That kind of fear is commmon. My dog doesn't like uniforms, helmets, or people coming into the house carrying big things like ladders. When I had granite installed in my kitchen this summer he barked like a madmad - and he never barks. Your training idea of desensitization is good. Dogs do get used to things that scare them.

That poor dog! Her buddy turned into a monster. The freaking is because the voice and the looks don't match. they KNOW what people should look like.

One of my cats freaked when I walked out of the shower, nude, with a bath towel on my wet hair ... dove for the closet without seeing if the door was open.

And our "loves everybody" spaniel leapt off his doghouse with a roar when the phone guy came through the gate with a lineman's belt on.

And a black friend's mom's dog went into hysterics when I cam over ... the dog had never seen a white person!

Is she still OK with the kid if he's out of the uniform? Desensitizing her to the uniform parts

Well that first part was stupidly easy. I borrowed just the helmet while the kid is in school. No problem with it whatsoever. She heeled around it without a care in the world and sniffed it a little when I told her she could. I couldn't get it onto my head, but she was perfectly comfortable with me balancing it on top of my head and placing it on my shoulder.

Travie will call me tonight when he's done with his homework. We'll let her walk around the helmet again... maybe sniff and walk around his shoulder pads on the lawn... then we'll have Travie sit and put on the helmet while Izzy watches and have her be calm. I'll let her approach Travie while on heel (on lead with me) and if she does well, Travie can feed her cheese. Then we'll slowly have him change into his full uniform, one piece at a time in front of her, after she's had a chance to calmly examine each piece. Cheese if she does well --- down and stay until she calms down if she reacts.

This is so silly. Travie is her favorite boy in the whole world. This is not a game: She's genuinely terrified of the little guy if he's wearing his uniform. This dog is fine around hats, ski masks, umbrellas, wheelchairs, crutches, cats, faux fur coats, garbage men (she'll calmly watch them take it without complaint), our mail lady, the UPS man, and meter readers strolling through our yard... just about anything. (She can even deal with the sight of me naked, lazygardens!)

This would be hilarious if it weren't so potentially dangerous. OK, it's still a little funny, but don't tell Iz I said so...

These are the times when you would give a lot to know what they are thinking. Travie's nightmare vision of a dog eating monster? We get used to the idea that dogs mostly identify everything by smell and sound. It takes us by surprise sometimes when they freak at some everyday small thing even tho it smells and sounds the same as ever. I chuckled at the thought of lazygardens' cat running for cover;~) (just kidding l.g., it had to be your beauty that overwhelmed her:) My cats see me nude a lot and are pretty brave about it.

Let your son put his pads ON while in the presence of the dog, let her act weirded out and dont try and comfort her, comfortig a dog in a state of anxiety is misunderstood by the dog, they think we are encouraging the behavior and they will do it again and again in order to plese us, which is really what dogs are all about. When he puts the uniform on, tell him to go slow, leave the pads out for her to sniff, if she shies away just wait until she settles down, she will get it...please dont let this type of behavioor continue without assisting your dog, just desensitize her little bit by little bit, if it continues it will only get worse which is what happened to my aunties dog who freaked out when a friend showed up wearing a hat. The dog freaked, my auntie comforted the dog, the dog associated getting freaked out with a reward and the rest is that nobody could be in the same room as the dog...hat or no hat

Mazer, I do know the part about not comforting an anxious dog, and think it can never be repeated too much.

Travie and I had a good time with her. First I exercised Izzy thoroughly, then he brought his jersey, pads and helmet out on the lawn and we let her sniff everything. While she watched, he slowly put the pads and jersey on. She voluntarily rolled on her back (normal) and he calmly petted her.

Then he let her examine the helmet again. No problem. So he slowly put it on while she watched. She was cool with it. So I had him throw her frisbee and have her fetch it. On her way back, she had a "Holy Crap! moment" when she suddenly realized that she was fetching her frisbee to "THAT THING." She dropped the frisbee, and I whispered to Travie to command her to fetch in his deepest voice. He did, and she shyly complied. After she dropped it at his feet, I had her lie on her back and he petted her some more.

She finally decided he was still good ol' Travie and tried to climb into his helmet with him to lick his face. She fetched the frisbee up a few more times and we ended the session up with lots of treats and love.

She genuinely enjoyed "being let in on the joke" and I've arranged for him to call before he leaves for practice and games for the next couple of weeks so Izzy and I can practice proper send-offs.

I was relieved to see her behaving like her normal self... which is a very stark contrast to her dramatic, fearful behavior under the same circumstances as of late...

We really do have good neighbors.

You're doing wonderfully with her -- and what a cool kid to help so much! Your description of the "Holy Crap!" moment cracked me up. I have a timid dog, so I've seen that look many, many times while trying to desensitize her to various offenders. :)

Oh, one thing I wanted to add. On Halloween, you might want to have a pocketful of cheese cubes. If your dog does encounter any Brett Favres, watch her body language. If there's a split second in which she doesn't act afraid -- when she's still processing the sight -- start feeding her a jackpot of cheese cubes and happy talk. Granted, you may be catching her before she was going to just wag her tail, but it's a great opportunity to generalize for her that all kids in football gear are good.