Poor Carlie pup

During the past several weeks our two-and-a-half year old son Jake has developed a bad habit of hitting or pinching our dog Carlie for no apparent reason. Carlie, a sweet five year old boxer mix, has exercised nothing but patience with Jake, but we can tell she is growing weary. She can be on the floor napping and Jake will just walk right up to her and smack her. Since our kids were born, we’ve never left them in a room alone with the dog, but we’re now paying even closer attention. Carlie, to her credit, will mostly just look up at me when Jake hits her with a “what did I do wrong” or “are you going to do something about this” look. She has on occasion given a little snarl back to Jake, which usually gets him laughing rather than running. But it’s more than enough of a warning for us to keep the two of them separated. We’ve tried a few different methods of discipline on Jake, but no luck. I’m hoping persistence will pay off in the discipline department, but we’ll see.