WWYD? Dogs and fearful child

[teaandtwigs]

My DS (5) is incredibly fearful of dogs. He was rushed at by big dogs as a toddler and has struggled since. If they are on a lead, he comes round to the opposite side of me to get past them, that's fine. Our issue is with unleashed dogs that we meet out on walks (we have footpaths near our house/often walk round woods locally/at NT properties). They will very often be running/having a grand old time (as they are obviously allowed to do!) but he will literally climb up me to get away from them/become loudly distressed if they approach/jump round our feet, which makes them all the more excited and jump more.

Unfortunately at this point, the owners always seem to be miles back, the dogs won't recall or the owners will shout, 'don't worry, they are friendly' and make no attempt to get the dog/s away. I can see they are friendly but that doesn't stop my DS from trying to sit on my head!

I'm just not sure what to do at this point - when I asked one lady to please take a hold of her dog she told me that her dog had every right to be there, and we'd have to stay home if ds was going to 'act like that'.

I know we have to work on helping ds through his fear but it's baby steps and it feels like we take a step back every time we go out!

Any advice - on how to deal with loose dogs and conquering his fear - would be appreciated!

I'm allergic to dogs and if they lick me or brush past skin that's a couple of hours of discomfort for me. I've always strongly discouraged dogs from coming anywhere near me with a strong death stare and I avoid places where crap owners tend to walk their dogs. I won't be putting lots of effort into making my kids best friends with them either.

I was worried about my daughter - no bad experience that I was aware of but frankly she would have, and nearly did several times, run out in front of traffic rather than be on the same side of the road as a dog on or off lead. This was getting really serious as she got bigger and was harder to hold on to and no amount of one off meeting and greeting helped. We resolved it by getting a dog - sounds mad but we got a puppy so it could grow with her etc, we also knew the breeder would take her back if necessary, today she is very confident with and around dogs, reads them well and obeys the rules of ask before approaching, knows what to do about yappy/defensive/anxious dogs and how to behave with our dog on and off the lead and the dog responds well to her instructions.