Puppy flushed down toliet!

My children's lives are all the richer for having the HOUSE FULL of pets we do...and I also had animals growing up. I am the better for it. The best way to ensure we raise a generation of disconnected, non animal loving people, who will turn a blind eye to cruelty and find animals a mere "accessory" or "nuisance",  is to say "most" households with children, should not have pets.

As to the article...it struck me wrong on many levels...not the first nor doubtless last article to do so, lol. Idiots, abound.

 My wife and I just had two of our grandchildren for a day.  I took the day off to help watch and entertain.  Don't get too down on the parents.  I forgot how hard it is to keep on top of little kids.  Endless energy with an occassional nap thrown in.  You blink  or go to the bathroom and they are into something.  Kids don't know and want to learn.  They try almost anything that comes to mind. 

That's why the ideal age to have children is when we are young enough to keep up with them! LOL!  I raised an ADHD child who ran me absolutely RAGGED

My niece has a masters degree in early childhood education and is  taking an extended leave, raising her children and homeschooling them.  I don't believe her children have ever heard the word no from her.  Instead she offers alternatives.  I don't totally disagree with that but I also think that in some situations a good sharp STOP is more effective.  What I'm saying is that in many ways, raising children is done much differently than it was in my day, or I daresay, in yours.

I second Gina's post.  The importance of animals in a childs life can't be overstated.

DougB

 My wife and I just had two of our grandchildren for a day.  I took the day off to help watch and entertain.  Don't get too down on the parents.  I forgot how hard it is to keep on top of little kids.  Endless energy with an occassional nap thrown in.  You blink  or go to the bathroom and they are into something.  Kids don't know and want to learn.  They try almost anything that comes to mind. 

 

Yes, they do - all the more reason to protect the animals in the home.  If Johnny isn't watched and Fido face bites him, see how fast Fido ends up at the pound.  Small, helpless puppies can be contained in a room that locks!  I know a great Lab breeder around here who has gates that set her whelping box and puppy area off from the rest of the house.  That said, I had animals, I agree with Chuffy and Gina that they are important for kids to grow up with.  However, animals are not placed on earth just for the benefit of human children - they are sentient beings deserving of respect and kind treatment - and protection.

Part of having an animal, IMHO, is training the CHILD as diligently as we train the dogs.

 I guess a basic question is why do they have a one week old puppy.  Is there a litter with a mother near by.  Or is the age given wrong.  The pictures I saw showed a pup with closed eyes, but that could be a momentary thing.  If its a lab pup, its small enough to be really young. 

Maybe what the four year old needs is a snarky terrier to teach him how to handle small dogs.  Either that or a wall with locked doors.

Just a note-I would not do this and do not advocate doing this.  To dangerous for the dog.  You protect little kids from being burned by telling them NO, ITS  HOT.  Eventually, they test it, find out what hot is, and they listen to you. The pot doesnt get punished for being hot.  Dogs  can br punished for being a dog.

My first reaction was that the pup was pretty big for a week old, but then I remembered that it's probably and ENGLISH cocker and they are somewhat larger than what we are used to.  But, still, why would a pup that age, even with a momma and littermates be OUTSIDE?  Even in the heat of summer I pretty much kept my pups (when we were breeding and with fosters who were whelped in my home) isolated in a VERY warm area.

DougB

You blink  or go to the bathroom and they are into something.  Kids don't know and want to learn.

There is nothing wrong with keeping pets safely contained at these times.  My dogs are often crated or gated when Will has got the human version of the zoomies.  Not because I don't trust them, but because I trust Will far less, and not because he is an unpleasant child.... but just because he is a CHILD and.... kids don't know and want to learn.  This was entirely preventable and entirely the parents fault. 

The puppy was "outside, playing in the garden" (at ONE WEEK old) and THEN flushed down the toilet.  That is not the space of time for blinking or going to the bathroom.... that is extended lack of supervision, and that kind of negligence is unconscionable when you have a young child and a vulnerable infant like a 1 week old puppy in the same house.

As someone said above - why is the puppy not with his dam and littermates?  Why was the canine family not kept in a secure room, and interaction with the children carefully structured and monitored?  Kids can be clumsy at the best of times, and even just trying to hold the puppy, the child could have accidentally hurt or dropped him, and think what impact that would have on the dog for the rest of his life...

And even at four, the boy saying the puppy needed a wash - codswallop!  My guess is he is parrotting that line, unless the parents frequently wash their hands in the toilet bowl and encourage their children to do the same.  Even at two, William knows you stand on a chair and wash in the SINK.  And for any self sufficient washing or cleaning he wants to do, he knows where the tissues and wet wipes are.  If we had a dirty puppy in the house I would bet the farm that would be his logical choice if he wanted to clean it.

I wonder if all is well in that household, or whether there is more than simple negligence going on.  Anyone remember the story of the little boy (I *think* he was about that age) who was caught hitting his pet hamster or gerbil or something with some kind of bat.... turned out the father was abusing the boy.  Incidents like this always make me shudder.  I REMEMBER being four and I would NEVER have flushed an animal down the toilet, or put it in the microwwave, or any of the other horrific things you hear about some kids doing.

 I always kept playpens/xpens around when my daughter was young. If I had to leave the room either the dogs or the baby/toddler was contained. For *everyone's* safety.

 I have to wonder that a 4 year old did this "on accident." Sounds like a bad case of poor impulse control. Most 4 year olds are smart enough to know that puppies don't go in toilets, and that pulling the lever makes it flush. He may be one of those high energy boys who acts first and thinks later. Totally normal, and totally not one to be trusted with small creatures.

Weird story all around. Bottom line- kids + dogs = SUPERVISION.

Thank you Chuffy. My youngest is 30 in a few months so I keep thinking, gosh, maybe I remember things wrong.  But, HE is my ADHD child, the child who forced me to chain and padlock my fridge, the child who managed to open a chain lock I could barely reach by pulling his rocking chair over and using the wooden stick of his hobby horse and "escaping" at 6AM one morning to go down a hill, across a road, up a hill, through a barb wire fence to sit in a field of cows and sweetly ask "give me milk cow".  Thank goodness he didn't try to pull on anything....they were steers.

I could fill the forum with DS horror stories, so I absolutely understand supervision.  Shoot, even sleeping was a challenge since he didn't do much of it and liked to get into mischief in the middle of the night.....this story though...well it just smacks of something rotten in Denmark.