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Child Behavior  (Expert Forum)
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How can we help our son to understand returning his dog?
Answered by
Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D. - Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Family Therapy, Crisis Intervention
Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates
This forum is for questions and support regarding child behavior issues such: Child Discipline (behavior management), Normal Child Development, Parent-Child Communications, Social Development

How can we help our son to understand returning his dog?

by friend, Sep 22, 2000 12:00AM
Hi, last week for the first time in our lives me and my husband got a dog for our 9 yrs old son and our teenage daughter, with a just a little reading about how dogs are!
The dog is a  terrier puppy, very active cute dog. But the problem is that for us it is too much and now we have realized that we can not handle having him at home, since these kind of dogs like to be inside the house most of the time.
Our son likes the dog a lot, although he plays with him for 5 minutes and goes to his other activities. So he is not really in love with the dog but he sometimes just plays with it. Now that we like to return the dog to the breeder, we have talked to our son and although he seems to understand and he asked us to buy lots of toys for him instead, but we are afraid this would affect his life in future. (We have told him when he grows up a little more like in 3 years, he can be responsible for bigger dogs. Then we bring a bigger dog with a nice dog house in the yard.
I just wanted to know your oponion about this and if it is going to be O.K. for our son?? By the way my daughter is completely understanding about this and likes returning the dog.
Thank you for your help.

by Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D., Sep 23, 2000 12:00AM
Dear Friend,

This will be fine and will have no long-term implications for your son. You are being honest and straightforward with him, and you are acknowledging that the purchase of the dog was a mistake. You are not holding your son responsible for the situation; this is the correct thing to do.
Member Comments (2)

by friend, Sep 24, 2000 12:00AM
Thank you so much for your feed back. The dog is going back by tomorrow or the day after, and I feel so much better now that I got your opinion.

by kidquestion, Nov 19, 2009 03:25PM
A related discussion, My 3-year-old son thinks he is puppy... was started.
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