Dog Advice Please

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lawa

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Hi all this may be a bit long please bear with me.

My parents have two dogs a 6 year old JRT bitch and a 4.5 year old JRT x dog (god knows what with!)

I have a 2.5 year old, my daughter has been taught to leave the dogs alone when they go into their beds as this is their signal to her they have had enough playing ect.

The Bitch is fantastic and would trust her about as much as you can any dog my little girl plays ball with her ect.

The Dog is a fairly nervy charecter and is never left alone with my daughter and she has been taught not to touch him.

We encourage her (with supervision) to give both the dogs treat and she can get them to sit and paw before giving them treats.

Does this sound like I am doing everything right by both the dogs and my daughters saftey?

Tea and toast x
 
Personally I never give my dogs treats (I am mean!) and wouldnt allow a young child to do so, the potential for accident if the dog were to snap/grab at the food would be too much in my opinion?

Otherwise it sounds fine, of course usually I would never leave your daughter unsupervised with either dog at any time, but I realise we can't always live in a perfect world :)
 
glad to hear of someone who has a young child who has been taught when to leave dogs along. a lot of people seem to think kids are too young to learn, but my friends 2 yo already mostly understands, with reminding and of course supervision, to leave dogs to lie on their own.

personally i also don't do treats, as otherwise my boy starts begging loads and worried that would lead to grabbing food out of children's hands
 
Her and the bitch have an amazing bond she walks to heel with my daughter leading her! (we have a coupler lead for her)!

I take on board about the treats. Her and the little JR are amazing they play together for hours!
 
My daughter has been doing training with treats with the dogs since she was 18 months old. Of course the dogs were already trained and knew how to accept treats gently from her hand and not jump on her for food - that goes without saying. So my daughter wasn't so much training the dogs, but teaching them that she can be a source of rewards for good behaviour, therefore the dogs were more likely to display good behaviour with her. It's fairly standard advice to get children involved in training dogs, and any dog trained with food will have started with exercises designed to teach him/her not to mug people for the food!

Sounds like you are being very sensible! The only thing I would do any differently is not leave her unsupervised with either dog, not just the grumpy one. Not least of all if anything happens you want to be there and see what it was and what triggered it (e.g. you're in the next room and hear the dog growl at the toddler - you have no idea if there was some kind of provocation or not or how to correct either the dog's or the toddler's behaviour).

My daughter also loves walking the dogs which you can safely do with two leads.
 
Thank you Boohoos That is what we do with the treats>

I understand about what you saying about unsupervised I should say we do not purposely leave her with the bitch but we are less cautious than with grumpy sam as we call him lol
 
My dog loves children.

But if I let her have more than one a week, she tends to put on weight….



But to be serious for a moment, young children should certainly be taught that not all dogs are the same. Some will take the treat and the hand too. I'm just thinking of small children walking up to a strange dog to pet it because that's what they do at home and they think it is alright. On the other hand, I have friends who won't allow their child anywhere near a dog (any dog) for fear the child will be attacked. I think that is going too far to the other extreme.

Can any dog be trusted with a small child? My advice would be "No". Under supervision, it is up to the parent's judgement and their responsibility, not the dog owner.
 
Thanks Dryrot It is an issue if were out. We are teaching her to ask dog owners if she can stroke them at the moment.
 
Lawa, with a small child, and with two dogs, I would advise extreme caution when offering titbits. Jealousy can so easily be fostered.

Considering D_R's last sentence, I would add that with such a small child, it would also be dependent upon the adult's ability to read a dog and its body language, and would also depend upon the adult's reaction time.

As you are on here, and asking for advice, mine would be that you proceed with extreme caution, if proceed you must.

Alec.
 
Thanks Alec,

My dad is a fairly experienced dog owner, but my daughter is the first youngster in the house with the dogs.

The Male has aggression issues with other dogs (currently in training) which is why we are so very careful with him.

I want to ensure we are giving the dogs the space they need and my daughter is safe. Just looking for advise to make sure they can all live happily as possible together!

I grew up with my dads irish red setter but have never owned a dog of my own, so am tending to go off advice online and common sense.
 
There is no reason why your daughter should do treat training with both dogs at the same time. Indeed I would probably say that unless the handler knows what they are doing it's best to train one dog at a time. One dog can be put in his crate/another room/garden and your daughter can work with the other dog.

Also it's perfectly possible to teach a young child to approach different dogs differently. MiniBoo is 2.9yo and knows that with dogs that we do not know we ask mum if we can pet them, then we go together and ask the owner and then ask the dog (by extending a hand and seeing how the dog reacts). She also knows that some dogs don't like being touched so we don't do it. Of course she's a toddler so I have to supervise and repeat the lesson but it's no different than learning road sense for example.
 
lawa said:
Hi all this may be a bit long please bear with me.

My parents have two dogs a 6 year old JRT bitch and a 4.5 year old JRT x dog (god knows what with!)

I have a 2.5 year old, my daughter has been taught to leave the dogs alone when they go into their beds as this is their signal to her they have had enough playing ect.

The Bitch is fantastic and would trust her about as much as you can any dog my little girl plays ball with her ect.

The Dog is a fairly nervy charecter and is never left alone with my daughter and she has been taught not to touch him.

We encourage her (with supervision) to give both the dogs treat and she can get them to sit and paw before giving them treats.

Does this sound like I am doing everything right by both the dogs and my daughters saftey?

Tea and toast x
Click to expand...

Irrelevant to the question, but 8 sentences = a bit long?
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Anyhow, I think you sound sensible, so as long as you feel comfortable with how you allow your daughter and the dogs to socialize/not socialize, I wouldn't suggest changing on what works for you. But I don't believe that there is any 100% guaranteed safe thing to do, accidents can always happen, and based on your post, you seem to do what you can to minimize the risk for an accident to happen.

Personally I've always used both treats and praise when I've trained my bitches, as long as it makes them listen to me, I'm happy.

I don't recall how old they were the first times, but it happened when my nephews and niece were young, that I gave them treats which they were allowed to give to my bitches, it never caused anything that made me think it was a bad idea. If anything could have caused problems (please note, nothing did happen), I think it would have been more likely, to have something to do with the lack of coordination between hand and mouth in the children's early years, which resulted in quite some amount of food spillage/crumbs, and of course my bitches realised around/below which persons they were likely to find these "gifts". And by the way, it didn't make my bitches to start to beg for food.
 
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