She loves to jump in front of the dogs and scare them, yell at them and otherwise torment them...she's old enough to know better but still won't stop. I scream at her and send her to her room but nothing. HELP ME before I hit her.
2007-01-15 07:08:21 · 11 answers · asked by shaede_2000 2 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Parenting
lols. I know i shouldn't be laughing but the last thing you should EVER do is send her to her room. Her room is her land, and she controls what she does in there. Thats where she has her most fun. Send her to do chores or labor around the house, and that might change her.
Or you could try talking to her and make shure she knows how it feels. Make her feel empathetic for a while.
2007-01-15 07:15:36 · answer #1 · answered by ViVo (: 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
How old is "old enough to know better?" It sounds like you need to keep your pets away from your daughter. If you have a yard, put the animals outside. If you don't, put them in a room where she is not allowed. Tell her that she is not allowed to play with the animals until she learns how to be nice to them. Make sure you model good pet play when she can see you. Little by little, start introducing the pets back into the rooms where you and your daughter are and monitor her behavior. If she continues to torment them, put her in an immediate time out where she can observe you petting and playing with the animals. When her time out is over, ask her if she wants to play nicely with the dogs. If she resorts to her old behavior, back in time out she goes! Most kids will learn pretty quickly not to repeat their bad behavior (especially if she can SEE you interacting with the animals while she is stuck in a chair, doing nothing).
Keep an eye out for more serious torment of the animals, like torture. Many serial killers started out by torturing small animals. It gives the person a sense of power and is a very frightening and real beginning to sociopathy or psychosis. Though I'm sure this doesn't apply to your little girl. :)
2007-01-15 07:22:37 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had a niece that did that kind of thing. Every time she did that her Mom would scream at her and tell her no, but she did not do anything, however if the poor animal reacted she would go ballistic towards the animal. My niece would just smirk. One day she was playing outside of her yard and she wandered into a yard with a large dog/ chow, and they dog attacked her and literally tried to rip her throat out, it shook her and left her for dead. A neighbor boy say it happen and his parents came out and separated the dog from her. She went to the ER, and thank goodness all that she had was a huge scar on her neck and blood loss, she was very lucky. You don't say how old your daughter is, my niece was 7. I would teach your daughter to respect all animals, if she is abusing animals you need to get her to a counselor to find out why. I don't advocate hitting a child, but I do advocate a swat for threatening situations to get their attention.
2007-01-15 07:22:16 · answer #3 · answered by mischa 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Seriously, there is a psychological/emotional reason your daughter feels the need to "bully" and torment animals. She is obviously feeling powerless in some situation and gains it back through the intimidation of things smaller than her. You mentioned that you "scream" at her... and you want help before you "hit" her...perhaps you are the one making her feel powerless. She knows she can't show her aggression TOWARDS you, so she resorts to showing it towards something that she is not threatened by.
For the safety of all involved...get some family counseling. Your daughter is in danger in more ways than one.
2007-01-15 08:09:04 · answer #4 · answered by LolaCorolla 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Tell her calmly that she is hurting/upsetting the animals and explain to her that one day, the dogs might get angry and bite her-
and it would be her fault...
How would she like it if the dogs randomly jumped out of nowhere and started chasing her, barking at her, or scratching and biting her because that is the dog equivalent of what she is doing to them..
(If youre religious then explain to her that God sees what she is doing and doesnt like how she is treating His creatures, He loves them too...)
Ask her if she has a reason for tormenting the dogs,
In the mean time, you could tell her that for every time she does something mean to them, she has to do another chore such as feeding them or walking them or cleaning up after them...
or you could reward her every time she catches herself wanting to mistreat them...
I hope that helps, thats what I would do
2007-01-15 07:26:51 · answer #5 · answered by KMart 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
She may understand she is not supposed to...but my bet is she doesn't fully understand why. No worries, empathy skills are developed not inborn. This is a good opportunity for you to teach her a little about animals and how they have feelings just like we do. Show her how to make the dog happy, i.e. give him treats, pet him gently, etc and praise her and encourage her when she does. Whenever she gets rough, tell her 'be gentle or go to your room' and then remind her that dogs don't like to be scared or hurt just like her. Good luck!
2007-01-15 07:49:14 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
You should maybe see if you can leave your dogs with someone for awhile. Until you daughter can uderstand that dogs are not playthings. Because one of these day she is gonna catch them on a bad day and get bitten.
2007-01-15 08:33:01 · answer #7 · answered by nobody 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Teach your daughter that dogs are a lot nicer if you let it sniff her hand first. Then you can do a lot more fun things with it, like pet it, and play ball. What kid wouldn't want to play ball with a dog?
2007-01-15 09:26:27 · answer #8 · answered by Kilroy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They say tormenting animals is a sign of psychosis. Maybe you should get her checked out.
2007-01-15 10:08:45 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Ask her why she's doing it, and ask her how she would like someone to treat her that way.
Plus what if the dogs strike back at her?
2007-01-15 07:17:22 · answer #10 · answered by Michel C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋