Daughter Won't Stop Bothering Dog

I read the other responses and agree that you should put your daughter in timeout when she does this behavior, but I would like to add one more little thing. I know as a mom I have used the word "NO" a million and one times, and the kids get tired of hearing it just as I get tired of saying it. I learned to start saying "WRONG" in the deepest, most assertive voice I could muster up when my kids are doing something that could hurt each other or an animal. Then I would put them directly in a timeout for the appropriate time for their age. The word "WRONG" really gets their attention. Remember, one of our jobs as moms is to teach our children RIGHT from WRONG. When you see her playing nice with the dog, or any animal, praise her big time. She eventually get get the idea that it is right to be nice and wrong to me mean.

On top of the other advice, though I am sure that you are familiar with time outs, something to consider is that your daughter is probably trying to just get attention. If you ignore her for a day with the behavior she might give it up. She may just be a type of toddler who has to learn the "hard way". Good Luck.

We have 2 miniature dachshunds and our DS2 sometimes gets a little rough with the male dog. Probably because he's the bigger dog and much more mellow (long-hair). However there comes a point at which he's had enough and he'll start growling and DS will usually back off. We scold him for improper play or teasing the dog but he a couple of times that the dog bit him. Not hard mind you, just a BARK! and head butt to move him away but DS wound up with a scrape on his arm. No harm, he was more freaked out by the loud barking than anything else.

So, DS got a timeout for being bad and the dog got a timeout in his kennel (with a treat) so he could cool off. They avoided each other for the rest of the day but were back to being fast friends the next day.

Here are a couple of articles from a reputable veterinary website:
http://www.petplace.com/article-printer-friendly.aspx?id=...
http://www.petplace.com/article-printer-friendly.aspx?id=...

You may surf around this website and find some other pertinent information as well. It was the cats in my house that were terrorized. For myself, warnings that if not followed were threatened by spanking. I reserve spanking for times where safety is of utmost concern and this qualified for me---cat bites are no laughing matter.

Another thing is that perhaps your dog and daughter should be separated unless you are there for every second of their interaction and keep them separated during the other times---perhaps for a couple of weeks. Your daughter doesn't show the level of maturity to be trusted otherwise at this point but it's amazing what a few weeks can do.

Best wishes.

Have you tried giving her a time-out when she does this to your dog? I have a 2 year old daughter so I know time-outs aren't so simply done, but I do it anyway and she has gotten the picture (she was the same way with our dog...and so were our other two children!) The time-outs along with showing her/them how to pet the dog the right way helped a lot...and then they all just grew out of it.

I don't have a dog, but I do have a 2 year old. I think your daughter knows the correct way to pet the dog, since she was doing it before and you've shown her repeatedly. I think that every time she hits the dog, they should be separated. The dog should go to another room, or its crate, or outside, or your daughter should go to another room or her highchair or booster seat at the table. It doesn't have to be for long (5-10 minutes). She'll be upset that the dog (or she) is going somewhere else. Tell her she can't play with the dog unless she can be gentle. Do this every time she hits the dog, as soon as she does. No second chances. She'll get the idea. (And yes, it's a lot of work and might not seem fair to separate them, but it's a lot less fair and a lot more work if your daughter gets bitten.) This works best if you stay calm.

And when everybody is calm, sit down with your daughter and the dog and model gentle, appropriate petting of the dog and how to play appropriately. If she has toy dogs or other toy animals, you can talk about petting them gently, too.

Time to put her in time out. She cannot hit a pet or a kid or anyone for that matter and think it is funny. Not only can the perfect family dog be sick of it and bite, it will just add problems for her when she is around other kids too. I would pick her up, put her away from the dog and say very sternly "NO HITTING, BE NICE" and put her in the corner for two minutes, period. Time she figures it out and it is not okay. Both of my kids went through a phase of curiosity with all our pets, with my daughter it came to a halt when my cat scratched her after her tail got pulled, that was a lesson for my daughter to be gentle, and my son just kind of was rough but not mean to our pets then learned to be nice. I would keep your dog in another room from your daughter, it isn't fair to the dog to have a 2 year old aggrevating them and they do have breaking points. Time for time outs for sure.