16 month old terrorizing the cat! What to do?

[KLou1105]

My 16 month old loves the cat to bits but has recently started following her everywhere, and going out of the way to hurt her, pulling her tail, sitting on her, grabbing, kicking her. My cat is very laid back and won't run away. She will growl at her and occasionally nip my dd but she just thinks it's hilarious and does it even more.

No advice im afraid but my 2 year old is still obsessed with our cats and tries to stroke, pick them up, lay on them, pull their tails etc etc. we keep telling off for the things that will hurt them but luckily they run away! If she's being nice and they run off I explain that they didn't want to be stroked right now or they got a little bit scared, but obviously dd is older and understands a bit more than I would expect your dc to.

You'll have to intervene more, I'm afraid. Move your toddler away from the cat each time and firmly tell her "no, don't hurt her, she doesn't like it". If your DD finds it hilarious you have to show your disapproval too.

If you don't do this your laid back cat could hurt your DD and it will not be the cat's fault.

When we had a child that age we used explain to him what was, and was not, allowed.

You need to DISCIPLINE your child before the cat scratches her.

I tell her no very firmly and move her away, we tell her it's not nice, and we show her how to stroke her gently, she understands she's not allowed to do what she's doing but she seems to think it's a game and the more I say no and get annoyed the more she wants to do it!

She is doing it over and over because she is testing her boundaries. Either intervene or let her get scratched. If she is feeding off the negative attention use as calm and boring a voice as you can, avoid making a fuss but just keep picking her up and moving her away from the cat til she realises what a pointless and boring game it is.

Rather than give your D attention when she hurts the cat, give the cat all the attention and ignore your D. Pick the cat up, turn your back on your D and stroke and talk to it. Do this for a couple of minutes completely ignoring your D. It will take a while but hopefully your D will understand the cause and effect. She goes to the cat the she gets ignored and that's not great.