Toddler and animals

Hi all, wondering if you could give me any advice on how to make my son understand how to be gentle with dogs/other animals? He’s in this phase at the moment (he’s 2 btw) where he thinks it’s hilarious to pull at the dogs tail and ears, even sticking his fingers in their mouth, now with bigger dogs it’s mostly the tail but I have a little dog at home and he just tugs and pulls anywhere he can, and I’ve tried to teach him about gentle hands but it’s just gone out the window, let me know any tips y’all have 🥺 🙏

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Generally tho, separating the two physically as soon as it starts to happen is the safest route! some people remove the dog from the situation (place them behind a gate, outside for a break from eachother, in another room, in a crate etc) I find it’s easier to consistently just pick up toddlers and get them out of the situation & remove the access for it to continue, to follow through on respecting the dogs space & also just ensuring general safety (:

At this age it’s just lots of modelling and reinforcing. Don’t give him a reaction when he does it. Just remove him or the dog with a simple statement (e.g. it’s not ok to hurt the dog). We try to model being gentle lots, so every time the cat is in the room we say hello and give him a pat and encourage our sons to do the same. It’s tricky because this age is all about boundary pushing so he probably knows he’s not supposed to do it and is doing it BECAUSE he’s not supposed to. It’s going to take time but if you keep showing him how to treat the dog and that he doesn’t get the reaction he wants from you (over the top reactions can sometimes reinforce behaviours as toddlers struggle to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ attention) he’s get there

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