Well said Mulan!!
What's Your View of Spanking (Children)?
by minimus 83 Replies latest jw friends
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JW83
I don't think there's much similarity between raising a child & owning a dog! I never ever would have dreamt of hitting my dog, but kids can be very frustrating & you can't just close the back door & ignore them! Plus kids are always top dog, that's the problem!!!
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mrsjones5
Plus kids are always top dog, that's the problem!!!
Hm I think some kids think they are top dog and their parents have told them no different, that's a problem.
Has anyone ever watched "The Dog Whispher" on the Discovery Channel? Alot of the dogs on that show had problems of dominance because they had been lead to believe (sometimes unknowingly) that they were top dog or the alpha dog of the pack. The Dog whispher would come in and talk to the owners about what was wrong, what the owners were doing wrong, and how they could correct it and help the owners and ultimately the dog. It's kinda like "Nanny 911" for dogs.
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Sara Annie
It seems to me that kids and dogs are very similar. Some say that a trained dog has the mental capacity of a 2-5 year old depending on the breed. Every time one of my friends tells me a kid story, I usually have a very similar dog story.
I have friends who have no human children but are devoted to their pets, and they have tried to relate to parenting struggles through their animals too. Like them, I will concede that you may have a 'similar' story to relate to a parent about your beloved dog. I understand that you are approaching a topic that you are unfamiliar with personally and attempting to relate it to your own life and responsibilities, and therefore are using the only frame of reference that you have, which is your pet and it makes sense that you would. But I caution you against thinking that this similarity is in any way parrallel in importance to the struggles your friends are having in raising their children, no matter how much you love your dog.
While there may be seeming similarities between the behavior of a toddler and a dog, your struggle and effort in making your dog behave appropriately differs fundamentally from that of a parent in that your dog will never have the need to take those experiences and someday apply them to his own, independent life. Your dog will always be just that: YOUR dog, under your command and control. And no matter how smart the dog is, you are not teaching it to someday be autonomous, to have the tools to make decisions and choices that will impact it's future in this world. Being a responsible pet owner and a parent are not equal roles in this world, and never will be.
I love our dog. I have countless stories about her behavior that are alternately hilarious and exasperating. She's a wonderful addition to our family and our lives have been richer because of her. But she is not a child, and having raised both a dog and children I have learned that a very few base similarities do not make the relationships equal--and most people won't appreciate the comparison.