That doesn't seem a fair description. No, that's not it either. Yet these three categories of explanation seem to exhaust the rationalist's repertoire for explaining why religious people claim to believe in entities that are not objectively present. The two worlds are different, but they are not mutually exclusive. I also think that she is learning things in the world of imagination that she cannot learn in the world of fact.
Doggies exist in the outside world of fact.
Doggie-anxiety exists within. That is where we must encounter it if we want to know it and control it. It is therapeutic. Its effectiveness is enhanced by performing it with others. Although actual religions do a great many different things, one of the things they clearly do is to use ritual to facilitate the mapping of one's subjective inner space.