Hellobee Boards

I would love to hear this as well. My LO is only 6 months but she pinches and scratches and "hits" us. She's just learning to feel things but sometimes it REALLY hurts!

My LO is a bit of a brute with the dogs, we just usually take her hand and show her how to pet them gently. It's not immediately effective though but we try to be consistent. She's pretty good about being gentle with me but she had a week where she was swatting at me and I'd just make eye contact and tell her No and tried not to let any little swats go unnoticed or ignored so she didn't start to think it was OK.

That's exactly how we taught our LO to be gentle with our dog. I just kept showing him how we touch and pet him gently. Eventually, he understood.
Sometimes, when he's in one of those moods where he's swatting or pulling our hair for whatever reason, we'll try to redirect him to do something else with his hands. We tell him "hands are not for hitting, hands are for clapping" (or some other action) and we'll clap our hands with him.
It just takes time and consistency.

@chopsuey119: lol. I'm glad you laughed because I was snorting reading the replies to this post. I know I'll be in for it, I didn't want anyone to think I'm laughing because I think it'll never happen to me!

my nephew and the girls I nanny have gotten me GOOD sometimes. it is hard to hide laughs, though, when they're too young to be doing it totally maliciously. my nephew headbutted me in the nose and I was tearing up it hurt so bad!

LO is 7.5 months and when she hits us or is rough, I hold her hand in mine and firmly say, "NO" and look at her with stern eyes. Most of the time she laughs at me. Psh.