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Christmas Puppy Love
Signed, A Dear Doggone: Sounds like your husband is allergic to the idea of having another dog running around the house. Is your five year old really ready to care for a puppy, or will daddy have to "help" with the housebreaking? Here's something to contemplate before you head to the animal shelter. It's from Emily Post's less-famous Children are People. 1940: A Baby and His Dog
Recall to mind Albert Payson Terhune's broadcasts, made each
year before Christmas, in which he says plainly that none of Sunnybrook's
Collie puppies are for sale. . . . Mr. Terhune never parts with
a puppy or dog unless he knows for certain that there is a dog
lover in the family who is competent to give help to the child
in caring for his pet. Someone who will teach the child that a
dog is not a toy, but a friend, who for the greater part of all
the happiness he shall know, will be dependent upon his master
and protector. Source:
Children are People Home • About • The Book • Advice • Abiblog • Bookshelf • Contact
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So
let us say on Christmas or Easter or his birthday morning that
Johnny hears a treble yap ~ yap ~ yap, and bubbling over with
curiosity, runs to see! Out in the kitchen or in the hall on a
bed of straw in the bottom of a box, he finds a puppy, which stops
its yapping and begins to wriggle and bounce with delight at Johnny's
approach. Certainly it is his to name, to own, to pet and to play
with, but not to squeeze too hard, not to hold upside down, not
to feed with the wrong food, not to stuff at one time and to forget
its food or its always fresh drink at another. Moreover, it is
his to housebreak ~ with help perhaps from Dad or Mother ~ but
really his own to train with love, and with patience that
knows no end. . . .
