I am in the same situation and I absolutely HATE having to put my dogs away in their own house! My niece's son is 5 now and you'd figure by now he'd not be so horrible acting . . .WRONG! Last year I tried gating them in the hallway, but they really hated that and my niece's son would purposely tease them to make them riled up . . .it was extremely stressful when nobody besides myself was telling him to knock it off.
The year prior to that, the dogs were with all of us and Brody disliked the little boy and was barking at him and every time I tried to tell him just to sit down and let Brody smell him and to pet him nice, he'd stamp his feet and scream and run from Brody just to aggravate him, Brody started to go after him and this little boy at age 3 mind you swung back his leg and was going to literally kick Brody . . .I screamed NOOOOO and picked Brody up . . I mean, really?
So, this year, they are going upstairs in my daughter's old room with the door closed so they won't be teased. They are going to hate it, but unfortunately I cannot tell my niece he's not invited (oh how I wish I could)! I don't think there is any hope for that kid if he cannot control himself in other people's homes . . .the problem is he was never told NO.
I get myself so aggravated about Christmas Eve every year and I just want it to be a night where we can all have a good time and enjoy each other as a family . . .
