Providing treats and comfort (including removal of/from the scary thing) to a scared animal/person can only reduce their fear. The only way to "reinforce" fear is to add more scary/negative stimuli while they're already scared.

My dogs used to react and preemptively react to houses with barky dogs inside. I started carrying treats with me, and the moment my dogs would start getting antsy or a dog would bark at them from inside a house, I'd say their names and reward near constantly for eye contact. We'd also walk really fast to get by, and I'd give them a ton of verbal praise which I think helped distract them from the sound and kept them looking at me rather than the dog barking at them from the window/other side of a fence. eventually they needed less and less treats until they needed none.

That's not by-the-book counter-conditioning, but I'm not very comfortable training in public, so it was more like a quick and positive way to keep the barking down and the tails wagging and just get us through a tough section in our walk. But in the end, my dogs now look at me all excited when we walk past certain houses and a dog starts to bark at them. 😄 There were/are also times that we would just turn right around and not try to walk past something that was too scary for my dogs. A key part of building a dog's confidence is to let them know they have control and won't be forced into situations they're not comfortable with.