How to get rid of dogs' phobia?

My dog is afraid of lots of things. I can't go for a normal walk with him (I have a 1year old American bulldog). Once I was taking him for a walk and it started raining with thunder. He got really scared of thunder and from then he is afraid of any loud sounds. Each time I go out with him he starts dragging me back home. I just really want him to get rid of his phobias.

How do you react to these fears? Do you try to comfort him?

all dogs are scared of loud noise, didn't you know that?? to make your dog go for a walk you need to have your hand down to his collar,and start walking and do this back and forth until he start to walk the way you want him to.

My dog hates the thunder as well, but after I watched Ceaser Mullan (Dog Whisperer) it worked pretty well. When he starts to panick (its hard) but try just telling him "No" and don't cuddle him saying "It's ok" because then he might think its a reward for his actions

you give no attention to anxious behaviour that is not based in reality ... reality is a storm is just weather ... and NO, not all dogs are afraid of loud noises ... dogs who have been coddled are afraid of loud noises ... ignore, ignore, ignore ... if you are outside, keep walking like all is normal even if you have to drag the dog a bit to keep him moving (but i personally would not walk a fearful dog in a storm until the phobia is more under control) ... when he is anxious, ignore him, do not talk to him, do not say his name, do not say it is okay ... no comforting at all and go about your business like everything is normal because it is ... ignoring and acting like everything is normal will work for the majority of anxious dogs ... many owners see their dogs stressed and the first impulse is to comfort but that is not what the dog needs ... the dog needs to deal with his own anxiety or be a fraidy cat for the rest of its life ...

If your dog is afraid of so many things, it would be very helpful to get a dog trainer to help you with the problems. Very often the dogs phobia comes from errors the owner made, without noticing.Never comfort your dog when he is afraid, that amplifies his fear, because in the dogs mind, showing emotions is a sign of weakness. So imagine if you went out with your friend, and suddenly there is a really loud noise which really scares you and your friend is even more scared than you are, you would remember that fear everytime you hear a noise similar to the one you had heard. Sure, comparing your dog to a human is not a good example, because a dogs mind works differently.The dog can "read" what goes on inside you, he smells the chemical reactions that make your emotions, so when he gets panic because of the thunder, you get all excited about it, and he notices that, so he understands that it must be a REALLY terrible situation, and then you comfort him, you stroke him and tell him nice stuff, but that makes his panic much worse, because you, his pack leader, are showing him weakness. In these cases you have to stay really cool, breathe deeply and don't let the dogs fear affect you. You have to affect him with your calm state of mind, you have to send it to him. He will know that if you stay calm, it can't be so bad.I heard of a great dane that is afraid of flat surfaces (like parquet) because as a pup he slipped on the corridor and got hurt and a little bit shocked, you know, one of these shocks that go away after a moment, but his owner found him and got all excited and comforted him by taking the dog into her arms and stroking him and cuddling him. She made such a big thing out of nothing, that her dog got a phobia of flat surfaces for his entire life. As an adult, he would run away and hide everytime he would see flat ground, and as you can imagine, a shocked great dane running in all directions must not be so nice to walk with. So here's the motivation for you not to comfort your dog when he's scared, that will make it a little bit better. And then, if he can't even go for a walk, get a trainer. Trainers often have to handle dogs with phobias, so it will be easy to find out how to heal it.