Hitting!
How are we dealing with the hitting phase? My son does it and laughs while he's doing it, it's obviously clear he's just thinking it's a game. But we have a small dog and we constantly have to remove the dog from the room as our son wants to wallop him. He was throwing toys and targeting our dog today and I had to take his toys off of him and give him a stern no. But he obviously doesn't understand to a certain point that what he's doing is wrong, he doesn't understand right from wrong as he's too young.
I've no idea how to combat this 😅
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Whenever she hits me or my partner we just say "delicately" and show what we mean, she then usually strokes us instead. When she wants to pull plants, we then show what to do with them instead so sniff them or also stroke and she then copies. If we had pet, would just do the same. I think saying stern NO as I see being suggested often in similar situations can be funny for a child, hence thinking it's a game.
My 15 month old is in the fury stage, I just flat out ignore it and over praise kindness. My second daughter was really aggressive when she was little, she slapped, bit, kicked, pinched, and the only thing that worked was just entirely ignoring it and it stopped really quickly. Now she’s the most affectionate out of all of mine 🤣
Just to add though … I totally get that with a pet you can’t always do that, and there’s the risk of understandable retaliation from an animal, on top of making sure you’re clearly advocating for your dog too. Sounds a bit odd but honestly I think there might be some advice out there from dog trainers? Southend dog training on instagram gives some really good tips on loads of things not just specifically training your dog x
Mine went through a phase of hitting and scratching us including her granny (who just laughed it off), we started saying “gently” and showing her on the person she hit by stroking their face (it’s awkward haha). I told mum to stop laughing and to say no and say gently and she’s almost completely stopped now. It worked with people, pets and even flowers and plants when we are in the garden, she’s a very gentle girl now and goes “ahhhhh” while stroking everything 😂 x
My daughter is going through the same thing and it’s gotten a lot better. Lots of reinforcement of “gentle hands” and trying not to make big reactions when they do (even though it’s sooooo triggering) and also teach to say I’m sorry after a “ouch” when we get hit. Now that she’s toned down on the hitting and impulsively slaps, she will softly stroke as a way to say “I’m sorry” right after. And when we say gentle, same thing. It takes lots of time but reinforcing good behavior, redirecting the bad worked for us 🫡 good luck
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