| Hello, your suggestions are all right on, but I would hold off till the last, the one where you walk into her. She is fearful and trying to escape what she perceives as danger, and that's natural and intelligent. You need to show her she need not fear, always keeping in mind of course, some kids on dirt bikes and bicycles maybe DO need to be feared... ahem... What teaching you now do for her should be done with compassion and patience. Over-soothing her will buy right into her fears, but here's one little story I will tell you from my own life. I adopted a s/f chow/pitt mix many years ago, as a 2 year old from a shelter. One of her fears, oddly enough was a sort of large metal utility/phone/whatever, box in a nice park I enjoyed going to. It stood about 5' high, painted a dark green. There were probably valves or something inside. It just sat there, and she was terrified from the first minute she saw it. I wanted to continue using this park, so what I did was every day just sat at first, on a bench close enough that she could see it, but far enough that she was not overly threatened. She trembled, shook, almost convulsed in fear at first. I ignored her, told her she was okay a couple of times and then pretended to read my book. Soon when the trembling had lessened quite a bit, in a few days, we moved to a closer bench. Back to square one for a few days, then onward and upward to sitting on the grass closer and closer, until the time came, within about a week to 10 days, where she was able to totally ignore this frightful monster, and then I would walk her round it a few times, make sure I came and went past it, and very soon there wasn't even a side glance from either of us. Cars, yup, I would always take my puppies in busy areas, and if I could find a city bench, or some such, maybe museum steps or whatever, I made sure to sit there and always had a few treats along of course. They can adjust to so much in our life, especially when compassion and patience is used. Good luck with her. | 
