Cynophobia: The Fear of Dogs

I don't personally but there is a boy in my neighborhood who is petrified of our dog (he's just a small shih tzu) and runs inside every time we are out walking with him. He's always on a leash but that still scares him - I assume he must have had a bad experience with a dog at some point for him to feel that way.

As you see by my avatar I am a dog lover. Even so, being a dog lover doesn't mean that I am over friendly with any dog on the planet. I am actually quite scared of dogs that I don't know, especially if I don't know the dog's name. Knowing the dog's name means you can trick the dog into thinking that you know it. When you say its name cutely, the dog will wag its tail and be happy to act friendly towards you.

When nearing a dog you don't know, and if you want to pet it, never put your hand towards it from above. The dog could think that he is going to get a smack and then try to defend itself. Instead, when wanting to pet a dog, flatten out the palm of your hand and place it under their nose. Let them sniff you. Each one of us has a thousand odours that dogs just love to check out. When I pet a new dog, I am sure they can smell my own two dogs on me. This certainly pacifies the dog that I want to pet, so once he has had his sniff I am free to pet him all I like and the two of us have made a new friend!

I kinda have cynophobia, but it’s dogs that go higher than about my knees. It’s because when I was a short little 8 year old girl a larger dog (for me) growled and chased me, and from what I remember there were a couple other dogs too. I remember the growling part but not the being chased part. An irish wolfhound is terrifying, no matter how nice. Any dog that is around above my knees (I dunno, some dogs like that I can handle) is terrifying.

I love animals. I love to take care of them. Butt I fear dogs bark. I am ok to pet a dog but I fear when they bark. Till then I'm perfectly fine. The moment a dog barks at me I end up shivering for a long time. Is there anyway I can do to get over the fear of dogs barks. Adding to it any dog above my knee height intimidates me. I am scared to even approach them. Should I go for therapy for this ? Is there anyway to get over this ?