Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all,
I’ve been a bit hesitant to post this as we seem to live in a society where saying you’re not keen on dogs is viewed on the same level as saying you enjoy burning children’s Christmas presents, but here goes.
I’ve always been very wary around dogs, and have never understood the growing fascination with owning/taking pictures of/talking about them. It’s not a fear as such - I just don’t really get it and I find them unpredictable. Particularly when their owners have them off the lead, and think shouting “It’s okay - he’s harmless!” as their four-legged friend bounds up to you is a substitute for being in control. This is exacerbated by the fact that I like running, and whenever I’m running towards someone walking a dog off the lead I automatically get anxious because I don’t know if it will keep calm or suddenly bolt and get under my feet as I run past. I even under up slowing down as I approach these situations as it causes me to hesitate!
I always just figured I was a bit miserable, but in the light of my ASD diagnosis I thought I’d put it out there to see if anyone felt similar? I see a lot about autistic people having a love of animals but not too much of the opposite, so I don’t have high hopes!
After receiving my new diagnosis; it has helped me as my thought was that I loved all animals because they arent as scary as humans but this was funny to me; when I went to possibly buy some fish, it was strange as I felt so intimidated, but in an article I read, it says that autistic people dont like the way the fish and dogs stare as it makes us uneasy, where a cat apparently doesn't do that mostly unless they are a bouncy starey cats (lol), but I think it depends on the dog as they are some breeds who are aware of these disabilities; but quite expensive as they are trained to a high level.