Help! DS1 chases our dogs around the house! WWYD?

[MumofJTM]

DS1 (2.4) has teken to chasing our two Jack Russell terriers around the last couple of weeks. He pushes them off the sofa, pursues them under the dining room table and around the house, and keeps trying to grab hold of them. Occasionally he is downright violent, kicking and hitting. We have resorted to the naughty step when he won't stop, and a stcker chart for positive interactions with the dogs, but I don't understand what's behind it.

Sometimes he comes out with a completely unrelated reason as to why he has chased them, e.g.
Me/DH: J, stop it! Leave the dog alone!
J: But I want my milk/ But I've lost my monkey/ I want my train track out!

Any ideas gratefully received!

removal of fav toy.?
we also have 2 jr and have made a point to have never encouraged interation- dd feeds them, and we always make sure that she is in the "dominant" position.
so other than being really intolerant of his behavr no advice only sympathy

I agree with hotbot - total intolerance of that kind of behaviour with the dogs - otherwise it really won't end well

No advice what to do except you need to do something. Jack Russells have a reputation for being snappy (grew up with them) although any dog will react to this eventually.

How strict are you about other behaviour around the dog? We've had dogs since dd was a baby and have never allowed any sort of vaguely poor behaviour from her. She has always known she has to show the utmost respect to them e.g. never sit on them, never pull them, never dress them etc.
No idea if it it makes a difference but perhaps ensuring the little things are adhered to might help with the bigger?

Maybe have 3 rules he has to abide to no matter what - no chasing, no hurting, no shouting at them?

Naughty step as soon as he starts doing it so that he knows that even starting it is punishable. You may have to be really strict with further punishments such as removal of toy in addition to step, as I too think it could end in tears - even the kindest dog will snap if treated badly. With regard the totally unrelated excuses - my immediate thought was that he is getting your attention by chasing the dog to then ask for the thing he really wants. But maybe not.

I think he needs a consequence the moment he starts - I don't think you can be too strict on this one, it sounds quite scary

I would put him in his room on his own for a minute each and every time he does it. I think it's the most immediate sanction and at this age immediate is best imo!

Thanks for advice - I do think we need to be more immediate with punishment - we've always done one warning for naughty step, but maybe that needs to go . . .

Removal of fave toy a good idea too - we always turn the TV off if he goes for them while he's watching something, but I don't know if he'd understand "you'll lose 10minutes of your after tea TV time later for chasing the dog". Don't think he has a good enough concept of time/ would remember that far!

Our dogs are extremely tolerant, and just get out of his way, but I think it might only be a matter of time before they have had enough.

He's back to chilldminder/ nursery tomorrow, so hoping that he might lose the habit once he's out of the house all day.It did only start once the holidays started. Fingers crossed . . .

The other thing is he thinks it's funny - he's not lashing out in rage/ anger/ frustration, but laughs as he's doing it.

With regards to getting our attention, frogetyfrog, I thought that too, but his speech is so good it;'s very easy for hiim to tell us what he wants, when it's something so simple that he always seems to want.

Mystery to me. . .

I would come down hard.

Immediate removal of favourite toy for the rest of the day plus immediately putting him in a separate area, ie spare bedroom/bathroom/somewhere that is boring, for two minutes.

My ds went through a stage of this - not so much the violence as winding the dog up. We'd only just got him and ds was 3.5, and it was a novelty having a dog that wanted to race around with him but the problem was that it just got too much.

I came down like a ton of bricks and ultimately resorted to removal of his favourite bear. (he did have other cuddlies to sleep with that night but I stuck to it.)

we have an extraordinarily patient labrador, and have had similar problems with 2.5yo ds. the dog would never complain or react but it just isnt fair on him.
we do removal of toys as punishment if dog is whacked, but tbh like your ds he does it for attention i think - he knows it gets a rise, and does it if i'm distracted in any way or doing sthing like stacking the dishwasher - and out of jealousy (if the dog gets any attention at all from me).
so have tried doing deeply over the top lavish praise for any nice behaviour with the dog, on the grounds that if he gets attention for being nice instead of just being horrible to the dog that might help, and it seems to be working better (we still do taking toys away as a sanction but seem to need to do it less). i get him to stroke/pat the dog with me, and then go on and on about how much the dog loves it.
is your ds an only child? mine is and it's struck me recently that a lot of this behaviour is like sibling rivalry - they are competing with the dog for yr attention, and also bossing the dog around like a younger sibilng (must be very appealing to be able to tell someone off when you are 2 and always being told what to do by other people).

Glad it's not just me that has this problem.

We bought a Jack Russel / Springer Spaniel cross last year when DD1 was nearly 2. We've had similar problems with her on and off and it still occurs now to some extent. We just feel relieved that the dog has accepted she's bottom of the pack and is very tolerent of DS1's behaviour.

At first we thought it was the novelty factor and would wear off but we still have issues 15 months on.

We've tried various things - removing toys, naughty step, but with varying degrees of success, and we've even threatened to give the dog away to another litte girl who will be nice to her - not sure whether DS1 really understood this though - she's 3.3 now.

I'll be watching this thread with interest!

I had this exact issue a few months ago when DD was 2.6. Drove me and the 2 patient labradors and 2 slightly less patient cats up the wall.

I tried naughty steps, removal from room, segregation, distraction, sanctions, you name it I tried it. The problem was that DD enjoyed it so much, you could hear the absolute glee in her voice and laughter as she tormented the poor animals. Horrifying.

What worked was twofold - we made a big thing of lavish praise whenever DD stroked the dogs nicely, and did lots of the "no DD, don't chase/kick the dogs/cats, stroke them nicely like this [demonstrate] there's a clever girl, well done you" etc so appropriate behaviour was modelled and praised

And we found distraction worked well - as soon as DD looked like she was thinking about starting on the dog/cat bothering either DD or I would leap up and tickle her/take her into the garden/blow some bubbles etc. This worked by breaking the chabit of DD being a tad bored, casting her eyes about and seeing the animals, just waiting to be bothered

The distraction worked well, DD dropped the horrible behaviour soon after this - it took a real full on effort from DH and I though to watch her like a hawk and jump up before things started. Am so glad this is past!