Ughhhh I hate when people are told this! I know (s)he told you that but good god. I work with rescues that take pit bulls from dog fight rings and we rehabilitate them. As you can imagine they are so very traumatized. There is absolutely no way I would not provide comfort when they’re scared. What I have seen is that if they feel your comfort/love that act in it self helps calm them. One of my pups now is terrified of rainstorms (he’s anticipating the thunder) this poor dog paces and hyperventilates until he will collapse from exhaustion. Meds do not help, good god we have tried tens. I sit with him and try my best to calm him.. he wants to be next to me and if I move he follows. He needs the comfort of someone, to help him deal.
I get that is said a lot to people but IMO it does the opposite
![Frown :( :(](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Dogs don’t rationalize they just feel and act .. us rationalizing that we are reinforcing makes absolute sense to us.. not them.