Behaviorism

BEHAVIORISM Institute: Behaviorism In this case, the unconditional stimulus is the dog, which terrifies the lady. Her fiancée is the conditional stimulus because he would not part with the dog and hence invoking the fear when she sees him. The fear of the dog is the unconditional response while the conditional response is the fear brought about by knowing the presence of the dog on seeing the fiancée.
Her fear must most likely have been caused by a rough encounter with a dog when she was a child. The childhood experience of being attacked by a dog or the sight of seeing another party being attacked by a dog makes one develop a high phobia of all types of dogs and the phobia goes with one into adulthood.
The client has to overcome this fear if she truly wants to get married to this man since the dog seems to be so precious to him that he cannot get rid of, no matter what. The fear can be overcome by possessing or frequently looking at pictures of cute dogs that look harmless so as to develop a positive attitude towards dogs. She should then regularly keep physical contact with the dog so that she may learn that no harm would come unto her. If the dog is threatening and not friendly, then she should familiarize herself with a more friendly one in little bits of time until she feels less afraid. This way, she will come to learn that not all dogs are fierce and they do not have to bite, and she will start getting used to dogs.
References
Kozlowski W. J. (2012). Journal of Applied psychology. Vol. 97