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20 Posts
Hi everyone,
I apologise for this mini-rant but darnit! people need to train their children better. I am so tired of it being put all on the dog to behave - it is always the dogs fault! it is never the childs fault.
I see it really often in two areas!
One: Out in public, I really really hate it when a little kid runs up to pet my dog without asking. We were taught in Kindergarten that you ask before you pet someones dog, that you never approach a strange dog without asking. That doesn't seem to be the common practice anymore! That and petting a dog wrong, I have two kids and it was not at all hard to teach them to pet under the dogs chin or along the dogs side. Mine never pet over the top of the head.
Second: Someone buying a puppy or adopting a dog and then giving the animal up because it is "child aggressive". Now in some cases this is valid! in others though - it is just that the owner didn't train their kids and expected the dog to act like a stuffed toy and put up with any abusive nonsense their precious baby wanted to dish out.
Now we have two small children, and we have an adopted Afghan hound that isn't really good with children all of the time. We make it work though! we use a crate when we have to and the children have been taught to back off and respect his space when he has had enough.
Does he growl at them? Yes - he'll give several warning growls before he air snaps. Do I correct him for growling? No - he is giving them a warning, a warning is a good thing. Do I ever leave them alone with him? Nope - never. If I have to leave the room he gets crated! but we manage to co-exist with a lot of work and a lot of drilling canine manners into the stubborn heads of two small female people.
I'm sorry - I don't mean to say that all dogs that show aggression towards children should be in situations where they have to interact with them - it's just a lot of the problems could be solved if people stopped automatically blaming the dog for everything and started to train their children better.
Bea & CO.
I apologise for this mini-rant but darnit! people need to train their children better. I am so tired of it being put all on the dog to behave - it is always the dogs fault! it is never the childs fault.
I see it really often in two areas!
One: Out in public, I really really hate it when a little kid runs up to pet my dog without asking. We were taught in Kindergarten that you ask before you pet someones dog, that you never approach a strange dog without asking. That doesn't seem to be the common practice anymore! That and petting a dog wrong, I have two kids and it was not at all hard to teach them to pet under the dogs chin or along the dogs side. Mine never pet over the top of the head.
Second: Someone buying a puppy or adopting a dog and then giving the animal up because it is "child aggressive". Now in some cases this is valid! in others though - it is just that the owner didn't train their kids and expected the dog to act like a stuffed toy and put up with any abusive nonsense their precious baby wanted to dish out.
Now we have two small children, and we have an adopted Afghan hound that isn't really good with children all of the time. We make it work though! we use a crate when we have to and the children have been taught to back off and respect his space when he has had enough.
Does he growl at them? Yes - he'll give several warning growls before he air snaps. Do I correct him for growling? No - he is giving them a warning, a warning is a good thing. Do I ever leave them alone with him? Nope - never. If I have to leave the room he gets crated! but we manage to co-exist with a lot of work and a lot of drilling canine manners into the stubborn heads of two small female people.
I'm sorry - I don't mean to say that all dogs that show aggression towards children should be in situations where they have to interact with them - it's just a lot of the problems could be solved if people stopped automatically blaming the dog for everything and started to train their children better.
Bea & CO.