Friendly towards children
How does everyone socialize their puppies with children when they don't have children?
I am will be proposing to my girlfriend and start a family with her. If we have children, how will I know the dog will be good with kids?
I trust my Akita whole wholeheartedly with children. Ninja grew up with my siblings and I.
My overall goal is to be a part of Delta Society and have the dog visit patients, but it all depends on the dog's personality.
I am will be proposing to my girlfriend and start a family with her. If we have children, how will I know the dog will be good with kids?
I trust my Akita whole wholeheartedly with children. Ninja grew up with my siblings and I.
My overall goal is to be a part of Delta Society and have the dog visit patients, but it all depends on the dog's personality.
Comments
So I'd suggest finding places you can walk the dog where there are kids (parks are good) and get the dog used to kids that way. Inviting families with kids over might not be a bad idea either.
I'm not sure where you are located, in the US?
I think there needs to be some clarification about what a service dog is, and their rights, vs. what a therapy dog is, and their lack of privileges.
A service dog, by the ADA definition, is not owner handled. You may own your dog, but the dog works with someone else, not you. Unless you have a qualifying ADA need. I don't want to make you say whether or not you do. This dog has certain rights, even during training to go anywhere and do anything. They can go to public places: restaurants, movies, stores, etc.
A therapy dog is owner handled. This dog really only needs their CGC to work, and will work alongside their owner, ie going to visit hospitals, retirement communities, libraries, etc. This dog is NOT a service dog, and does not have the right to go to public places.
So my question to you is are you planning on training a therapy dog or a service dog? I pose this question because it will affect your options for socialization.
Puppy class. That's haw we socialize ours with kids. Thee is always a kid at our puppy class.
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Also, walking around in large crowds where children may pet the dog without asking.
So slowly introduce them to areas with high stress areas then have kids little by little handle them?
edit: Brad, I know Loa got her CGC about a year ago and therapy training was a possibility... have you or Jen continued her training?
Koda is a bit different. He's a service dog, so he can go more places. I could take him in Starbucks, Safeway, whatever. It gave us opportunities to be around children without flooding him with children. I wouldn't flood the dog with lots of kiddie hands all over him.
I don't have kids, I have two friends with small kids that I "use" if they visit.
I realized that Petsmart was actually so children-rich that we used to go there only to allow kids to pet our dogs. Not all our dogs, but the younger still learning ones. I think it helped.
The two dogs I raised are solid with kids!
I think just allowing people to come up to you to interact with your dog goes a long way in conditioning that hands don't always do the same thing, but its a good thing to let them touch you.
Of course, I have three kids ages five and under, so this really isn't a challenge for me. Of course, you still have to socialize your dogs to kids who don't actually know how to handle dogs. For instance, we have relatives with kids who scream every single time they see a dog. It doesn't matter what the dog is doing or how many times they've seen that dog already, they just scream bloody murder if the dog walks in the room. Obviously, this is strange behaviour that can easily upset the uninitiated dog, so meeting a wide variety of children is really important. This isn't hard for us, either, though, because we know lots of other kids, too, and the dogs come with us to the park all the time. We go to places where there are trails and fields and playgrounds, so we will walk for a while, stop to play, keep walking, maybe stop and run around the field, and so on.
I'd like Sosuke to be a therapy dog, too. He's not old enough yet, but I think he'll be good at it. Rakka's pretty good with kids, but she wouldn't make a good therapy dog because she doesn't always want strangers touching her. Sometimes she can't get enough affection and sometimes she doesn't want to be touched at all.
Koda has been taught to go up to people, turn around, and sit with his back to them, right in front of them. Kids/People are allowed to pet him anywhere and he will not react. Good boy Koda!
Conker doesn't like strangers, especially big tall people, men and noisy rambunctious kids. He is fine with calmer people, most women and some kids who stay quiet and move slowly. The bad experiences have happened when I've told people not to pet Conker but they tried anyways, some even grabbed the leash or him. I can be a very mean person when this happens, which it hasn't in a very long time now. Petting on-leash is not allowed anymore unless Conker wants it, which is rare.
Conker hadn't really been exposed to many kids before I moved back home to Oregon. I told my youngest brother (8 or 9, can't remember) how to properly greet Conker and since he followed my instructions Conker was fine with him. Teddy is now Conker's second favorite person. Teddy is quite a popular kid and always had friends over and every one of them got the exact same lecture.
If Conker moved away or tried to escape, they were to leave him alone. Don't try to pet his head, don't pull on him, don't be loud around him. Those are the basic rules. Some of Teddy's friends Conker likes and others not so much. The kids he likes are the ones who did what I told them and continue to do that. The kids he doesn't are the ones who try to pet his head or chase after him if he doesn't want to be touched.
Kids on the street are not allowed to pet Conker but they can pet Juneau and Sasha who grew up with a bunch of kids and love everybody. At the dog park Conker is completely different and will let most people pet him, my guess is since he if off-leash and can escape if he feels the need.
I had a scary experience once with my GSD that turned out ok. We were walking in the park, and a large man came running up to us and grabbed kai around the neck and squeezed him into a huge hug. He was a young man with Down's Syndrome and was excited to tell me his aunt had a German Shepherd too. I was so afraid Kai would bite, as he was clearly very startled by this, but he got very still and gentle, and just let the guy squeeze him, and I tried to explain how it was bad to grab strange dogs. Kai seemed to know that the guy meant no harm. It scared me though--and I know that most dogs would not have tolerated that. As a side note to it, though, I occasionally saw the young man later on walks and he would say to me "I'm not supposed to grab strange dogs, right? I have to ask to pet them first, right?" So I guess he remembered that thankfully.
I think her worst experience with children was actually last year. I had a cousin's daughter visiting my home and my Border Collie was giving very clear warning signs that she wanted the girl to leave her alone, but the kid kept trying to touch and poke her (the dog). After a few times asking my cousin's daughter "Please don't touch the dog; she doesn't want you to touch her right now and she might try to bite if you keep it up," I just took my dog downstairs and we hung out in the basement away from the little girl (little as in...5 or 6; I forget which). The experience hasn't seemed to have had any negative effects, though.
Koda wore a vest that said pet me for his first year of life. He had no choice. But he's pretty receptive to people. He just sits down and takes it. He's VERY tolerant.