kids and dogs...am I fighting a losing battle

[skuttle]

I think already know the answer to this, but y'all may surprise me.

Maggie, our Yorkie, will NOT stop getting into DS's toys!! Whenever he has a ball or something similar, she immediately tries to take it from him. She has chewed so many of his things. I know his toys are so similar to the dog toys that its hard for them to understand. I try my best to keep Maggie away from his things (Milo, our Corgi, will pick something up and drop it when you tell him to...not Maggie...Maggie is the fiesty one, she just tries harder to get it behind the sofa where we can't easily reach it ), but I'm tired of fighting with them and I know it gets on DH's nerves.

Any ideas re what I could do. Or should I just give in? I can only imagine what it'll be like when DS is old enough for legos!

 

[mickey4ver]

Our dog was famous for chewing up anything plastic the kids had, like little figures, that kind of stuff, and stayed away from other toys. Kids just had to learn to keep that kind of stuff up and away, not laying around...see the lesson learned was to pick up your toys!!!

We would find many a chewed to death figure laying around that was left "unattended" and it was fair game

 

[skuttle]

Good point for when he's older and understands. But right now, Maggie tries to get the ball out of his hands. It's so frustrating because I don't want the dogs to resent DS, but at the same time I don't want them bugging him when he has toys in his hands while he's so young. Sometimes I think they do it for attention, so I try to start playing with them...normally this works for milo, but not maggie as she is intent on getting that ball!

 

[nkjzmom]

We just got a dog last month. At first she tried to get every stuffed animal, then it was Samantha's toys that squeaked. So we found a little stuffed elephant that squeaked just the same and gave it to her. She still would try to sneak Sammi's toys but we would tell her no and promptly give her the elephant. She now stays away from the baby's toys and mostly plays with the elephant. There is this one lady bug toy that she must really like because no matter what she will go for that. We just do the same thing with the elephant...hopefully it'll get through soon.

 

[mickey4ver]

Yes, that is kinda hard when she decides to take the ball away from him...I think you'll just have to keep watch over both the fur baby and your baby baby! You know the fur babies sometimes think they are real babies, so that could be the problem...LOL....