Hi all..I'm wondering if anyone has any idea's on how to stop my 4.5 yr old son punching our dog. This is how he plays most of the time, by boxing things..usually the air but often people or our dog. I have tried everything I can think of to get him to stop but he just goes straight back to doing it...at my wits end
2 Replies
Unfortunately you need to remove your dog from this situation. The dog will eventually attempt to defend itself. Also make sure your son isn't watching shows with fighting. We went through this with my nephew and soon as he was stopped from watching shows like Ben10 etc he stopped play fighting. Also there should be a clear NO play fighting rule so nobody can play fight. Make sure he has lots of structured ways to get rid of his energy, jumping on a trampoline, swimming etc and keep that dog away until your son has stopped the punching then allow him very supervised access.
My son used to do this as well also hitting me, I just got really tough with him and every time he showed any sort of aggression I put him in time out or he lost something he cared about. I even used the word bully once when he hit our dog and being in kindy and learning about bullying that really got through to him and the behaviour stopped. My dog did once bite him to defend herself and when he came running to me crying , I checked him over and once I saw no real damage I sent him to his room as he had hurt her first.