Mishandling the pets

[Iansmama]

We are having an ongoing issue with our 2 younger and the dogs. They pester. The dogs tolerate it, but it is not acceptable behaviour. They pull, lay on, and are generally to rough. Camren is the worst...its an issue at least once per day.

When the infraction happens we separate and we have discussed until our faces are blue. It's over and over and over and it infuriates me.

Any advice?

[itzj]

I would keep them apart as much as possible until your the littles are capable of following through. When DD is too rough with our cats I also ask her to do something to make up for mistreating them. Sometimes she gets them treats, sometimes she plays string with them, brushes them and while they don't care, sometimes she draws an I'm sorry card. I guess it's a little easier with cats though because after a certain point they enforce it with claws. :shifty

[mystweaver]

Do your dogs have a safe, child-free escape? My dog would tolerate insane amounts of nonsense and rough play from toddlers (including pulling up on her face and using her as a walker) with a whole lot of patience, but when she was done, she left and hid for a while. She got to enforce her own boundaries. :yes

[klpmommy]

I second making sure the dogs have safe places to escape to.

Also, spend some time teaching the littles how to play with the dogs.

[Aisling]

We take animal treatment pretty seriously...I re-homed a kitten when dd2 was 2.5, because she was over-loving the poor things. :doh

We script a LOT, and make sure the cats have somewhere to escape to. We treat it as seriously as hitting a sibling, actually; you hit, you sit. If you continue to do it, I'll move them to another room. For olders, they can go into another room and do a calming activity, for my little, I involve her in something right beside me to redirect.

The nice thing about cats is, if you're too rough in your loving, they'll let you know *very* quickly. :shifty It usually only takes one or two "hey, knock that off" swipes for them to learn. :shifty

[Joanne]

There is a thread on this (http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com/community/showthread.php?t=115191)in the FAQ.

[SnowWhite]

We treat it as seriously as hitting a sibling

We do, too. I actually make my kids apologize to the dogs too. :giggle For the practice more than anything else.

[Iansmama]

We are handling it that way too...we remove, apologize, and discuss. Its just getting frustrating that it continues. At 5, shouldn't he be getting it by now? I expect it from a 2-3 year old. Today I told him he couldn't be in the same room as the dogs unless I was in it to supervise him, because he flopped onto Lizzie and she clearly didn't like it.

[JuicyMoosey]

Same here. Exact same issues.

When she gets angry she has a tendency to hit/kick whoever is nearest, so I try to make sure kitten and baby are away from any tantruming, although it isn't always possible to prioritise moving the kitten...happily she is fast enough to avoid most things, but I am sorry to say that one thing I cannot abide is cruelty to animals, and it makes me lose my temper and yell every time. Obviously in the cold light of day I can rationalise: I know she is not exhibiting animal cruelty, she is just four, and unable to control herself when angry, but in the moment it just gets me :(

[Aisling]

I've found 5 to be remarkably impulse driven and silly, actually. Maybe even more so than 4! Mischievous!! That's the word. :giggle When I don't keep my 5yos busy, they find things to do, including pestering the heck out of their siblings and anything else that moves. :doh

Could you or dh wrestle with him for 20-30 minutes every day? :think How much big muscle movement is he getting? I've found that if they have activity where their muscles are met with a lot of resistance, it lets go of a lot of that "wily" tension.

With my 6.5yo, I actually had her pick out and memorize a quote by a famous person (she picked the Ghandi one) about kindness to animals, and she created a collage about it with magazine pics of her favorite animals and her own pets. That was really meaningful to her, and stuck with her for a long time. :heart