Phobias of Dogs in Neurodivergent Children
FAQ
Neurodivergent children may be scared of dogs for many reasons, including sensory issues, dogs unpredictable behaviour and previous negative expereinces with dogs.
This may interfere with their ability to enjoy outdoor activities, visit friends' homes, or participate in community events where dogs are present.
It can even lead to children struggling to leave the house if they feel dogs will be present, reducing a childs access to their community.
Being neurodivergent myself, and a former dog phobic child, gives be unique insights into why your child may be scared, how they feel and how to make the sessions disabilty and neurodivergent friendly.
The sessions are child led and low demand and, towards the end of the protocol children will have contact with Lyra, a flatcoated retriever who is an experienced, calm and good natured dog who has extensive experience working with children.
As Kids Around Dogs (KAD) members, we have been trained in the successful protocol (designed by Head of KAD, Debby Lucken (ISCP.Dip.Canine.Prac.)) to help children overcome their fear of dogs.
This protocol covers 10 sessions, 7 of which are online and your child has no contact with dogs. They will help your child learn about dogs, their behaviour and how to read and interact with them as well as what to do when approached by a dog.
The final 3 sessions are in person and allow your child to have contact with a calm dog. These sessions are also child led and there is no pressure on your child at all to interact with the dog.
The protocol is child led and your child will never be pressured into anything they don’t feel comfortable with. We are also extremely neurodivergent friendly with the protocol being run by me, a neurodivergent person with extensive experience of working with neurodivergent children.
The programme is £350 for all 10 sessions, including the in person sessions (Birmingham based).
Please fill out this form to book your discovery call to see how we can help your child overcome their fear of dogs.
Do you only work with Neurodivergent Children?
No, we are happy to help any child overcome their phobia of dogs.
We specialise in working with neurodivergent children, but a phobia of dogs can be distressing and limiting for any person adult or child and we are happy to help.
Our Training
We are dedicated to high quality dog training without pain or discomfort. Therefore we use only reward based training without the use of aversives like shock collars, prong collars or choke chains.
We only use kind training methods, minimising the risk of behavioural fall out from training.
We have studied for 7 years up to an Masters degree level and are required to complete over 30 hours of CPD a year to ensure our training methods remain up to date.
