Why Kids are NOT Dogs….

Right! So I probably got your attention with that title. Do you think it’s silly that I would suggest a child was not like a dog? Seems like an obvious statement, doesn’t it? What if the title read, “Why Dogs are NOT Kids.” Does that ring as strangely?

In today’s culture, it doesn’t seem to, but it should! Kids are not like dogs and dogs are not like kids. Both ways of saying it should ring equally true. They are different species, after all. So why is it that on one side of the equation, it seems ridiculous to compare them, but flip the coin and it’s an entirely different perspective?

I read an article recently about the centralization of children as the driving force in a family. It claimed that this was the change that’s come about for the millennial generation, citing it as the source of entitlement that’s so often associated with this generation. I was intrigued to hear the author’s opinion about how this change, from Mom and Dad being the most important figures in a household, to the children being the front and center has rolled out over the last couple of decades.

It occurred to me that this change has also influenced the way we treat and deal with our dogs. Some of these changes are definitely for the better, but they also cause confusion when it comes to communicating effectively with our dogs. I recently posted about whether dogs should be…