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For the love of Pets 🇬🇧

Toddler and pets

Hi there! We have an almost 2yr old and two pets - 3 yr old ginger cat and 10month old collie/spaniel mix. 98% of the time -toddler is great with the animals and they are with her. Puppy has been with her from day one and the cat is super chill and walks up to her to be stroked.

I’ve noticed that she goes a bit far and she has pinched and bit the dog randomly on her body. She sometimes tries to sit on the cat or pinches him while previously stroking gently. I never leave her alone with the pets and typically put myself between toddler and pet but LO switches so quickly- she’ll go from giving them a kiss/saying good girl to biting in seconds!

I interrupt immediately- sometimes I catch her just before she switches - I say no biting/no pinching firmly and quite gravely and move her away from the animal immediately and then after I explain we don’t do that to our pets etc.

Wondering if anyone has any experience in navigating this / any advice / resources - pls share!

Neither pet has ever reacted badly, no resource guarding etc and they do spend time together - it’s more about how to navigate this with LO