I know we have some dog lovers here so would love some insight and suggestions.
Our kids aren't around dogs much. We don't have one and none of our good friends do. In late May, we were invited to dinner at our nanny's house. She has two dogs, a Boston and a yellow lab (normal sizes so 30 and 85-90 lbs). When we arrived, the dogs were really excited to see the kids and sprinted over and jumped up on them. Both kids but especially D lost her mind. She's a dramatic child anyway but she was shrieking. To be totally honest though, I don't blame her. When you're 38 inches tall and an 85 lb dog knocks you over, that is scary. The dogs are around our nanny's daughter all the time so I know they're safe and I didn't realize they'd jump so I didn't even prepare the kids. So I have no idea if that was the beginning of the fear of dogs or not but it's become a problem.
Last night, we were invited to dinner at DH's fellowship directors house (our children were explicitly invited so we felt fine to bring them). They had two Frenchie bulldogs who aren't used to kids. Of course they scampered over excited and licking and we had a repeat of the shrieking despite our trying to prep the kids before. They briefly put the dogs outside but then let them in which is understandable because it was really, really hot. However, this caused a problem because the dogs were interested in the kids and though the girls warmed to them through the night R was terrified. I only put him down once because he started walking and when the dog came around the corner and starting to approach and lick him, R hit the deck laying on the ground and screaming clearly terrified. The dog hadn't touched him but he was terrified. He was literally screaming and shrieking louder than I've ever heard her.
The dinner was awful. I couldn't put R down the entire time and he's 15 months old, all he wants to do is run and walk. I was trying to manage the girls and having to get them everything because they wouldn't get off the couch and hold R. DH tried to help but obviously he was mostly engaged in conversation with fellowship director. The girls were well behaved and occupied with their crafts but it was miserable holding R.
We aren't dog people but I kept thinking how much more enjoyable the dinner would have been if they'd separated the dogs to another room or area. But then I don't know if that's unreasonable to ask someone to do to their dogs. I just felt like all the adults (but mostly me) were managing the situation ALL night.
So, questions:
1. What is reasonable in this situation for me to do? Should I decline invitations to the homes of dog owners who will have their dogs around during the activity?
2. Is there anything I can do to better prep the kids? If the dogs ignored them, it wouldn't be a problem but dogs usually want to greet and sniff people. I don't really have time or ability to continuously expose my kids to dogs to reduce this fear but we are working on it...
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Our kids aren't around dogs much. We don't have one and none of our good friends do. In late May, we were invited to dinner at our nanny's house. She has two dogs, a Boston and a yellow lab (normal sizes so 30 and 85-90 lbs). When we arrived, the dogs were really excited to see the kids and sprinted over and jumped up on them. Both kids but especially D lost her mind. She's a dramatic child anyway but she was shrieking. To be totally honest though, I don't blame her. When you're 38 inches tall and an 85 lb dog knocks you over, that is scary. The dogs are around our nanny's daughter all the time so I know they're safe and I didn't realize they'd jump so I didn't even prepare the kids. So I have no idea if that was the beginning of the fear of dogs or not but it's become a problem.
Last night, we were invited to dinner at DH's fellowship directors house (our children were explicitly invited so we felt fine to bring them). They had two Frenchie bulldogs who aren't used to kids. Of course they scampered over excited and licking and we had a repeat of the shrieking despite our trying to prep the kids before. They briefly put the dogs outside but then let them in which is understandable because it was really, really hot. However, this caused a problem because the dogs were interested in the kids and though the girls warmed to them through the night R was terrified. I only put him down once because he started walking and when the dog came around the corner and starting to approach and lick him, R hit the deck laying on the ground and screaming clearly terrified. The dog hadn't touched him but he was terrified. He was literally screaming and shrieking louder than I've ever heard her.
The dinner was awful. I couldn't put R down the entire time and he's 15 months old, all he wants to do is run and walk. I was trying to manage the girls and having to get them everything because they wouldn't get off the couch and hold R. DH tried to help but obviously he was mostly engaged in conversation with fellowship director. The girls were well behaved and occupied with their crafts but it was miserable holding R.
We aren't dog people but I kept thinking how much more enjoyable the dinner would have been if they'd separated the dogs to another room or area. But then I don't know if that's unreasonable to ask someone to do to their dogs. I just felt like all the adults (but mostly me) were managing the situation ALL night.
So, questions:
1. What is reasonable in this situation for me to do? Should I decline invitations to the homes of dog owners who will have their dogs around during the activity?
2. Is there anything I can do to better prep the kids? If the dogs ignored them, it wouldn't be a problem but dogs usually want to greet and sniff people. I don't really have time or ability to continuously expose my kids to dogs to reduce this fear but we are working on it...
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Comment