So we bought our son a dog, thinking it would be a great way to teach him some responsibility. But now, instead of caring for it, he’s treating it like one of his stuffed animals. He’ll try to pick the dog up all the time and even toss it onto the couch like it’s just a plush toy! I keep telling him that the dog has feelings and isn’t something to play rough with, but it’s not clicking.
Has anyone else dealt with this? Any fun ideas to help him understand that his new four-legged friend isn’t a toy but a real living being?
We had the same problem when we got our dog! What helped was creating a little “dog care chart.” My kid got to check off things like feeding, walking, brushing. It made him feel like he was in charge of taking care of the dog, not just playing with it. Maybe something like that could help him shift his mindset from playmate to caretaker?
We got a puppy for our daughter, and she treated it like her favorite teddy at first. What finally worked was taking her to a local shelter and showing her how the dogs behaved differently from toys, that they have feelings and need gentle care. Maybe a trip to a place like that could help.
We went through this with my youngest. I taught her “dog body language” so she could start to understand when our dog was feeling happy scared or overwhelmed she thought it was so cool to learn what the dog was trying to “say” without talking! It made her more aware of how to treat the dog kindly Plus it became like a secret language they shared ��.
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We did role play with stuffed animals! I’d pretend to be the dog and acted out how it might feel when someone plays too rough It was a fun way to get the message acros without it feeling like a lecture after that my son started handling our dog a lot more gently.