When they came, they came with their fear of dogs. They would hide behind their parents or any other adult for protection. We did not stop them.
Whenever they asked for help, we gave, when they needed.
They lived with dogs with their fear, we did not ask them to be fearless or be normal with dogs. We let them stay with their fear. At the same time we also did not protect them from dogs or pushed dogs to be friendly with them. Both stayed the way they were. Dogs continued to play, they continued to work on their fear.
They lived with dogs – they observed them, they watched other people fearlessly playing with dogs, they also observed dog’s behaviour and responses – soon they started taking part in giving food to dogs, touch them, play with them (with someone else’s protection).
They have been living with each other for past three months – kids are not same as they were in the beginning, dogs continued to be same. Kids have pulled themselves out of their comfort zone, accepted their fear and put in efforts to understand it, pushed themselves to understand dogs and now their relationship is amazing.
They lived in harmony ever after !