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[quote=Anonymous]I got a dog when I was pregnant and had an almost 3 year old. (Note to anyone reading this: don't do that.  Really, I love my dog, but I can only blame pregnancy brain because this was a bad idea)

My toddler was gentle from the start.  He just got what I meant by gentle.  I had to supervise them because the dog was jumpy and enthusiastic, and I worried about him hurting the kid, not the other way around.  It was probably a year before the dog was well enough trained that they were ever alone together.

I thought I was such an amazing parent.  Look what I had taught my kid!  Look what I taught my dog!

My younger kid has been a bundle of energy from a very early age.  We did everything we did with his brother, starting earlier of course, and by about three he knew how to be kind and gentle, when he was focusing on it.  He could tell you all the rules for being gentle with the dog, but this didn't translate into him not swinging the toy baseball bat next to the dog's head, or stepping on it's tail as he ran through the house, or crashing into the dog with his toy cars, for years and years.  This got better gradually, but I think some of that is that my dog learned to stay out of the way.

Ironically my older kid, the gentle one, is the one with the ADHD diagnosis.  I think because he doesn't focus well, he's constantly monitoring his environment, and so he notices that the dog is there and monitors his safety.  My younger kid has a laser like focus on whatever he's interested in, that would mean he forgot.  [/quote]

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