Is it possible to be vet even if I have a huge phobia of dogs ?

whitechocofrappe

I have cynophobia and I am scared to touch dogs or go near them,can I still be a vet ?

Reply 1

bamtutor

Study Forum Helper

Original post by whitechocofrappe

I have cynophobia and I am scared to touch dogs or go near them,can I still be a vet ?

I shouldn't think so. Even if you were to avoid Dogs throughout training (very unlikely) and specialise in a particular field (say Equine medicine), you will probably come across dogs at some stage.

Reply 2

whitechocofrappe

Original post by bamtutor

I shouldn't think so. Even if you were to avoid Dogs throughout training (very unlikely) and specialise in a particular field (say Equine medicine), you will probably come across dogs at some stage.

Thanks for your response and it’s a shame to hear that because I really want to be a vet

Reply 3

Jakson123

I don't think it would be possible either. Can you get some help with or work on your phobia? It would be a shame to give up on the thing you really want to do - and when so many people have dogs it must make day to day life tricky too.

Reply 4

Muttley79

Original post by whitechocofrappe

I have cynophobia and I am scared to touch dogs or go near them,can I still be a vet ?

Have you sought help wiith this? Phobias can be treated ...

Reply 5

RambleAmple

You have to do some of your EMS placements + rotations blocks with small animals, which will involve a lot of closely handling dogs. At vets, most will be stressed too, so even normally friendly ones are going to be louder and have a higher potential to thrash or bite etc so really you need a certain degree of confidence for this. While you could probably ask them to be put away, a lot of horse yards and farms will also have dogs there, and if they aren’t getting in the way etc it would probably not make the best impression to do so. So all in all, my opinion as a vet student is no you wouldn’t be able to avoid dogs. As others have mentioned, have you tried getting help for this? Therapy is the best way to go if you really want to be a vet, but if that isn’t available to you for whatever reason, could you maybe ask a friend with a calm friendly dog to maybe try help you get used to being around dogs?