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Concerned about my four-year-old's behaviour especially towards dog

1 reply

ellxnnn · 03/05/2026 18:21

I have a 4 year old daughter and her behaviour is just absolutely awful. We have a dog and she all she does it bug it, hitting and kicking and she finds it funny. We tell her off and remove her from him as soon as she does it but she continues to do it to the point I think we are going to have to rehome him as it’s not fair she will not stop I’m worried she has issues. We’ve told her time and time again she can’t do it, why it’s bad, how it makes him feel, how wrong it is, how it hurts him, everything but still does it. The attitude and back talk is ridiculous and she doesn’t ever seem bothered when we tell her off, she’ll say sorry then just continue to do what she was doing before. Her appetite is poor and with toileting she does wees ok the toilet but will refuse to poo and holds in poo’s till she has her pull up on a night and will hide under the blanket to poo even though we make her sit on the toilet at night before she gets her pyjamas on she won’t go. I’m honestly worried we’ve done something wrong and she has issues because her behaviour is horrendous and is making every day awful, we can’t have any family time together because she ruins it almost. Can’t go to a shop with her without he trying to run away. I spoke to nursery they said her behaviour is fine except the odd time she doesn’t listen so I’m not sure what else to do

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
TinyMouseTheatre · 04/05/2026 08:05

This does sound really difficult @ellxnnnand if you can’t keep the DDog totally separate I think your only option is to rehome. If the DDog isn’t a mix and is a breed, I’d recommend going through a breed specific charity. We adopted our DDog through one and send updates on how she’s doing to the previous owner through the charity.

As for your DD, I think you’re aware that this is unusual behaviour. Most 4 year olds will know that say if the DDog is in its bed you leave it well alone and won’t hit or kick the DDog.

Can I ask how old she is exactly? Is she 4, 4.5 or nearer to 5? Is she due to start school in September?

And how does she do on this simple progress checker?

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