18 month old attacking our dogs, help!

[Stayathomebum]

My 18 month old dd loves waiting until our dogs (2 small and very very friendly spaniels) are curled up fast asleep and then she will run towards them and hit them. She thinks it is funny to make them jump up and run away. I always try and grab her when I see her making a move but a couple of times haven't reaches her.

When she does it I go down to her level and say very firmly no and then make her say sorry to the dogs but she would do it again straight away if I let her. It seems to be one of the only times that she takes not a blind bit of notice of me.

I do try and make sure that the dogs are kept away from her but feel sorry for them locking them in the utility room when they have always been such a part of the family. Is there any way that I can stop this behaviour so that the poor dogs don't have to live in terror?

I would not even speak to her when she does this, only to say NO in a firm voice and then put her for a few seconds out of the room (as long as its safe to do this)

They HATE being ignored and though she's only a baby, she really needs to be stopped or she could get bitten.

One thing that springs to mind is to give the dogs lots of attention. When she hits do what you're already doing, stop her and say no, and then stroke the dogs with loads of fuss 'is that nice? we dont like hitting do we? isn't that nice have a nice stroke and cuddle, good dog, good dog.' If she hits then move the dog away that she is hitting and fuss it again 'oh poor rover, we dont like hitting do we.' If she copies, which hopefully she will then fuss her as well 'oh look rover, DD is stroking you, is that nice? Isn't that nice?'

Otherwise, time out. I know its a common one but if this is the one thing where she is disobedient then it'll be a shock and have the desired affect. The aim here, especially with one so young is the repetition and being prevented from doing something she wants to do. She probably wont understand what 'naughty' or 'mean' are but she will make the connection between hitting and time out.

As soon as she does it pick her up and shut her in another room for 2 mins. Let her out, tell her she musn't hit the dogs.

The most likely thing is that she will go straight back over to them and do it again. So you repeat. Ad nauseum until she gets it.

Thank you both. I was wondering about giving her minute of time out when she does it because I do think that will be a shock and might have some impact.

It does need to stop because I am 99.9% sure our dogs will always just run away but I'm very concerned that she will try it with a strange dog and get really hurt.

I think she just sees them as moving toys and hasn't made the connection that they are real life animals that can get hurt and could also hurt her.

2 mins is way too long....around 30 seconds to minute will feel VERY long to a child her age. They say a minute per year...she's only 1 in reality.

Do you have a stairgate you could put across a doorway? If she does it put her behind the stairgate and totally ignore her while you fuss over the dogs.