I need to develop skills to anticipate and react to her calmly. Right now, it's like I'm pretending to be the alpha dog facing down a mastiff .
That is one scary proposition for sure, but there are other ways of looking at this. I start off by making sure that I am alive, and asking 'Am I breathing? How do I know?' I can feel the air coming in, cool and fresh, and leaving again feeling warm as it passes. My diaphragm moves up and down with each inhale and exhale. Then I take a look at this mastiff, bring it over into the light and look at it very carefully. I walk all the way around it, and stop to stare at its butt (makes it as nervous as heck, it gets all self-conscious and worries that there is some paper stuck there or something).
The more I look at it, the smaller it gets until it turns into this yappy little JR terrier that jumps when I say BOO, and then runs away and hides. Now that breathing gets deeper and more regular and I watch that miserable mutt disappear, leaving me in calm control once again.
I'm definitely nowhere near as informed as the guys on this thread, but...
That MrsKing is good, very good.
I'll send the beast scurrying back to its cage in the time it takes 2granddaughters to say "AA."
Ok, that's just funny right there.