Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

Does your kid terrorize the crap out of your pet?

Christopher thinks it is a game to chase Maggie and kick her and hit her and that is really funny. It is so not like him, he is normally such an easy going kid, but he is really agressive with her.

We are trying time outs (which usually work very well) but it doesn't seem to help.

Any other suggestions? I know its just a phase, but it sucks for my poor pup

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

OMG Matty totally terrorizes our dog Petey!!! He jumps on her back and rides her like a horse! He throws huge Hess trucks at the poor dog! Ds pulls her ears too!! Last week he threw a whole bowl of Pork Lo Mein on her back!
I don't know how much more Petey can take!!

We need help too!!!!!

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

thankfully (so far) josh is great with our cat and dog. we just give him a reminder to be gentle when he starts playing with them. can you seperate them and tell him that he if he can't play nice then no dog?

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

Jack is really pretty gentle with Abby for the most part. When he gets mad at us though he will try and hit her - which makes me even more mad!

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

DS doesnt bother the pets at all... well on occasion he torment the cat, but nothing to the extreeme of hurting the cat.

DS also IGNORES the dog totally

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

Yes- Mads tortures poor Luna- usually just chasing her. We have to keep an eagle eye on her (Mads) to make sure she doesn't hit or pull Luna's ears or tail. There are 2 things that send Mads to time-out: pulling Luna's ears or tail, and hitting (us or the dog).

I find that after 2 times in the corner, she'll usually lay off for awhile.

What is so funny is that my aunt and uncle's dogs LOOOOOVE kids and they couldn't get enough of licking Maddie's face and following her around- so of course she wanted NOTHING to do with them!!!!

I need to teach Luna to be more pushy met thinks.

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

DD has a fish....no she doesnt terrorize him hahahaha

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

Mikayla is really great with sandy

I would keep reinforcing to your son that it is not okay to be rough with the dog, keep doing those time outs

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

We have two cats and Lily.
One cat is too fast for Lily and really skittish, so she is usually safe. The other cat is lazy...and has a mean streak, so I'm terrified of what *could* happen.
Just today, Lily thought it would be funny to squeeze her face and I freaked. Luckily, she mostly hugs and pets her nicely.
I have no idea what to do to stop it. Thankfully, cats are really quick.

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

For as much as I always say that Matthew can be a bull in a china shop, I have to say that with our cats he is so gentle...it's really sweet. He hasn't ever attempted to chase them around.

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

We started really early with "gentle hands" on Brodie.

He's pretty good.

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

No, he does not even pay attention to them. He just push them away when they are on his way. He used to pet them but that was rare. We taught from very early on that he had to be gentle with them.

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

DS is only 16 months but I see the terroizing beginning!

He is constantly pulling her tail, which he thinks is funny of course. Lucy just runs but the minute DS catches up with her he grabs her tail again! He will do this for an hour if we let him!

Lately he has also shown an interest in her ears so we are really trying to reprimand him for his less than gentle ways but its hard sometimes because he is so young still! Maybe its a christopher thing!!!!



ETA: But to be fair Lucy has a way of annoying Chris when he just wants to be left alone too! And I truly think Lucy is more patient with him because he is constantly feeding her!!

Message edited 5/12/2009 9:59:06 PM.

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

Noah is curious about the cat, and he will ocassionally give him a stroke, but to be honest, no, he doesn't terrorize the cat. He likes to watch him, and maybe touch his tail, but they leave each other alone for the most part. He would get a big fat scratch if he did terrorize the poor cat!

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

It was closer to 2 when DD started to do this, now at 3--she sits and colors with our dog She realizes now our dog is part of the family and we treat her nice....but it wasn't always the case

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

Kaila never really got crazy with our dog.. if she ever did it was just running around with him and she never hit him. Our cat she is good with too, unless her little friend comes over who likes to terrorize my cat then she joins in but Im trying to stop that lol.

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

YES!! But she isn't meaning to scare them - she chases our cats around the house and hugs them, puts her head on their side, sits down with them and shouts - tail then touches their tails, paws etc. etc. Or shouts Cat Nice, Cat soft, etc. Unfortunately as you can imagine they DON"T like being shouted at or grabbed at even if she is pretty gentle. For now I'm trying to just keep them separated - where they stay in different rooms from her until I can either figure something out of she stops shouting and chasing them.

Etd to add she has never swatted, hit or kicked them - she just likes to touch, shout, chase and hug them.

Message edited 5/13/2009 9:32:36 AM.

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

DS is great with our cat. He loves to kiss and pat the cat who is more patient than I ever realized My parents have an elderly golden retriever that he also loves to pat and feed biscuits to. It helps that both pets are calm and OK with a toddler.

We worked on the word gentle as soon as he noticed the pets and I demonstrated how to pat in the right direction.

So far so good!

Re: Mommies who have a toddler and a pet

Posted by OneOfEach

It was closer to 2 when DD started to do this, now at 3--she sits and colors with our dog She realizes now our dog is part of the family and we treat her nice....but it wasn't always the case