter dog
@outlander. This will have raised you anxiety levels in the moment, but they will subside again.
If you can gently oat the occasional placid dog, it will give you positive association with dogs instead of just being left with a negative one.
Be mindful when you are patting one (always ask the owner first) of how soft and warm their fur feels. Sit and watch them sometimes too, if you can .... watching how calm and living they can be with those around them.
I was kicked by a horse when I was about 8 years old. Some teens had ridden their two horses into a gated playground, and as they turned around, I was behind one of the horses and it kicked out, knocking me to the ground. I went running to my mum, shocked and in tears. I didn't know at the time that she had been kicked by a horse in the chest when she was only 4yo and was luck to survive (draught horse!) with damaged lungs that made her very ill throughout her childhood .... so it must have been traumatic for her to find that I had been kicked .....
If I nursed that memory and only that memory, I would have remained fearful of horses, I am sure.... but I worked to overcome that fear, and eventually even took some riding lessons. My mum was an amazing woman and she encouraged me. It was years later that I found out how badly she had suffered from the horse kick she was so badly injured by.
See how you go @ourlander .... work within your own comfort level .... you don't have to work to overcome this fear, but it will give you greater freedom from it if you choose to do so.
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