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Who Here Has Children Still At Home With Their Aid's.


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Just wondering if any of the current active members have children/grandchildren at home on a regular basis. I know some members have already raised their families and some with the AID's

 

The only reason I ask is I would like to hear how the AID has interacted with your children and family as a whole. Just looking for your own personal experiences. Do they seem to watch over your children kind of like how we humans do. Protect, babysit so to speak. I know there are many factors that can come into play here but if you socialized and trained your AID and children as they should be then how did it go for you.

 

I hear nothing but GREAT comments about these creatures. I have only heard one or two bad stories and from what I gather from talking to different members and Kim is that there was a lack of "Tough Love" and hardly no socialization.

 

Our home is pretty busy from the time we get up and get the little ones ready for school and daycare. When we all get home in the afternoon/evening then it is busy again. Supper, baths, getting ready for the next day, kids playing/bickering and so forth.

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We have grandkids and people around all of the time. All of the dogs have always been protective of the kids, the DOGS have never been the problem the PEOPLE have. We do NOT encourage people to just walk right up to the dogs, we ask that they introduce themselves to the dogs. We do the same with kids. These dogs are sensitive -- both feelings and hearing -- they don't like loud noises or voices except when they are being corrected and that doesn't happen very often. Where we live now only has 900 people in the Village and that's in the summer when everyone is home. There are still people around when we walk in the morning and the evening. We walk three miles in the morning and three in the evening, everyday, no matter the weather. There have been a few people that they have met that the dogs were definitely uncomfortable with. When the grandkids are here or the school kids are around, there's never been a problem if they do as we ask. We did have an issue with Willie, our first AID. A kid charged him on a bike and after that he didn't like bikes and he didn't like the kid who was a local kid who we encountered regularly. There have been a few issues with people and their AIDS but it wasn't the fault of the dog, it was the fault of the owner. They didn't get it!

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So glad you asked RoyS....both my boys LOVE :wub: kids. Tolinka is especially protective of them...like a big brother.

 

STORY #1....Tolinka is down at the river playing with another dog...there is a 5 year old boy there with a baby sitter. Tolinka notices that the little boy is getting deeper and deeper into the river and Tolinka is not comfortable about this...so his solution is to position himself between the little boy and the deep water. Tolinka then proceeds to lean gently against the little boy to nudge / move him back into shallow water. The little boy doesn't pay attention so Tolinka gently takes his shirt sleeve and tugs a bit til the boy responds and Tolinka walked him back on to the beach.....Tolinka did not know this little boy before, and I had no way to teach him to do this. Now mind you after the little guy was back on the beach, Tolinka continued to play with the other dog. The little boy decides to do the same thing over again. Apparently Tolinka didn't take his eyes off this little guy for a minute and was right back in position to move him back to the beach and shallow water for the second time. ( I wish I had my camera rolling for this one).

 

STORY #2....These dogs love the energy of children, at least mine do. One little girl that spent a week in my cottage with her grand parents fell in love with Tolinka and he with her. They were constantly together for the whole week. He would sleep on the front porch of the cottage waiting for Hailey to wake in the mornings to play. Hailey's grandmother printed this photo onto a tee shirt for Hailey for her birthday...yes they are returning this summer for another long visit. It will be so fun to see this reunion.

Hailey and Tolinka .jpg

 

STORY #3......This is another little one that stayed in the cottage and became best of friends with Two Step. When it was time for her to leave, there were many tears because she didn't want to leave her new best fur friend.

two step and Sky IMG_8485.jpg

 

Good with kids? I'd stake my life on it....they are the best. Especially after the terrible twos of course. We all know they can be brats during that "two" stage just like human kids, but oh how we love them. :wub:

I have more stories with different children, but the end result is always the same. They love the kids and the kids love them....

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WOW! Great stories. Just the things that I love to hear.

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Roy there is a thread under "Food Aggression" by owner Jackie. Might be worth picking through. We don't have kids but it is important for all human members of the pack to out rank the dog. Food and treats can become an issue if not managed with an eye towards success, and with awareness of doggie nature from the outset. It's easiest to start first thing with your pup- put your fingers in the dogs food while it's eating. Put your fingers in your pup's mouth. Give a really desirable treat to the pup then gently take it away (fish it out of that little mouth) for a few seconds then give it back. Do all this matter-of-factly and with love (since at some point you will need to fish around in that little mouth - for a dead bird or a stone or to check the teeth). Have your kids make the food and put it down (it makes them alpha and is a great excuse for having them feed the dog every day -_- ). Make sure your kid's friends respect the dog (don't have them try to take food from it). No teasing with food or treats. If you have a problem, shout out to the forum.

 

Have the people eat first. Don't feed scraps from the table or give the pup the idea it's entitled to your kids food.

 

Since we don't often have kids around I can say that it's just as important to judge the nature of the kids as it is to know your dog. Waki is harmless. He is not a risk for fear biting and he is not a risk for aggressive (pack order) biting. My concern for him is that he is so sweet he could be terrorized by an aggressive child. Your kids have friends you know and have a sense of and then there are the ones that you will encounter at activities. Be sure to protect your pup from the ones with questionable character, just as you protect your kids.

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Our son was 11 when we got Danza, so he wasn't a little kid. But we have families with kids over, and a fair amount of new-to-Danza people come through the door. My answers are:

 

She is not protective of children. Her #1 thought at all times is Play. She doesn't want to protect the kids, she wants to play with them. For that matter, if she gets truly scared she runs behind my legs, but she has experience with me protecting her.

 

She is extra friendly and happy - she likes everyone. Some people will get less enthusiasm than others, but as far as she's concerned everybody is her friend.

 

Lots of people in the house is a situation that is a mixed blessing for Danza. There are so many more hands to potentially pet her that she tries hard to stick it out, but she does not like loud or unexpected noises. Eventually she goes to the back end of the house where she hangs out in her crate.

 

I don't think that establishing a firm pack order is really required. We taught our son to teach a dog basic commands and hand signals when he was 3, and that took care of any power issues. But the closest Danza gets to aggression is when she gets over excited when she's having fun and accidentally nips my hand.

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I don't have children, but I have 2 nephews, a neice and a god daughter. Willow is perfect around them.

 

 

This was when she was 7mo. She's now just over a year, and still does great. My oldest nephew, Kian, has Aspergers and she has is more than patient with him. When she does get fed up with him, she just runs to me and asks for help.

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STORY #1....Tolinka is down at the river playing with another dog...there is a 5 year old boy there with a baby sitter. Tolinka notices that the little boy is getting deeper and deeper into the river and Tolinka is not comfortable about this...so his solution is to position himself between the little boy and the deep water. Tolinka then proceeds to lean gently against the little boy to nudge / move him back into shallow water. The little boy doesn't pay attention so Tolinka gently takes his shirt sleeve and tugs a bit til the boy responds and Tolinka walked him back on to the beach.....Tolinka did not know this little boy before, and I had no way to teach him to do this. Now mind you after the little guy was back on the beach, Tolinka continued to play with the other dog. The little boy decides to do the same thing over again. Apparently Tolinka didn't take his eyes off this little guy for a minute and was right back in position to move him back to the beach and shallow water for the second time. ( I wish I had my camera rolling for this one).

 

Almost this exact story for our granddaughter and Draco during his first ever visit to the ocean!! Having heard and read stories we were still stunned to see Draco turn his back on the ocean and let waves hit him. He wouldn't come to us because Grace was still in the water. As soon as she came out, he came out. But, whenever she ventured too close for HIS comfort, he would go charging out to deeper waters to protect Grace.

 

We did have a "negative" incident with our Grandson Taylor & Wicca. Taylor & Grace were "playing" zombies, Taylor fell over and rolled up and over a surprised and awe-struck Wicca, she reacted with a little yip & nip and made a nice little scratch on the tip of Taylor's nose.

 

Yep, how shocked we were to find our that Wicca bit someone's face!!??!! But Taylor lobbied every adult and said it was NOT Wicca's fault. He admitted stepping and rolling on her and he said if he ever did it again, he deserved to be bitten.

 

So, I feel kids are perfectly safe with the dogs, but as with almost anything, as long as there is adult supervision.

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Jasper and K'ne were not raised with children in the house, and yet they are always kind and gentle with them.

Jasper even enjoys playing ball with Meadow's families' children. He will make them take turns by bringing the ball back to each child that wishes to play. He can tell who doesn't want to play also, and doesn't bring them the ball. lol

They take turns passing the chucker to whoever he brings the ball to.

And he even makes a special effort to look COOL when their youngest throws the ball. He will often pop the ball up with his foreleg to make it bounce up higher so he can do acrobatics for her. :D It is amazing to watch!

 

And if children are too 'rough or scary' my guys will just come to me and ask for asylum.

 

One thing to remember tho- is that puppies will be puppies. When they are little they don't have the self-discipline or knowledge to Not nip small children. (or adults for that matter- lol) They just wanna play and be puppies.

And little children, not raised with dogs and puppies, will be children. They don't know how to act in such a way that they won't encourage this behavior.

It is instictive-

Small children will squeal and raise their hands and run and move like prey and act like the little monkeys they are.

Puppies will get revved up by the squealing moving prey and try to get at the keep-away-object like the little coyotes they are.

Neither one knows any better and it is your job, being the adult with the thumbs, to gently and consistently teach them both how to act in ways that must be learned to coexist harmoniously.

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Awwww Willow that is so awesome! When the chemistry between child and dog is good it's like watching the angels play.

 

"I don't think that establishing a firm pack order is really required." Karen is probably right. I have raised Waki the only way I know - like a GSD and a GSD he is certainly not.

 

Playing Zombies - would have loved to see that. Face biting is a bit of shock. It's so taboo for people that even very little kids know not to do it w/o being told (except those with serious mental illnesses but that's another topic). I think we present a challenge for dogs, since we have no muzzle to muzzle and no neck scruff to use as a dog style correction. I think the dogs that do bite the face do it because they are looking to correct us in a dog way and we just don't have the anatomy.

 

I agree about adult supervision, providing instructions and sanctuary when needed. I also advocate active judgement about who does not get doggie privileges. Most kids have good hearts but some lack compassion - the kid that bashes a frog at the ball field is not getting near my dog.

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I agree that supervision is important to protect both the dog and the kid. (Although, in the movie "Babies", which I highly recommend, very small children are constantly abusing the village dogs as much as each other, and it doesn't phase the dogs at all.) That's why helping my son when he was three made sense - Cass was old enough to not have to be watched every second, he was old enough to learn to train, and the dog was exceptionally mellow and unflappable. He trained Cass.

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There are no children in the house all the time but my grandchildren visit about once a month. Now that Denakka is 1 1/2 and pretty settled I no longer have to worry about nips or playing too rough--more like too rambunctious! The kids are 7, 4 and 1 and he does different things with each of them. The one year old is just learning "gentle" so can 'clobber' (as much as a one year old can clobber) Denakka in the face thinking he's petting. Denakka just closes his eyes and then looks at me for a bit of help. My son usually gets right down and shows the baby how to pet the dog. Denakka seems to understand. The 4 year old loves to play fetch and Denakka is better with her than with me. He always brings it right back to her even though her "commands" don't seem as clear--but there is definitely good communication going on between them. The 7 year old likes to pretend to be a dog and crawls under him and head butts him. He's perfect with all of it. I can't explain it but he has a sense about it that is hard to describe. When I had some friends over to meet the grandkids; they told me later that Denakka was the star of the show with how he adjusted to each child's playing preferences and even left the one year old alone while he toddled around waving his food in Denakka's face! Held my breath on that one, but Denakka was a champ.

 

When he was a pup, the then 6 year old was fine with him; the 3 year old was overwhelmed with his energy and wildness and was definitely put off by him. I expect she might be the same way even now if that puppy energy continued. But these dogs mature fast and wisely.

 

Any place I go when Denakka sees a young boy (8-12 mostly), he immediately goes up to them and sticks to them like glue. Then he looks at me as if to say, "See, this is what I want you to get me....a BOY!"

 

I don't know if Denakka would be protective since that situation has never occurred. I'd of course like to think so, but I just don't know. He IS protective of the little dogs at the dog park--or the timid dogs. That I've seen over and over.

 

Since Denakka isn't around young children often, I always watch carefully. So far he's exceeded all my expectations. I can tell it takes a bit of a toll since after they leave, he SLEEPS! Perhaps it's just to get his peace and quiet back.

 

As others have said, all two legged creatures need to be higher in the pecking order than the four legged ones and puppies don't know that for a time and then tend to conveniently forget until totally mature. The children and the puppy need to be educated and closely observed until everyone understands the patterns. Each child is so different and each puppy/dog will also be different. It's my observation over a lifetime of having dogs that there is something special going on with most children and dogs. The stories above seem to indication that AIDs take it a step beyond and from what I've seen with Denakka, I'm not surprised at all!

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Hi

Our kids were 2 and 4years old when Eyota arrived- we have never had problems. Eyota is really a babysitter, if girls cry she houwls and starst to bring toys for them or she sits in front of me and howls and stares.She likes to play but only thing girls are not to allowed to play is tug and war. There is no need to underline that she is stronger... My youngest has astma and when she is poorly the dog never leaves her site until she is better. Then she goes to sleep off. We have a busy house too. She alerts when the friends arrives and then leaves them to play. I think she has done so much better with kids than I ever excected. With food- girls have been giving the food time to time for her and we trained from the begining that thouching the food is good -she might get an extra treat out of it :)

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  • 3 years later...

Another Thanksgiving Day is into the history books. Fourteen people at the dinner table, six overnight guests, nobody breathed a word of politics, and....Kaposia behaved well. We only had to correct her for jumping up three times, and then it was on an adult holding the ten month old baby girl (I think she wanted baby down where all the other kids were playing, too.) There were five children ranging in age from ten months to fourteen years. The four year old was amazed and thrilled with his new found power having the dog respond to hand signals, and (here was our big concern and we all watched closely) Kaposia never jumped on the children, even with the ten month old toddling around squealing in excitement like a rabbit caught in a snare! Vigilance always, but we were very impressed with Kaposia's behavior over two days of crazy household activity with multiple children. Sorry, we were too busy and later realized we had taken no pictures.😕

Edited by LakeGirl
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We have two boys, ages 9 and 10. Our two AIDs act very differently with them. Elena is always trying to either get snuggles or give them 'therapy' when mom and dad yell. She constantly will put herself between the boy and parent. :*) Ben on the other hand tends to amp up the energy! Play doesn't seem strong enough lol. He tends to go and push and go and push until boys and dogs are all VERY loud and jumping, rolling, running, wrestling etc. Elena will bite at Ben when he gets the boys jumping around the house. Then, both dogs hash it out with Elena always winning.

 

Our adopted AID Tator (previously Teazer) will growl all the time. He doesn't like kids much when they play. He sorta will go for pets/snuggles when the boys are sleepy. He has tried to nip them often. I think this is mainly because he never was loved right before us. Ben takes him on daily over this protecting the boys. They will fight on rough days and Clay has to equalize the power struggles. He is slowly learning, but it is EXTREMELY challenging. I think if kids are in the equation from the start it is a great relationship and not so much as the dog ages. Tator is a dog of personal space. :*) We think he was beaten often from how he responds to different voices or attention. Elena tends to calm him also, but she gets tired of his antics and expresses herself with all sorts of noises and body blocks. It is a work in progress.

 

This is all different when other kiddos come over. All dogs want the newbies attention any way they can get it! They jump on them, bark at them, anything is fair game to get attention. It can get rough if not monitored depending on the age of the kids. Of course Tator is the last to try and get attention, but he does from time to time.

 

Sleeping arrangements are fun too. Who will get what dog at night is both the dog's choice and whichever boy carries them away first. All are great snugglers when they want it! None are overly grouchy in the night at being made into living teddybears.

 

All of the dogs go into full panic when the boys swim. They don't really enjoy water, so I assume it is a fear response. They will circle and whine until they are out of the water. The boys get annoyed when Elena tries to 'clean' the water off them. lol

 

Joys of our lives!

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Tator is fortunate that you took him in. Being that we are a bit older, all the kids grown and gone, I considered adopting an older dog, but with the grandkids coming over.....just didn't trust a dog whose history was unknown. You feel so bad for any dog that may have been abused, and you feel angry...no creature deserves bad treatment. I was just unwilling to deal with the unpredictability and opted for a puppy we could raise with love and tough love from the beginning. Kudos to your family, and hoping Tater responds more and more to his new positive environment.

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