(regarding someone who has a dog phobia, and broke up with his live-in girlfriend when she got a dog as a “surprise”)
It’s a treatable sickness which should not be indulged. The OP is a sick person. His gf is better off with the dog.
6 comments
Yeah, no, adult couple are supposed to plan this stuff way ahead, living, feeling being should not be treated like it’s a ticket to a movie or a dinner at a fancy place.
I didn’t even buy my wife a hamster without telling her. Got her a cage andthe money for one, but not the hamster itself.
I doubt we’d break up over it, but it would be something that needed healing.
Assuming that the description of the situation is literal, suddenly foisting a dog on someone with cynophobia is a very bad idea and will likely traumatize both the phobic person and the dog. The GF might have been genuinely have intended to be helpful, or she might have been a selfish asshole who demanded that the BF get over it ASAP because it’s inconvenient or embarrassing for her, or maybe she just really wanted a dog for herself and framed it as being for his benefit so she’d look less like a terrible person, but regardless, it wouldn’t have gotten the results she was hoping for.
This stems from the idea that repeated exposures to a thing can reduce and even eliminate any fear of it, which is technically true, but too many people miss the part where it needs to be voluntary and under controlled conditions. Foisting a dog on someone as a “surprise” is the exact opposite of that.
Some context to note: looking at the Reddit post and the later update (both on r/AITAH, with the question being "AITA for leaving my girlfriend after she got a dog?"), it turns out the girlfriend not only knew of his phobia but why he had it. As explained here :
I was attacked by a dog when I was a kid and almost died from it. I was hospitalized for about a month, and it took months to be able to walk normally.
Absolutely understandable. Apparently, though, the girlfriend thought otherwise. He later broke up with her, and it turns out she was a bigger b*tch than the dog she'd surprised him with (and couldn't take care of on her own).
As for hornybelinder's comment, I'll note that it's in response to the first post, so it's entirely possible they didn't have any of the above info at the time. Of course, the lack of said info doesn't justify or excuse what's basically victim-blaming.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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