I'd like to say "Oh yes, of course, my children are NEVER left unsupervised with the dogs!" but the fact of the matter is that it happens. Do I worry? Honestly, no.
I have three children; a 12 year old, a 2 1/2 year old, and a fourteen month old. The oldest helps with training and feeding - when we took Agility class he worked with Gaia.
Because Oskar is so exceptionally bonded with me I worried greatly that he would be jealous when the middle child was born - especially as it took a few months for my oldest son and Oskar to accept that they were both "my boys" when Oskar came to live with us - Oskar wouldn't even acknowledge my husband much less pay attention to his commands. It was very much a look of "Why is this man trying to order me around Mom?" every time. He eventually caught on that I wanted him to listen to my husband, and when he started doing so they developed a bond of their own. I did the standard getting Oskar accustomed to small children thing (he did great with that), the setting up of the baby's gear months in advance and talking to him about what it was. After the baby was born I made sure to involve him in things like feeding time, allowing him to cuddle next us on the couch. And when the youngest boy was born, both Gaia and Oskar accepted him and doted on him as they did the other two children.
When middle child was just over four months old we adopted Gaia and she as well proved very tolerant of the baby patting at her and loving her up clumsily. She adored my oldest son from the start, though she had decided that my husband was her person. My sister was over visiting shortly after Gaia came to us and was amazed that when she told Gaia "No no, that's a baby toy, not yours!" Gaia came over and put it in the baby's lap then got one of her own! I will often look into the romper room (cordoned off by a long safety gate to keep the cats out and children contained) and see that Gaia has leapt in and is cuddled down on the couch between the toddlers, or that Oskar is on the built-in bench under the picture window bird/squirrel-watching with the children.
Are the children appropriate with the dogs 100% of the time? No. Middle son has body-slammed Oskar with great glee, both babies have used the dogs as step stools to get on the couch, they've fallen on them, they've grabbed their fur. BUT my dogs know it is not their place to correct the children, so when they don't like it they move away - that's it, just simply move away. Do the inappropriate actions happen often? No. They are rare, and the children are gently corrected by us, shown how to properly pet/hug the dogs, and the dogs are praised for their good behavior with the children. And we also often have the little ones give them treats; Oskar and Gaia are both exceptionally gentle mouthed and know how to take a piece of cheese from a proffered chubby toddler fist and make the child laugh from tickly whiskers and slimy tongue while doing so. The dogs learned from us first; hard grabby mouths do not get treats.
Why has this worked so well for us? All I can think is training and constant reinforcement of that training coupled with a lot of love and a lot of praise for good behavior. Is it breeding? I cannot say for sure, though I tend to lean towards "no." The man we bought Oskar from claimed that his breeding pair were from his parents' kennels that bred mainly SAR dogs for the NYC & surround area PD's.! In Gaia's case I don't think it's breeding, I think it is the constant training & reinforcement, coupled with just being lucky to have a girl with a gentle temperment - she really was a good fit to us and vise-versa.
My children and our dogs are very much a part of one another's lives; it's been a very positive thing and through reinforcement, praise, occasional correction and a lot of love it will continue to be. |
