The Relationship of Children and Dogs

this is an excerpt from my book Central Asian Shepherd,author Ekaterina Rekowski. The Book will be published soon and will be available at Amazon.

As both a dog trainer and owner of dogs, I am often asked if this breed or that breed of dog is good with kids. I hear this question frequently here in the USA, yet for whatever reason I never heard questions of this nature while I was living in Russia. Since it does seem to be a popular question in the USA I think it warrants discussion. There has never been a specific breed of dog created by nature for the sole purpose of helping humans raise and babysit human children. Of course, some breeds are better than others with children. For this part of the discussion, let’s focus on toddlers who are fast and loud; rambunctious is a good word to embody their behavior.

I noticed a higher occurrence of problems arise in households where people have purely hunting dogs or terriers; these breeds often snap or dominate children who belong to the household. By the very nature of the breed, hunting and terrier dogs are bred to hunt and chase. Therefore, a toddler running around can trigger a prey response and provoke them to behave in the instinctual manner they were bred for. I have also received complaints about children being herded and nipped by breeds of dogs within the herding family. I don’t want to suggest that if you have perfect children and a fantastic dog of a herding breed that your dog will be automatically seen as a child-problematic dog. I do wish to discuss breed tendencies and how they come in to play with children.

Surprisingly, ‘decorative’ breeds who were bred for fun and have no real functions other than companionship, possibly due to their tiny size and fragile nervous systems often bite owners and kids. They can feel annoyed if picked up when not wanted or if they don’t want to share ‘their’ sofa with the kids, so they resort to a bite to show their displeasure. Big breeds often tolerate kids better than small to medium size breeds. But again, responsible parents will never leave a toddler unattended with ANY dog. A dog is an animal and it is said that the mind of a fully-grown dog is similar to that of a 3-year-old human. Why would you expect babysitting and safety from someone who behaves and thinks like a 3-year-old child?