How to stop kids keep tommy in their hands?  

My two kids had much more affection towards our pet dog tommy. Most of the time they took the tommy into their hands and keep tommy in their fold and lap. When i saw another pet dog taken birth with tommy grown much better then tommy i asked people why it happend like that. Most of them said that if you put tommy in hands and lap it present some growth of tommy. Then by not hurting the kids how can i stop them taking tommy into their hands.