— So, you see — said the dog behaviorist once we described the situation. — If she’s terrified of cars but still goes on to bark at them and attack them, this means that she doesn’t know how to seek for help. Even when she’s overwhelmed with stress, she feels like she has no choice but to handle the threat by herself. She never had a human in her life who would take control and protect her in situations like this, and so she believes she’s on her own, and she’s dealing with it the best that she can.
Damn, I thought. We only adopted this dog 2 months ago, and she’s already so similar to me it’s quite uncanny.