Bonjour, again!
Alright, so a lot of people... it's come to my attention, I didn't even know that this was the thing is: that parents are getting their dogs for their kids for their young kids like, whatever under 10, or any age as a stuffed animals... like in the replacement of a stuffed animal.
Now, hear me out. So the idea here is that, and maybe you're doing this, maybe you're just like, Oh, yeah, that's, that's what I did. It's not a good idea. Puppies never look at kids as the way they look at you, you act differently, you're taller, you're bigger and your energy is not erratic, your energy is not "Blahhh!" one minute and then crying the next and falling down and chasing them and puppies look at kids as other puppies, and so they don't take them seriously.
Puppies Look at Kids as Other Puppies
You want to be really careful how you discipline your puppy around your kids, because then your kids go around and are hollering at they hollering at the pub or whatever, however you're doing it, you know, don't rub their nose in it and all that stuff. And any form of discipline, I really try to, like, if I do need to raise my voice, if I am going to spray water, if I'm going to do some sort of negative reinforcement, I.. I... almost try to hide my kids from that, because they'll just repeat what we do. Right. And I The last thing I need is, you know, because a puppy is gonna grow exponentially, is you know, my four year old hollering are in the face or spraying, you know, grabbing something, and you know, they don't use the water bottle, they take a cup of coffee off the counter. And there's a lot of things that can go wrong.
Your Puppy is Not a Stuffed Animal for Your Child
So what I'm saying is, if your expectation for your puppy is to be like a stuffed animal for your child, it's a bad idea. Do it if you're going to do it, but it's a bad idea. This dimple, this one right here, five years old, but in the face. Right here. We had lasa apso. So I guess I should leave out the breeds. But anyway, I already said it. I went under, it's often worse with small dogs because they're intimidated. Although the dalmation wasn't that small, separate story. But I've been bitten multiple times as a child by family pets.
Raising Animals Transforms Your Child into an Empathetic Human
The dog was hiding under the furniture and I and I was like (annoying kid noises), "I'm coming in for you"... boom bit right in the chin. Having your child hold the animal and treat the animal like a stuffed animal... give them a stuffy, give them a stuffy Now there are a ton of studies with children (helping with) raising animals and it transforms your child into an empathetic human, which everybody wants. A human, an adult that is caring and loving and considerate.
Macarena?
But here's how that transformation happens is you give your child responsibility. You will walk the dog, you will feed the dog, you will clean up after the dog you will (etc)... with supervision. Now you're not going to do that with a four year old, right? The four year old can help train the puppy or the rescue dog by throwing food. By talking and asking and really you're in the background, you've already taught the dog to sit, you've already taught the dog to lay down. So you're giving the dog the visual commands of like, this means sit, this means lay down, this means Macarena, whatever, right?
The scary thing is leaving your child unattended or letting the dogs sleep in bed with your child is... you don't know what's going on at that point. And if you don't know what's going on, and you're just leaving it up to chance, there's a good chance that something could go horribly wrong.
Guide Your Child to Be Responsible, but You Will Do 95% of the Work
So, if you've got your dog for your child... expect to do (yourself) 95% of the work and just guide them (the child) through that process. They're not a stuffed animal.
This is a living being and maybe you decide in a short period time this isn't for us. We actually should have just got you know, some Beanie Babies or something. That's okay too. There's a lot of rescues and people out there that are looking for dogs, especially right now.
Especially always, but yeah. Know that your loved... I say this with love. We want to be respectful of the puppy or the rescue dog that they are their own creature and that they need personal space as well.
Okay, see in the next one. Bye, meow.
