I know there are lots of children and dogs threads. I have had bad experiences with children and dogs. Personally, I like dogs. I am a cat person, but I love all animals and dogs are almost up with the cats. We had this adorable little kitten and he had FIP and had to be, very suddenly, put to sleep. Our house, even with its two cats, felt so lonely and empty. I checked out our shelter and looking at the cats made me teary eyed. But we fell in love with this little chow/lab mix. She is a year and a half and was kept outside her first year of life. She let the kids hug her, she even flopped onto her back for a belly rub from my children. We visited her three times over the course of two days and then adopted her.
She is fine with my cats, ignores them. She isn't a resource guarder or food aggressive (reasons I returned my last puppy to the rescue we adopted him from). She has a lot of chowy personality, I feel. She definitely follows me around and is bonding to me. She likes the kids, but isn't a wiggly, waggy tailed, licker. This is fine by all of us. She is out of all that puppy craziness and is perfectly happy sleeping on the floor next to me when we're in the house. She LOVES belly rubs and makes these cute little grunts. She is very smart and learned sit the first day we had her. I mean, she has really been great so far. But we have only had her 3 days now.
BUT--- I read through these threads and read about kids being able to pull their dogs ears, or hang on them and the dogs tolerate it. She has made it clear to the kids she doesn't want attention by moving away from them. This seems ok to me and I am teaching the kids to listen to her and go hang out our cats (who don't mind it) when they want to lay around and just idly pet something. So it makes me wonder- what behaviour is OK from your children towards your dogs- you personally, not in general. My kids give her lots of treats (for sits, not for free) and she sits for them. I am showing them it's ok to give her a good belly rub, but not to lay around on or by her. She isn't allowed on the couch (our last puppy "took" the couch and the bed and would drive the kids off it when he was on it). Is this acceptable? I feel kind of guilty for not getting a dog they can hang all over- she def wouldn't tolerate that- but at the same time I really like Brownie and she seems to like us a lot- even the kids- in her own reserved way.
That's ok, right? Do any of you have dogs that are great but just wouldn't tolerate behaviour that some other dogs might? Sorry it's longwinded.
She is fine with my cats, ignores them. She isn't a resource guarder or food aggressive (reasons I returned my last puppy to the rescue we adopted him from). She has a lot of chowy personality, I feel. She definitely follows me around and is bonding to me. She likes the kids, but isn't a wiggly, waggy tailed, licker. This is fine by all of us. She is out of all that puppy craziness and is perfectly happy sleeping on the floor next to me when we're in the house. She LOVES belly rubs and makes these cute little grunts. She is very smart and learned sit the first day we had her. I mean, she has really been great so far. But we have only had her 3 days now.
BUT--- I read through these threads and read about kids being able to pull their dogs ears, or hang on them and the dogs tolerate it. She has made it clear to the kids she doesn't want attention by moving away from them. This seems ok to me and I am teaching the kids to listen to her and go hang out our cats (who don't mind it) when they want to lay around and just idly pet something. So it makes me wonder- what behaviour is OK from your children towards your dogs- you personally, not in general. My kids give her lots of treats (for sits, not for free) and she sits for them. I am showing them it's ok to give her a good belly rub, but not to lay around on or by her. She isn't allowed on the couch (our last puppy "took" the couch and the bed and would drive the kids off it when he was on it). Is this acceptable? I feel kind of guilty for not getting a dog they can hang all over- she def wouldn't tolerate that- but at the same time I really like Brownie and she seems to like us a lot- even the kids- in her own reserved way.
That's ok, right? Do any of you have dogs that are great but just wouldn't tolerate behaviour that some other dogs might? Sorry it's longwinded.
:
is a wonderful resource. It even has a chapter for children to read, if yours are old enough.
: We have just had so much bad luck with dogs that I am just paranoid Brownie will end up not working out. So I guess I am being a little paranoid. Our last dog was just a puppy, I got him from a rescue and I thought he would be great. But he would steal the kids toys and growl when they tried to get them back, he would jump on the couch and then not let them up, he guarded his food bowl AND the food bag in the corner of the kitchen. He snapped at my son twice- once while he was walking by the puppy while the puppy was licking a spatula that I was about to take away from him and once more when my son was heading out the backdoor (right beside the corner where the food bag was) and the puppy was guarding that area and I guess it included the back door. That was the last straw and we took him back.
We have been doing NILIF, but aren't super hardcore. She has to sit before we feed her, and before the kids can pet her we have her sit for a treat. She's so humble that she can barely get the "sit" in before she flops onto her back. It's funny. I think the kids recognizing her behaviour is really important, too. They know when the cats are annoyed- but cats are so much easier than dogs and the error doesn't seem so large and my kids have been raised with cats so they are cat savvy.
We were doing treats for sits all the time with the kids, but we aren't doing it so much (she was eating SO many dog treats). We've only had her for four days and she has never lived with kids. I think she just sees the kids as lesser on the chain of command, it's not that she DOESN'T like them.
