Alison Curtis: Poppy the puppy plays her part in helping Joan with her fear of dogs

We had the perfect storm of a very large dog who was also full of energy and very curious about the little girl who wouldn’t pet her

I have written a few times in this column about my daughter Joan’s fear of dogs. I can’t quite pinpoint when it began but it is something that has been with her for as long as I can remember.

There have also been dozens of times we are walking about on a beach or in a park and a pretty innocent-looking dog comes up to greet us and Joan gets so noticeably agitated that the owners apologises so deeply I find myself getting embarrassed.