Fearing fear itself

Jellybean is afraid of dogs (and cats). No, make that terrified of dogs. And it seems to be getting worse with time. L and I are completely at a loss as to what to do. It's awful to see her afraid, and the fear literally paralyzes her at times. And now, we seem to have the added effect of the fear becoming contagious to our previously animal-loving Peanut. I've mentioned Jellybean's fear of thunderstorms before, but her fear of dogs surpasses even that.

L is not quite the animal lover that I am. But he certainly isn't afraid of them. We have no clue where Jellybean's fear originated. As far as we know, she hasn't had a particular encounter with dogs or cats that set her off. When we first noticed her hesitation around animals, she wasn't quite 2, and when you're short, even small dogs are intimidating. Well, now she's almost 4 and is as tall as most 5-6-year-olds. So, height isn't the issue.

Here's the magnitude of her fear. If we're at a park and she's, say, on a swing and spots a dog headed for the park -- up to 50 yards away -- she'll start stressing. She will stay on the swing and refuse to get off until the dog is clearly headed in another direction. If we arrive to a park that already has a dog in attendance, she clings to me and whimpers -- even when the dog is clearly leashed or secured to something. I have to extricate myself from her and help her find an activity that doesn't involve being within 10 feet of the dog. If we're walking on the sidewalk and a leashed dog is approaching with its owner, Jellybean grabs me and tries to drag me off the sidewalk, hanging on for dear life as the dog passes. Loose dogs are off-the-charts scary for her (as are loose cats, which I learned about in two separate incidents in the past week that resulted in Jellybean hysterically crying when cats ambled toward our path).

She has petted dogs a couple of times, mostly when she's seen her peers or Peanut do so first. But those pleasant encounters have done absolutely nothing to make inroads with her fear. I have tried to discuss it with her calmly at other times, I have tried desensitizing her, I have done about everything I can think of.

Because of what her fear does to her, I find myself resenting dog owners at times. Why do you have to bring your dog onto the playground when you don't even have kids playing? Why is your dog running loose around the park? But, how could they know that people can be as afraid of dogs as Jellybean? I certainly never did when I had dogs.

I don't know what to do. I need to do some research and make a plan ASAP, though, before we end up with 2 kids afraid of dogs instead of just one.