[Jessghetti]

Okay so a few of my facebook friends, well two are mothers are young children and pets. On two separate occasions have either complained about their animal being nervous around a child and defensive or their child being cruel to an animal (swinging it around by it's tail, pulling on it, ect)

Now I understand babies and toddlers don't quite get how to behave around pets and animals don't always understand why this tiny human is being mean! But I feel as a pet owner and a mother, it is your responsibility to watch over both and protect both. Otherwise one or the other gets hurt.

Anyways these facebook friends complain and I merely say, 'You have to be careful - you need to keep an eye on both and keep both their best interests in mind. If your baby/toddler is too rough or doesn't behave well- then teach them.' Or at least they would have the common sense to put the animal up or away from the child.

But oh my god do they flip out! Like how dare I question their parenting. I am not trying to tell someone how to parent, just to use common sense. If you can't handle both a baby and a pet, don't have one or the other! It isn't fair for either if you are in a situation like that, as an avid animal lover I really hate to see people allow such things as a baby crawling all over a dog or a toddler carrying a cat around by the tail. I also believe in that if you get a pet, it's for the rest of it's life, not just a novelty to get when they are cute and little.


I plan on teaching my children the right way to interact with animals and at least taking the necessary steps to protect both my pets and child.


I feel it's very irresponsible and dangerous for both the child and animal. I also think if you don't want anyone to say anything about your child or pet - don't go complaining about it on facebook.



Anyways, sorry I just had to get that off my chest.

[TnPhotoMama81]

ITA with you. Ever since Ethan started interacting with any of the animals we had/have we always taught him he has to be gentle with them.

[kaylakay]

I agree.

My 2 year old nephew used to be really mean to his dog... Like step on his tail, grab his cheeks etc. My sister was going nuts! But just a few weeks of really keeping after him he's nice to animals and even pets them and says "gentle, gentle, gentle" while petting them cause that's what my sister said! Ha it's really cute. You just have to keep at it.

[.:Shortcake:.]

I agree! My sisters dog is terrible around kids and I keep telling her that she needs to find another home for the dog. Some dogs if they are not brought up around kids just cannot adjust to them. Now my older dog was abused before we got her. She doesn't deal well with screaming period whether it be from a baby/child/adult. We have contacted places about her and no one would ever take her. We will just keep them separated and hope that maybe once she is around a child enough she will get used to it or we will just keep them separated. Our small dog LOVES kids. We could not find him the one day when my friend was over with her 4 month old baby. We had the baby sleeping in the spare bedroom in his carseat on the bed. We walked back and the our puppy was laying on the baby's feet in the carseat just staring at the baby and wagging his tail. For whatever reason he loves kids and especially babies.

[Belita]

I agree. Parents need to teach their children how to behave. They aren't born knowing how to do these things.

[Pitridge]

I agree....
I have a 3 year old and an 11 year old pit bull mix, many people freak out when I mention she's a pit bull. Anyway, before we left for our year overseas, DS didn't interact much with the dog, while away he didn't have much interaction with other dogs. Now he's much older and loved to give hugs to the dog, now DS is a little beast and doesn't know how to be gentle when giving hugs. We watch him when he's with the dog, we watch him when he gives treats to the dog, when he feeds the dog. We teach him how to be gentle with dogs, Ds plays with horses as well, and we teach him how to be careful and gentle. Sine we got our dog we have been training her by pulling her tail and ears, those are the first things that kids will do to dogs. DS has pull her tail, but he we have explained to him that we don't do that to the dog. He's getting better at it.

[LindseyE117]

I also completely agree with you. We have 3 dogs--2 dachshunds and a pit bull--and we plan on working with them as soon as the baby gets here. When we got them though, our other kids were little and we spent tons of time training them and getting them used to being around kids. We also "trained" our kids on how to act with animals. Not once in the 6 years that we have had our animals have they ever growled, snapped, bitten, or anything similar at anyone, regardless of how kids react around them. This does not mean we watch them less, you just never want to risk anything, it just means we took the time to make sure that it would not happen. You correct the problem right away, you just don't complain about it.

[lindsey2000k]

I try really hard to get my daughter to be nice to the dog but I have turned my back a couple times to see her hit the dog. But OH BOY does she get in trouble when that happens. She gets sent out of the room for the rest of the day and is not allowed in the family room dog.
I had yorkie when she was little that acted weird as soon as I got pregnant he bit her at 6 months but I gave him another chance... 12 months he attacked her so I had no choice but to re home him.
I have been locked in my room all week because im nervous on how to introduce the baby to our puppy. She is 6 months old and jumps and is very hyper. I dont think she would try to hurt the baby but Im scared if I sit down she will jump on me and end up jumping on him and a 30 pound dog jumping on a 7 pound baby is not going to be a good thing.
I was planning on starting to go down there tonight since in 2 days I will have to be alone with the dog and Madison.