this is Kaiser on his second day with us. he is starting to warm up after a day of whining and crying for his owners at the door. actually i think he misses his old pack. he lived in a house with 2 other dogs. he is not all excited as they described. atleast not yet. anyways here he is. me with him in one pic and the other with my children.




hes's a very big boy and i'm unsure of how you would describe his coloring. he has very little black coloring. mostly brown and white with a little black in his saddle, tail and snout.

I would caution you about letting a new dog lay in amongst your kids like that.

Only having him a day or two is not even close to enough time to establish pack structure and he doesn't even have a leash on. This is not how to handle a new dog, no matter what the age.

http://leerburg.com/308.htm Watch the streaming video on this page please!

I am taking my 6 mnth old GSD to a family reuinon this week-end. He is a total lavBLE goofball and I have had him since 10 weeks. I still would/will not let him interact with the kids like your last picture.

You are setting your dog up to fail.

are you kidding ? i respect everyones opinion on here. knowing most of you have tons of training experience. but you don't let your dogs lay with your children? i agree that most can argue about doing so on the first or second day. so the only interaction you would allow your children to have would be what?
i could even see if the kids were laying ontop of the dog or so. but laying on the floor with the dog in a picture? like i said i respect most opinions on this board, and also like i said i agree it's best to be more cautious in these early days, but when you say you never allow a dog to interact this way with your kids that seems a bit much to me.

Hi Bounette,
Please take Cindys advice and watch the video! What you're seeing in your dog today may not be what you see in a month or two. The dog laying with the kids like that after a couple of days is really dangerous, you don't know the dog. I would never do that! Start from scratch with his training and get to know him and bond with him. Do you have a crate? Good luck with your new dog,
AL

Bounette,

I agree 100% with Cindy.

We are not saying that he cannot be around you children, but you do not know this dog very well. Which is why he should be on lead and you should be supervising all interactions with the kids.

You said yourself that he whined and cried the first night, which is what I would take as nervous behavior, which is normal for a dog that has been uprooted from one home to another. And, in the photo, he is right at face level with your kids. I do not let any of my dogs get right up in the faces of kids, nor do I allow kids to get in my dogs face either, even though my dogs. It is just not a good idea at all.


Dogs need time to settle into a new place, period. Without a lot of things, people, distractions ect being presented to them.

I would give the dog time to settle in before allowing him loose among my house, furniture, children, visitors.

Setting up a pack structure and training a dog takes a *Lot* of work, and time. Setting up a new structure with a dog of unknown (even though you met the people, you were not there, so it is still "unknown" takes even longer. I cannot say that I would NEVER let my dog lay on the floor with a child, because I have. When my dog was around 1 1/2 or so, I allowed it to happen with my 10 year old nephew. It was not a daily thing though, and even with my dog who is pretty mellow and great with kids, she still started to playfully dominate him. Being on the same level physically makes the dog realize it can dominate the physically weaker child. Just like how dogs settle disputes by playing most times, a dog's "playing" is many times the dog testing out the structure of the pack. Once the dog "dominates" the child (usually in play) the dog now (in his mind) out ranks the child. This causes serious problems when the dog believes it is now his responsibility to correct the child as a more dominant pack member would. Before making a decision that something is harsh or extreme, read everything you can on how dogs interact with one another. Here, and other places. http://www.leerburg.com/pdf/packstructure.pdf
this is a good one to start out with, there are so many more here as well as other sites. Once you understand what is actually going on when the dog "plays" with your kids (remember, to some dogs, every second in life is a possibility to seize a higher rank status in the pack) you may understand a little better why many opt to never allow this kind of interraction. Most times, the dog is wonderful, but it is still a dog. When given an opportunity to gain pack status, most dogs will take it. Where children are concerned, it is always better to err on the side of more caution. I hope this makes sense.

No, not kidding. You have had this dog 2 days!

have your read the groundwork article? http://leerburg.com/groundwork.htm

have you read about preventing dog bites in children?
http://www.leerburg.com/dogskidsdirectory.htm

this is a dog you took out of a home where they couldn't handle him AND he was from a shelter before that. I wouldn't do what you are doing with a dog who I had for months IF I knew about the background of the dog and I am certain that I have much more experience than you do reading dogs and integrating them into a household. I am not saying this for any other reason than I would never want to hear that your kids were hurt because very basic training and handling foundation steps were skipped.

Be aware that with many new dogs, there is a "honeymoon" phase where they act beautifully and give people a false sense of the dog's true behavior and temperament. It generally lasts for several weeks to a month. I can't tell you how MANY emails Ed and I receive about rescue or shelter dogs that have not been given appropriate structure when first brought into the home and a month down the road they start feeling "at home" and really showing their true personality.

You can avoid this by setting it up correctly now.

Dear Bounette: I agree with the other posts, and this is why,
right now your dog's surroundings are new to him. He is just trying to figure things out. You do not know what level he was in the pack he just left. He is waiting to see where he will fit in, and when he realizes this is his forever home, he will try and put himself in the position he had before. If he was the alfa dog, he will want to be the alfa dog again, and the only pack members he has is you and your kids. He has to see you are the alfa dog and your kids are the alfa dog. What will he do to establish his dominance over his new pack? That is why we are worried. Take it slow, show him you and the kids are alpha. I bet he will be a great dog for your family and he is beautiful and has quite a happy smile, but remember in his mind he is just a dog and will do what dogs do, try and find his place in your pack. I would suggest the pack structure dvd from Ed.
I am sure your family will have wonderful times with him, but you have to start out on the right foot or you can end up in trouble and fighting for your place as the leader. So, begin right off the bat with caution, watch him closely, and learn how to have your family be the leaders, before he senses you aren't and tries to fill the space himself.
May God bless you and your family and your new dog.

 Quote: Bounette White

are you kidding ? i respect everyones opinion on here. knowing most of you have tons of training experience. but you don't let your dogs lay with your children? i agree that most can argue about doing so on the first or second day. so the only interaction you would allow your children to have would be what?
i could even see if the kids were laying ontop of the dog or so. but laying on the floor with the dog in a picture? like i said i respect most opinions on this board, and also like i said i agree it's best to be more cautious in these early days, but when you say you never allow a dog to interact this way with your kids that seems a bit much to me.

Yes Bounette, I Never let my kids interact this way with my Rott.
I do with our old Lab & our English Setter but never with him.