UCB Parents Advice about Pets

Toddler Fear of Animals

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Aug 1999

My 22.5-month-old daughter is a very outgoing and sociable kid. She can recognize most animals and loves to play with stuffed animals or any fake animals. However, she is quite afraid of real animals such as dogs, cats, cows, or even butterflies, seagulls, ants. She does not like any battery/manual operated moving toys any more either. When she sees an animal, she usually does not cry but would say "I'm afraid of such such... Mommy hold me..." and clings to my legs. I wonder whether this fear is normal, will she grow out of this phase by herself. What can I do to help her other than verbal assurance, making an effort to bring her to see more animals, and encouraging her to touch the animal etc.?


Moving objects, especially when big or loud, can be perceived as a reasonable threat to a small body. Maybe it helps if you allow your child more control over the movement (as explained below), because movement is actually a very fascinating matter at that age. My daughter loved to play endlessly with medium size metal replicas of cars at this age. The little Duplo people fit right in there if you buy convertibles without rooftops. That gives her more control over the speed and direction of the movement than anything battery operated. I don't understand why it is important to you that your daughter touches animals. Observing them from a distance is quite nice for a while until she knows enough about them to anticipate certain behavior from them and expresses the wish to touch them. (Otherwise it's seems equivalent to touching a stranger). How about a trip to the Zoo where animals are not as close as at the Farm in Tilden Park? Keep her at your height when looking at animals. Buy books about animals and draw animals on paper that she can scribble over or erase (like a magna doodle). I just worked with my 28 months old daughter through a big fear of spiders, she suddenly picked up at daycare from somebody else's reaction. (Grrrr!) So I bought the cutest out of the itsy-bitsy spider books (the spider with the friendly smile) and it is a big hit. She also loves to draw really big spiders on her magna doodle and then erase them I think your daughter (like mine) is a very careful person who likes to "play it safe" and I'm very glad and respectful of that. My daughter does not like to touch horses, goats or cows either, but she enjoys observing me do it.
My daughter is 4 years old and had gone through a sensitive time when she was around 2 years old until about 3.5 years. Dogs and cats would both make her nervous. Dogs in particular would make her panic. I coined my own term for it - "Fido-phobia." She also was a bit more sensitive to loud noises (vacuums, car washes, and loud characters in a movie) and frenetic movements of anything and anybody. My impression is that this is very normal for some 2-3 year olds. They are more mobile then and starting to learn more about how big the world is. I never pushed her to interact with any animal unless she wanted to do it. I kept a sharp eye out for dogs and cats when we went walking or to the park. If one walked by, I would emphasize how the owner was keeping the dog away or how the dog was just minding his own business and just walking on by. The entire time I would be saying this, I would calmly pick her up or let her hide behind me. (Smart dogs often want to get far away from a panicky child and will walk right on by.) My daughter just recently decided that she is a "big girl" and that she likes dogs. I told her never to approach a dog that is off-leash and to wait until a leashed dog's owners let her know if the dog wants to be petted. Fortunately, most dog owners around here are VERY responsible and will let a child know right away how child-friendly their pooch is. They will shorten up the lead on the leash and have their dog sit for a quick petting session. I'm sure your child is going through a very normal phobic stage and she or he will grow out of it.
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