Children...bah!

Thank you for your advice everyone. I know I need to get them socialized with kids...for their own safety, it just seems to be a slow going process. I will see what schools are around and take both of my guys near there, probably Rum by himself first so he can get some confidence going.

It is frustrating to deal with the parents. The nearest neighbor to me is about 3/4 of a mile away so we don't deal alot with it...but I try to walk the dogs in high traffic places for socialization purposes.

What Danis said was exactly what I fear. What if I'm at a frisbee trial and a kid runs across the field :eek2:

Also I have family that enjoy having children so..its a necesssary evil hehe. I have to work on being afraid of kids too though, I have a brother who is 14 and we have a pretty big age gap...even with him I have difficulty talking to him. I can distinctly remember my fiance wanting kids and having her niece visit for about 2 hours...that was a disaster and a half. As the little girl was being dropped off she was just staring at me with an expressionless gaze. Scary stuff, scary stuff.
 
Good thread, by the way.

I agree that one dog at a time is a good idea, as they may have different thresholds and you don't want one feeding off the other. A playground or school may be over the top initially if the kids are screaming / running. However, it would be great to work up to that. There may be a quieter part of a playground / park to start in. Alternately, you could find a few, well behaved children on a Sunday morning at the entrance to the grocery store / Lowes etc. The smaller kids are usually holding the parents hand, are not running, and don't have the time to hang around and gawk too long.
 
Megansmom said:
Ha ha Rachael that strikes me as funny to yell "my dogs bite" as a way to detour obnoxious kids away, :lol:..
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Hey, it's highly effective. And sure as s**t that parent will remember next time.

I think it might also remove some liability if there is a bite-incident. Especially in a state with contributory negligence laws. Meaning if you sue someone for negligence, and you (plaintiff) are found at fault, even 1%, you get bupkiss. In most states, they reduce your award by the percentage you are at fault. Not here! If I say "MY DOG BITES" and you do nothing to stop your kid, and my dog bites him, I have a pretty good defense.

Here is a good contributory negligence sign, cracked me up. It was attached to a ferris wheel "down the ocean."
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=237756&l=a1ae72daab&id=500778428
 
Dow despised kids. He would generally try to escape and being so fluffy looking was a target. When he got old I had to keep kids away from him as he was not nice to them and old and grumpy. Sca on the other hand loves kids and kids love him. I think it is a personality thing. Though I would try to train them since it was a problem with Dow when he got older (he would have chomped one of the monsters in a heartbeat). Petsmart is a great place for all kinds of people. Sca had a little girl that adored him in his puppy class. Also consider a dog park as there may be kids there that have dogs.

Train them up because if anything should happen it is the dogs fault (no matter how miserable the little roach was). And your dudes are to cool to get blame.
 
Taking them to Petsmart or Petco during pet adoption hours is great, my DD takes Megan just about every weekend. Even when Megan was a very young puppy, she took her there and sat her in a cart :lol: and wheeled her around in it!

Since Megan is fully vaccinated, we take her to as many places as possible and DD lets her walk all around Petco (leashed of course)..

Just different suggestions to aide you during this transition time :yes:
 
I think socialization is critical, but you already know that.

I'm not sure that yelling "my dog bites" is such a great idea (even though it IS funny, and I totally get what you are trying to accomplish), since that just teaches kids to be afraid of dogs.

When my dogs are approached by running kids, I put them into a sit and position myself in front of them if possible. Then I tell the kid to "please slow down, my dogs are not used to children and you are scaring them". Then I show them how to approach the dog instead. That normally does this trick. And most will still approach, but respectfully. And if works on the socialization side too.

The difficulty is with really young kids, who you can't instruct. I would stay away from playgrounds and stick to parks near schools where the older kids tend to hang out. I sometimes used to just sit on a bench with the dog beside me. I found it slowed the kids down, and also made us more approachable too.
 
Megansmom said:
Taking them to Petsmart or Petco during pet adoption hours is great, my DD takes Megan just about every weekend.
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Oh noooo. I am NEVER taking poor old Smudge to PetSmart during their adoption drive again. I got hit up by an employee before we even walked in the door:

"Excuse me. Are you placing this dog in our adoption program today?"


HOW ABOUT NO? :mad:

Then everybody and their brother kept walking up asking me the same thing. He was just going to get his picture taken with Santa! Jeez. :rolleyes2: He ain't for sale, trade, or barter. EVER.
 
From a parents point of view.....

My kids are great around dogs. But they are easy kids, and they listen to me. I also watch my nephew, and he is a different story. It is very hard to get his attention once he is focused on something....like running to a dog. He loves dogs and at his age, he doesn't comprehend that some dogs can be bad. He is three.

Here is some food for thought, for those of you who are critical of parents...but have dogs. Think of it in terms of having a herd of sheep running past you, and trying to get your Sheltie to take an about turn and do a recall while running behind the sheep. For some dogs...they will listen (ie..my kids). For other dogs....they will be too focused on the sheep to hear you (ie...my nephew). I know it is weird to compare kids with dogs....but for me it is very scary. As I am an excellant parent, but there is always that fear that at some point, my nephew could get away from me.

It really is a safety issue to have your dogs socialized around kids. If they aren't...and you fear that they may bite a running child, you have no business being in a public place. Just my opinion :wink2:
 
I was thinking of starting a similar post myself.

Over here labs are seen as 'kid-friendly' and I have so many problems with kids rushing Cadbury.

Fortunately Cadbury is robust and takes it all in his stride, even when a three year old ran up behind him and grabbed him and hugged him.

But why do parents let kids do that?! It is a real pet hate with me.

Now dog-savvy kids I have no issue with. They come up, politely ask if they can pet your dog, no probs. I like those kids!

The other ones? BAH!

But to be on the safe side I agree with the others about taking your dogs to places where there are kids around so they can get used to them.
 
labgirl said:
But why do parents let kids do that?! It is a real pet hate with me.
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Sometimes....it can't be helped.

At a dog park....a parent shouldn't have a kid there that is not dog savvy. In any other public place...it is the dog owners responsibility to have a dog that is friendly ALL the time. IMO.
 
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