I always whenever possible try to make a childs interaction with my dogs a positive learning experience. I guess it really depends on the age of the child. I had a little boy about 2 years old at the ball field a few weeks ago come up to pet Zoe. He was petting her very nicely and you could see it was a positive experience for both until the grandmother says to the kids teenage uncle up at bat "Wack it! Wack it! Well, the 2 year old thought she meant him and he wacked Zoe on the head, I said oh, no no and I scooped her up. In that circumstance, it was really just an accident, the boy didn't know better. So I guess it really depends on the intention. Sometimes little kids are uncoordinated and don't actually mean to hurt the dog. As much as possible, I would be gentle with the child and calmly call him back and explain that he really hurt her and how important it is to be gentle because she really likes him and wants to be his friends.... etc.... of course, if the kid is older and knows better and meant to hurt her then that is a totally different story and I would tell the parent and make sure they handled it.... |