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We got our daughter she is 3.5 a puppy the other day and I just sat here and watched her pick it up by its neck and carry it around like that, then she sits down and starts flinging it back and forth by its leg! What can I do? I am afraid she is going to kill the poor thing. She does not do this to the older animals in the home even though she "spanks" them when they don't leave her alone. I don't want my daughter growing up thinking its ok to abuse animals.
Does she treat the puppy like a doll? Chances are she just doesn't understand that the puppy is a living being or that she is hurting him. the older animals probably don't get the treatment because they will not allow it. the puppy may not realize that being drug by the neck can hurt him if he were to move a different way. (puppies are like babies, pretty much made with rubber bones)
What type of puppy is this?
Maybe she should not be able to handle the puppy until they both get older.
You have to teach her how to handle and be gentle with a baby animal. She doesn't realize how fragile it is.
When my ds was about that age in pre-school, she and a couple of other kids accidentally killed the classroom guinea pig because they were throwing it in the air and trying to catch it and it fell to the floor. The teacher took full responsibility because she said she wasn't paying attention when it happened. My daughter said they were counting "1,2,3!" and throwing it in the air, the way we used to do her. I felt terrible and then really worried because my daughter was nonchalant about it. After much discussion, I realized that she just did not understand the finality of death. She kept saying "he's in a better place" because that's what the pre-school teacher told the kids.
Anyway, your daughter needs to be supervised and taught how to handle the puppy. Lots of shelters won't adopt puppies or kittens to households with kids under 4 for that very reason.
We got our daughter she is 3.5 a puppy the other day and I just sat here and watched her pick it up by its neck and carry it around like that, then she sits down and starts flinging it back and forth by its leg! What can I do? I am afraid she is going to kill the poor thing. She does not do this to the older animals in the home even though she "spanks" them when they don't leave her alone. I don't want my daughter growing up thinking its ok to abuse animals.
A 3.5 year old should have a basic understanding of living things versus inanimate objects.
You allow her to treat the puppy this way? Please give the puppy back to where it came from or you will end up with a very nasty and mean and scared dog.
A child as young as 18 months has the capacity to have empathy.
As the parent it is your duty to teach her this and you should not allow her to spank the older dogs either.
A child should be displined for treating an animal in such a matter. She needs to be taught that is not how animals or living creatures of the sort are to be treated.
And you sat there while she was doing this?? You allow her to abuse this puppy and "spank" the other animals?
I don't know how old she is but she is obviously old enough to know better if she is big enough to pick up an animal, walk around with it and then fling it back and forth.
Give the puppy to a family who will love it and care for it properly.
As for your daughter, she obviously needs some kind of psychological counseling. What she's doing is abuse and there is a reason she's doing it.
Sounds to me that the daughter does not have the problem. You the parents have the problem. Get off your butts and teach her how to treat and respect your pets. she doesn't do it to the other animals because they would probably bite her on the butt. I would be on her like brown on natural rice. You have to correct the action the nano second you see it occur just like with a new puppy. Shesh
My child is almost 3 and a half and from a very early age we have taught her to be gentle to animals and shown her how to approach dogs and where to pet them. And we don't even have any pets, but when she is around dogs, she's great with them. I just use positive reinforcement about the things she's learned.
I would be hesistant to get a puppy with a young child though because puppies have their own special needs and training. It might be very hard for your puppy and your DD. If you chose to keep the puppy, sign her up for obedience training and let your DD come too and make it a learning tool for her to see how to train a puppy. But you also need to establish rules with your DD. You could even tell her if she's not nice to the puppy, you will give the puppy to a new owner, or that she will have to sit in time-out, etc... something with consequences. But only after you sit down and show/teach her how to treat animals. You can't expect her to know on her own.
If she was already spanking the other dogs, why did you go -ahead and get another dog, and a puppy at that? Just curious if you think the spanking is ok? Not sure what your rationale was.
Because your DD needs to learn that spanking the dogs is not nice either.
I'm really not surprised by her behavior with the dogs if you haven't taught her how to handle them. That's the first step, with repetition.
And when one of these dogs bite her for spanking them or flinging them around by the neck, you'll have them put down probably? Perfect.
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