Dogs And Kids

Dogs and kids

As a dog trainer, I am constantly preaching about management and safety with kids and dogs together. I tell clients all the time that a dog. Any dog. Of any size, breed, gender, or age should ALWAYS be watched with any client under the age of 10. I do not ever recommend that kids are ever ledt alone with dogs.
I want to tell you about 2 first hand experiences I watched this week. Both could have been devastating and both were incredibly dangerous. And happened in the blink of an eye.
Earlier this week, I was working with a client and her daughter and her dog. The daughter is around 6 and the dog is around 10lbs. We were chatting and working and the daughter was helping a bit with things. The dog had a chew bone and was a good 3 feet from the daughter. The daughter got excited and ran to the dog and hugged her as hard as she could. The dog showed signs of stress and the daughter was quickly removed from the dog. We had a conversation about why we don't do that and I talked to mom about alternatives to having the chew bone around the daughter. What if the dog had snapped at the daughter? It would have been a fair and valid correction but unfortunately could have landed in a very bad spot giving the daughter scars to last the rest of her life. And the reality is that it isn't the daughter's fault. She got happy. Wanted to show the dog how excited she was. And showed it in a way that is dangerous.
The second one I watched happened today. I was at a pet supply store at the register, waiting in line. There was a mom, daughter who looked to be around 4 to 6 abd a small chihuahua in the cart. Mom was getting out her card to pay for things. I looked at the bag of treats that I was buying and looked up to watch the daughter quickly pick the dog up by the collar and throw her out of the cart and onto the floor. I gasped and immediately ran to pick up the dog abd give her to mom. I told mom what happened and she paid and left after saying thank you. The dog seemed unphased by this but it could have been much different. What if the dog had gotten seriously injured or ran out the door that was 10 ft away? Again, this is not the fault of the child.
Children's brains don't START developing impulse control until 3 to 4. Start. How can we expect them to not act out their impulses around another living being with also little impulse control.
This is why management is so important when it comes to children and dogs. This happen quickly and it can lead to very dangerous outcomes for dogs abd kids. Please please always monitor closely kids abd dogs together.