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Post by DogGoneGood on Feb 12, 2008 14:07:44 GMT -5
DOGS AND CHILDREN Author Unknown Dogs don't judge children and they don't compete with them. THey offer a sunny, unflagging friendship and loyalty that just goes on and on. Children and dogs share a special bond that is founded on a muatual innocence and genuine delight in the simple joys life has to offer. Dogs make children laugh, offer a furry "shoulder" to lean on and make excellent back yard playmates. You can't ask for much more than that. It's hard sometimes for children to break through the natural boundaries of their own egocentrism to become aware of the problems and sufferings of others. But dogs seem to facilitate the process of building empathy in a child. Even a small child recognizes a down-in-the-dumps dog. Responsibility"I promise I'll feed it every day!" Those words most often follow, you guessed it, "Can I have a dog?" More than one parent has had to remind his or her child about that eager promise. And yet, although at times it may take some prodding, a dog can be one of the best tools for teaching children to handle responsibility. While young children should never be given complete responsibility for care of a dog, parents can have a child take reasonable responsibility for helping to care for the dog. How can a panting pup who covers its pint-sized owners with messy kisses posibly compete in a home equipped with a VCR, an oversized television set and a library of video games? The fact is, dogs hold their own, and more. Dogs offer children something they just can't resist: the company of a living, breathing creature that responds and communicates with them. Dogs are a source of endless fascination and fun for children, begining with the infant peering at a puppy through the slats of a crib. A dog ultimately helps children learn respect for life. In time, they understand that a dog can get sick, can feel lonely and afraid, can feel loyalty and love. Children also learn to respect animals as separate beings from themselves, with instincts and drives we don't wholly understand even today. Finally, a child learns to respect life when he learns how to treat a dog. When to respect its feeding time. When to let a dog sleep. When to offer a dog exercise and fun. Truly, there are as many reasons to keep a dog as there are people. Is Your Child Ready?Most veterinarians and psychologists agree that the best method to ensure a happy, healthy relationship between your child and a dog is to bring them up from the start with eachother. Because many apartment buildings do not allow dogs, this is not always possible. However, as the child passes the one-year mark, parents often move, and also begin to ponder the possibility of introducing the child to a four-footed friend. Unfortunately, there is not a magical age at which every child is emotionally ready to handle a dog. This is the key: any child at any age will greatly love and benefit frmo being around a dog, if a parent is willing to spend time with both and to help direct and nurture the replationship between the child and the dog.
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Post by DogGoneGood on Feb 12, 2008 14:11:11 GMT -5
A Warning Note: While this artical is right in many ways, and I totally agree that the friendship between a dog and a child is like no other there are deffinatly warnings at hand when it comes to children and dogs.
Children need to be taught to respect a dogs space, food and toys and a dog needs to be taught the same for the child. Children and dogs should NEVER be left alone in a room together. I don't care HOW good Fido is or how well behaved your child is, accidents happen and it only takes a split second when you're out of the room for those accidents to occur. I've read way too many articals about dogs attacking children, and have had too many experiences myself as a child, to believe leaving the two together alone under ANY conditions is a good idea.
All it takes is the child to step on a dogs toes at the wrong time for the dog to give even a warning snap which can still draw blood from a child's tender skin.
So please, take in all the benifits of children and dogs but never forget that they each need to learn to respect the other AND they should NEVER be left alone together!
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Post by rexandbaby on Feb 12, 2008 17:56:53 GMT -5
I have thoughts on this, but I hope to be leaving soon, so, I will say what I think when I get back!
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Post by lilredridinghood on Feb 20, 2008 19:23:36 GMT -5
Definitely agree with the warning note and that is why my children...future children will never ever be left alone with my dog(s). It drives me absolutely CRAZY when I see a young child walking a dog down the sidewalk ALL ALONE with NO adult in sight. I want to go up to them, ask where they live, march over to their house and slap their parents across the face. I saw a young child...maybe 9 or 10 walking a HUUUUGE black lab down the sidewalk. All of the things that could happen ran through my head and it wasn't even my child. What if the dog bolts? There is no way the child can hold back a dog that big? What if another dog starts fighting with the dog they are walking?...the possibilities are endless and it blows my mind that some people fail to think about them...it really does.
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Post by DogGoneGood on Feb 21, 2008 20:50:02 GMT -5
Yeah, deffinately. When I was young I walked our dogs (most of them larger), I was always alone with the dogs. And bad things DID happen. I was bit a couple of times, and did have my dog bolt and take off because I couldn't hold it back. So those are deffinate possibilities. But of course this doesn't mean dogs and kids are a bad combination. I think everything pointed out in that article are great! I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for my dogs... but you have to be smart about it (not saying my parents weren't/aren't smart... they just weren't all that educated about dogs!)
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Post by rexandbaby on Feb 24, 2008 10:49:31 GMT -5
I raised my 3 children with German Shepherd dogs. The dog was mine, not theirs, but the benefited from having that dog in their life. Never, had I left them alone, but luckily, never had a problem either.
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Post by nattiej1976 on Feb 24, 2008 17:57:40 GMT -5
Rex, we are the same, Taylah and Kato are NEVER left unattended together, and this is a dog that adores this child (some of you no doubtedly have seen countless photos of the two of them together on the i love dogs forums)
He is 3 times her weight, and can get incredibly excited to see her when she has been out all day and comes home from school, this excitement in itself could be dangerous to her if we do not control him just because of their size diffrence.
As far as walking him, the only way she gets to walk him, is that there are two leads, her on a short one giving him the commands, and one of us on a long one behind them silently controling the situation. It is kind of cute though, we often will be walking down the street like this, and passerbys are quite amused by what we are doing, but we have too, his instict to protect and guard her, is soooooo very strong, and if she is around when we are out with him, he is constantly watching constantly checking, constantly suspicious of all that are around. She would have no chance of controlling him if he felt that she needed his protection for any reason, he obeys her quite wonderfully but I would not trust his protective instinct when it kicks in, leaving her very uncapable of stopping him from protecting her to the full.
I know only a few months ago, an unleashed dog rushed at Taylah (in friendliness) but Kato had never been introduced to this dog before so was unknown to him. All he saw was a rush at taylah, he dived infront of her (hubby had Kato on lead) and the lead came up behind her in his rush and she went flying over behind him as she tripped up. Wich made the situation worse, because taylah was now on the ground, the other dog very close by, Kato seemed to think that her reaction to the trip was a fear of this other dog so he went into full protection mode. Whilst we had no doubt that she was in no danger from either dog, if she was alone there would be no way she could control this sort of situation.
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Post by DogGoneGood on Feb 25, 2008 1:01:20 GMT -5
Nattie, you hit every nail on the head for this situation. Kids and dogs can be a wonderful thing, but you always have to be responsible about it. Even in the instince you explained, if your husband hadn't been there with another leash attached to Kato (great idea by the way!) there would have been no control over the situation and Taylah could have been hurt, even if it was pure accident! (by the way, I think Taylah is an addorible name!).
I've never seen pictrues of Taylah and Kato before (I don't hang around I-Love-Dogs much), how old is she?
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Post by nattiej1976 on Feb 25, 2008 2:21:14 GMT -5
Oh, you should not have said that, now im going to stick em all here Taylah is now 7 nearly 8....... *Toddles off to go rumage up all the photos and transfer them back to photobucket ready for a forum mass picture post *
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Post by nattiej1976 on Feb 25, 2008 4:21:05 GMT -5
Just had DDG seeing as you said you hadnt seen them, i tried to limit the number, put them in their own thread under the pictures forum and put a dial up warning on it, didnt want to go and try and clog this thread up with a mass pic attack.
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Post by rexandbaby on Feb 25, 2008 7:15:23 GMT -5
*On my way to look!*
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Post by DogGoneGood on Feb 25, 2008 15:13:33 GMT -5
Yay! I have to go check them out! Thanks for the dial up warning too... all though to my knowledge we don't have any Dial Up users on DGGTF yet, but it's probably good to get into the habit to put some kind of "picture heavy" warning anyway *runs to photos section*
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Post by chiniejapanesechin on Oct 8, 2011 4:17:48 GMT -5
Never leave a child with your dog without your presence. This is to prevent any unwanted accidents.
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Post by lzqqqq on Oct 13, 2011 6:35:39 GMT -5
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