quote'Sorry, Mel. I have to disagree with you a little on that one. We once knew a Dobi named Red Sun. Beautiful dog. And very well behaved. The family's toddler was able to approach him when he was chewing on a bone, take the bone from his mouth, play with him a little, and then walk away unscathed while Red returned to his bone. My previous dog, Murphy, was also that way with children'
sorry but that has freaked me totally out, W4F are you seriously saying that you allow small children to approch your dog and take food from it, or you would allow a toddler to approach a big dog such as a rottie and take its food?? and do these children understand that you cannot do that with other dogs?? i teach the kids to stay away from her, yes she is good girl but i odnt want them thinking that all dogs are like charlie and they can take their food away. when i teach the kids about charlie i am teaching them how to treat all dogs and how to respect all dogs and the different ways we communicate.
i personally would rather teach kids to respect my dogs space than have their faces torn off by another dog because they could do it with charlie, just imagine that little toddler who taks the bone from the rottie trying that with another dog, that to me spells disaster.. and i personally believe it is teaching the wrong thing and very irrisponsible, in my country such behaviour may get the parents in some serious trouble esp if a passser by or neighbor saw it.
and i am not on tenderhooks when she is feeding, she is in another area from the kids that the children cannot get to without me. and as any responsible carer knows, you should always know where you babies, toddlers and dogs are. it is against the law here to leave a child under 12yo alone with a dog and if anything happened i will be charged with neglect etc. these type of laws have reduced the incedence of dog attack on small children and are very effective.
and if you can teach a child the word 'no' that is how you start training a child to handle dogs. if my neice attempts to hurt my dog she gets a big no and a bit of a growling from us and is removed form the game for a few minutes. just like dogs she associates the action of hurting the animal with disaproval.
and when she was a crawling babe, charlie was by my side at all times as it is a legal requirement here and charlie is always with me anyway.
oh and my dog is very well trained and i trust her and she listens to me, but she is a dog which is still an animal.
so if you want your kids to be taking bones of big rotties go ahead, i just pray it does not go bad, as many of us know, it often doesnt matter till it really does matter.