Hi Dr Laura,
My husband and I were out riding our tandem bike with our 6 month old Chesapeake puppy running alongside (our Pomeranian with a heart condition rides in the basket on the back). We went on the bike path that goes underneath a six lane road. Our Chesapeake started to panic and get scared so to the surprise of my husband, I tried to start pedaling really quickly to get us out of there. When my husband asked me what I was doing, I said “We have to get him out of here, he's scared.” My husband's response was "No way. We need to take it slow and get him accustomed to this." So, needless to say, we slowly worked our way underneath this bridge and by the end, our Chessie was acting like nothing had happened.
A few days later I had to chuckle when I was thinking back on this situation and thought about your comments on how men and women have a different role to play in raising kids; in our case our kid is our puppy. I wanted to protect our Chessie and get him out of there, whereas my husband saw the need to let him be uncomfortable and make him face this situation so he could grow and not be scared again.
Sincerely,
Megan
