Yelling at Children (and Huskies) Carries With it a Very High Cost

My grandsons love dogs; Huskies in particular. They are looking forward to the day when they will be able to have a Husky of their own. Yesterday when my son came to pick up my grandsons from their sleepover, he shared how Nicolas Petit was leading in this year's Iditarod; and was expected to win. But then something unexpected happened. One of his dogs jumped onto a younger dog and Nicolas yelled at the older dog. All of the dogs in his team heard him yelling; something which he said just does not happen with him and his dogs. When he started yelling, all of the dogs refused to go a step farther in the race. Nicolas said the dogs refused to move anywhere, so they ended up having to call in snowmobiles to get them off the ice on the coast of the Bering Sea and he had to withdraw from the race. Yelling at his dogs cost him the race.

I found this so interesting, because just as yelling at the dogs caused Nicolas' dogs to "shut down" and caused him to pay a high price, yelling at our grandchildren/children also brings with it a high price. There has been significant amounts of research about how yelling impacts children and overwhelmingly the evidence shows if we yell at children we are physically and emotionally harming them - and this actual damage is able to last throughout their lives. If you would like to read some of the research about how yelling damages and harms children check this link and this link.

Read the full post at this link.