How are Your Dogs With Kids?

Is your dog a full on kid lover? Or does your dog fear those tiny human minions?

Morrison LOOOOOOOOVES kids. Especially infants and toddlers. He is extremely gentle, polite, and respectful of space. His current favorite kid is my sisters 2 year old son. The kid has pried Morrisons mouth open to look at his teeth, he sits on him (gently), and he hugs and kisses on him. Morrison takes all of it with kisses and tail wags. He LOVES the attention. He's like "FINALLY a hooman that appreciates me!" .

He cracks me up because he is a food thief when it comes to adults. But my nephew will literally shove a treat in his face and Morrison will refuse to take it until I say it is okay. He never ever attempts to steal from babies or children. He is also very good about giving kids who are fearful or wary of dogs their space. He doesn't push himself on kids who don't want contact with him.

Leia is also great with kids. She is also a major fan of my nephew...Mainly because she is a mouth licker and a 2 year old doesn't know to close his mouth when a dog tongue comes near it lmao. She has cleaned out his mouth a couple of times. I am happy my sister has worked with her son about being gentle with small animals (she has two cats). So all of Leia's experiences with small kids have been good ones. Which is great. It makes her confident when it comes to meeting other children.

Fae isn't such a big fan of kids. She isn't growly or snappy. She would just rather observe from a distance. She is not a fan of loud screaming kids running around like wild animals (neither am I). I blame her lack of confidence around kids on her previous owners. I was given Fae when she was 6 months old and I was told that from the time she was 12 weeks old to the time she came to live with me, she was chased on a daily basis by her previous owners 3 year old nephew ...So yeah I can see where the fear comes from.

She is good around older kids and will approach and give tentative kisses. But it takes some warming up. I often tell my older nephews and niece (age ranges 10-16) to just ignore her and she will come around. And she always does. It just has to be on her terms.

I try not to let her be put in situations where she feels overwhelmed or cornered.But my 2 year old nephew has run up on her twice and her reaction was different each time. One time she just ran behind the chair and hid. The second time she laid/cowered on the ground and licked at his hand submissively.

So I am glad that she doesn't react aggressive/defensively, but I don't like to push it and try not to put her in situations with out of control kids.

Mia hates kids. Wishes they would go away and will bite if in the right circumstance I am sure (this she has never been in those circumstances. She is very closely monitored around kids)

Summer likes kids a lot but will squeak if they get too rough. With her it is making sure the kid is tiny dog appropriate.

Hank loves kids a lot. He's wild though and hasn't mastered not jumping on everyone. So for now I am still holding his collar because I'd imagine he would knock them down. He also chases after things a lot and I think a toddler at this point would be too much for him. I was proud last night when we were walking and he did well as a pack of toddlers on tricycles came past. I could tell it was hard for him.

Feist is pretty good overall with kids, especially if they want to play ball or frisbee with her. She adores my 11-year-old sister. The 1-2 year old range does make her nervous, something we've been working on. Normally she doesn't really pay them any special mind one way or another, which is fine with me.

Dekka treats kids like she treats adults. No difference what so ever. She is equally snobby lol. She is calm and accepts handling from either but likely would not tolerate rough handling by kids or adults.

I don't trust Hudson with kids. Partly because his exposure to them has been minimal, partly because he is a wild dude and he would accidentally knock them down by being Hudson. Now, this is all with young kids. Like, under 3. I don't know how he would be with older kids. I'm sure the quick movements would drive him batty and his first instinct would be to try to contain and control. Basically, I try to avoid it and then watch him closely when he is around my nieces and nephew.

Jack is indifferent. He pretty much ignores kids unless they have food.

Crossbone doesn't really enjoy the company of kids --unless they have food or toys. However, he LOVES my 9 month old nephew. LOVES him. Will actually seek him out to kiss his face & chooses to lay next to him. I hope, hope, hope that he continues to adore him as baby grows up.

Patton and Frag are both fantastic with children.

Recon is afraid and will run away/bark at anything too short/young. If he were cornered, I wouldn't put it past him to bite a kid. He is very easy to gauge, it's either a kid to him or it's his best friend (an older/bigger kid). There are some 8+ year olds that he's best buds with.

Jackson's fine with kids for the most part. He's great with my siblings, now 6 and 11, and has grown up living with them. He's also great with their friends who come over often. He's always been very sweet and careful around infants as well.

He gets nervous with loud rambunctious kids though. He's the type to just walk away and go under the bed if kids are bothering him rather than react though which I love about him.

He tolerates a lot from my sister. She enjoys dressing him up lol.

His thing is he does NOT like to be picked up - by anyone, so if he thinks a kid or adult is reaching in to pick him up, he runs away from you quickly lol.

He actually seems more comfortable greeting children than adults. I think it's likely because they always smell like some sort of food that's left on their fingers or sleeves. He pretty much will do anything for food.

He and my sister.


He and my bro when he was younger.

Watson is a little weird with kids. He's super interested in them, and will follow them around, but sometimes he's not sure what to do with them. Often if they reach out to pet him he'll bounce away and play bow - sort of playfully deflecting. He can also get over excited. We had a party last weekend and a few times he had the kids pinned on the couch while he was in a play bow barking at them, exactly like he would do with another dog who he wanted to play with. One little girl said "I'll play with you Watson, but you have to stop shouting!" Haha

I think he would be fantastic with his own kid, or kids he spent a lot of time with, but he sees them pretty infrequently and just has a hard time reading them. He's also much better with dog savvy kids. He spent most of a whale watching tour with a little girl's arm around him, but then avoided some other kids on the boat who obviously weren't super comfortable but still wanted to pet him. He can tell when the kids are unsure and it makes him unsure. He has barked at a couple kids from a distance, all boys about 8-13, so there's something about that gender and age group that throws him off.

He's politely curious with babies. He will sniff them, and look interested if they cry, but he mostly ignores them.

My dogs both grew up with kids in their previous families. They love them, but ESPECIALLY Rowan. Rowan goes nuts over kids. They're one of his very favorite things. He once spent an hour being loved on my twin 7 year old girls and I'm pretty sure it was the best hour of his life. They were petting him, hugging him (which I wouldn't have allowed if he showed any discomfort but he was thrilled), feeding him treats, having him do tricks... he was in heaven.

He would be a great kid's dog. He loves them so much and is so tolerant. Unfortunately for him I won't ever have kids and don't particularly like them either. I HAVE found that I'm much more excited to see them if I have Rowan with me, because I know they make him so happy. That makes me laugh. Only my dog could make me happy about kids.

Em ADORES children. Especially anything under 5 or so.

Bloo and Shadow are scared of them.

Copper is indifferent.

Mine had never really been around kids much. Rory had loved kids before we had Nora, so I figured he'd at least be good around her.

They are all doing great with her! Emma and Tucker always want to give her kisses, and Zara loves being close to her. Rylie and Chloe kind of ignore her, but all are very gentle with her. Rory sleeps next to wherever she is- if she's in her swing he'll be on the floor in front of it. Same with her cosleeper at night! They even ignore her toys (which I'm so surprised about, since they look like dog toys!). I feel like they all respect her.

Emma being gentle and giving kisses to her hand. They're so sweet.

_DSC8903.jpg by Chihuahuaesque, on Flickr

Gambit hates children. He also hates adults, though, so it's not a surprise.

Gimmick is iffy. I should have been way more proactive with the child socializing, but he's always been and always will be a high strung sensitive animal. I don't think he would have ever enjoyed them.

Quid really likes kids, surprisingly. I would be totally comfortable placing him in a home with them

Leo fears those tiny human minions.

The younger they are, the scarier. Teenagers are just like adults to him, and are greeted with enthusiasm. He'd rather not interact with kids 7 and up, but is fine if petted. Slow moving 3 - 6 year olds are ignored if not paying attention to him, but he will actively move away from them if they come towards him. Two year olds are terrifying waddling creatures. They walk weird and are super super scary.

Yep, definitely not kid friendly. He avoids kids and doesn't act aggressively towards them, but I wouldn't put it past him to nip if he felt backed into a corner and like he couldn't get away.

He actually does ok with dog-savvy kids if introduced slowly. I actually went camping with Leo and a family with 3 small kids, and surprisingly it worked perfectly. They were a little scared of him, and he was a little scared of them, so on the first day they all just ignored each other. On the second day, the kids were more interested, and so was he. He was willing to go near them completely relaxed but still didn't really want to be pet (immediate calming signals). So I taught them a rule that they were only allowed to pet him if they offered him their hand AND he approached THEM to sniff it. If he turned away, that was a no and they had to wait at least ten minutes before slowly approaching to try again. Haha, several hours later, the oldest boy mentioned to me "Leo never wants to sniff my hand". By the third day, Leo was running up to them for pets.

He is just very very slow to warm up to kids, and I don't just let him interact with strange kids. I absolutely hate it when people bring their small children to run around at the dog park (REALLY????).

That being said, I am not worried for when I choose to have my own kids, because I am confident that I can both teach Leo to tolerate the child and teach the child appropriate rules for how to interact with the dog.

Artimis is scared of them, but there are a few he just adores! usually they are the quieter, slower to approach children. If they give him treats for doing tricks all the better

Talon is way overstimulated by most kids. If they approach slowly he does well. But the running, squealing, high pitched voices just make him want to jump all over them like a train. Add the frustration from being restrained (leash) and he is down right terrible. He does best if he can observe them staying still, then let them approach while he's in a sit.

Honestly though, most of the time I just deny any kid who asks to pet them. It's just not worth the risk since both need special attention with children.

I dislike children, and actively avoid them, so with the exception of the three that I am related to (who are 8, 9, and 9), they don't get much exposure to children.

Heidi loves all people, including children.

Missy is cautious around new children (as she is around most new people), but she will happily take food from them. She's fine with the children that she's exposed to on a regular basis.

Jack is not good with children. He has issues with fast or strange-moving people, has handling issues, and is a resource guarder, which is a recipe for disaster with children. When the above mentioned children are present, he is crated or he wears a basket muzzle. We do actively work on rewarding calm and relaxed behavior when children/visitors are over, so he feels more comfortable.

Every summer for the past 13 years I have taught a three-week kids art class with minimal rules/structure. I was allowed to bring both Brisbane and Ru when they were baby puppies and I think it did wonders for their kid socialization. The class rule was that the children could not pick up the puppy, and there were several hours a day where they got to hang around without directly interacting with the kids.

Brisbane is a lot less reactive with kids than with adults. He is quiet and respectful around gentle kids, and ignores screaming. Since he is sensitive and a bit delicate, I avoid having him around kids who don't know not to grab tails or ears.

Ru is confident with kids but tends to ignore them like he ignores everybody else. He has a good sense of humor, once at a picnic he was sitting on a chair at toddler eye-level when a little girl dashed over, grabbed his head with both hands and gave him a huge kiss on the lips. It's nice to have a dog that tolerates strangers getting in his face.

Ulysses appeared totally unconcerned with babies and children when he arrived from the shelter, but his first adoptive family let their baby crawl on him and take a ball out of his mouth his second day home and he bit the baby in the face. The family elected to keep him and was given lots of training and management advice, a few weeks later the father "picked up the baby with one arm and pushed the dog away with the other" and Uly bit him. I shove Uly all over the house and have yet to provoke anything resembling aggression, but I did discover recently that he is now terrified of babies. He will spot a toddler at a great distance and drop to the ground in such terror that I have to carry him to safety. While he's still the sweetest dog on the planet, I don't trust him around kids.

Brisbane may be seriously reactive and genuinely insane, but I could totally take him to play ball in a dog park filled with screaming, running children as long as they didn't grab his tail. When we lived in an apartment we had to leave the dog park once because there were a couple of tiny kids running around grabbing tails.

I would be more worried about kids in the park hurting Ru than the other way around. Especially when he's pink, he is a kid magnet.

I would not trust Uly at the dog park with kids running around, but I don't trust him at the dog park with other dogs either. We wait around outside like total creepers until everyone else leaves.

Murphy adores kids and follows them around, attempting to wash faces.
Mick likes them but gets nervous if they're loud.
Riley tends to be shy with strangers (large or small) and prefers approaching on his terms. He absolutely loathes being patted on top of the head and ducks pretty well if someone tries it, (despite my telling them not to pat his head).
Nieces and nephews are generally well-behaved around animals, know to ask before petting and follow directions better than most adults.

Oh yeah, its definitely that I don't trust the kids, as opposed to Leo.

Leo would never go out of his way to attack a kid. But if a kid surprise-attack hugged him, I definitely think he could nip.

A few weeks ago, a couple was letting their three year old and five year old run all around the dog park, and especially the 3 year old had no qualms of just approaching any random dogs. I stayed with Leo, but I kept a constant watch on the kids. As soon as they came to our area, we moved.

Another time, there was a 6 year old at the dog park. She was standing very calmly so I wasn't worried about her...until all of a sudden she rushed forward four steps in an almost sprint to pet Leo's head from behind. Instant cower/lip-lick/whale eye from Leo. I had a very stern discussion with her on why it is not ok to quickly approach a dog from behind when they are not expecting it. I am a 4th grade teacher by profession, so she got a good taste of my 'You messed up' calm teacher voice :lol-sign:

Lol, I always want to give parents the following rant: "It's a DOG PARK. You can safely assume that a dog at a dog park is going to be dog friendly. You CANNOT assume they are kid-friendly. There is absolutely no requirement of that. For your own child's safety, keep them at least close by and from running around near unfamiliar dogs. Preferably don't bring them at all!"