Monday, July 13, 2009

Running my puppies

What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails,
And puppy dog tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

Actually, little boys are made of pure energy. We could solve the energy crisis if we could figure out how to harness the energy of 2-8 year old boys. Who needs gasoline?

My husband and I are pretty high energy too. OK, in my case that's possibly a serious understatement. Suffice to say, we have very high energy boys. That's why we believe in puppy parenting. Here's the concept in a nutshell - run your puppies. Any dog person knows that young puppies need a lot of time in the yard to run. If you happen to adopt a Labrador, Golden or Irish Setter (we had the latter), you know that you either need a very big yard or get thee to a park. Little boys are just like puppies - full of love and affection as long as you run them like crazy. Get those boys to the yard or the park.

My second child has genuine shpilkes and loves sports. During the school year, it's a coin toss if we were going to get a note home about his ability to keep his hands and feet to himself. Which somehow manifests on the playground or field. Start summer- and start sports camps. The run your puppies philosophy says - as many hours running as possible in any given day will get the best results.

What do you know - not a single discipline problem. Maybe there's something to this. My dear friends have a son with sensory processing challenges. One of the techniques to help him be successful in school - a daily, challenging obstacle course. Run that puppy.

Sure, our kids a little crankier at bedtime when they're so tired they can hardly walk or eat. But they're so happy. Happy boys who are having fun and positively participating in activities make for very happy parents. By the way, my high energy daughter benefits as well from the running of the puppies. In her case, she's chasing the bigger boys or swimming.

I'm thinking that many of the challenges that young boys (disproportionately) have in grade school could be reduced if we insisted on puppy parenting - run the puppies in the morning,at lunch and in the afternoon. Once spent, they're able to focus. What do you think?

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