Just curious how many of use involve our under 18 kids in the sport or training? My kids help but they have little enthusiasm for it. I'm all "Isn't that great! see what we taught Roxie?!?"
"Yea Dad, just great, another trick, Can I take the bite sleeve off now and go inside? The Simpsons is on"

The other day at Busch Gardens we sat for the animal act, they weren't impressed, "Dad we see this every day we want to ride The Loch Ness Monster again"

They're pretty good at feeding, grooming and medicating them and helping in the training but much bribing is involved

My daughter is helpful with playing with them, but the dogs can't compete with x-box when it comes to my sons.

 Quote: steve strom

My daughter is helpful with playing with them, but the dogs can't compete with x-box when it comes to my sons.

Damn shame, dog training has taught me at least one thing, patience. as opposed to video games and instant gratification

Not to mention empathy, humility and self-reflection.

 Quote: randy allen

Not to mention empathy, humility and self-reflection.

Naw, screw that, I'm a self centered bastard

seriously, there is a little Zen thing going

If my parents had had a dog when I was a kid I would have been in heaven!!! But they never had animals when they were kids either.

I was very animal obsessed but had to live vicariosly through books, Wild Kingdom, and National Geographic.

I always had critters, cept when I was in the Navy, that was one of the things I missed the most. twenty years of no animals cept the ones I berthed with

I don't have kids, but it sure took a hell of a long time to convince my boyfriend to help me pay for Conan's herding classes. Well, until he chewed through the cable TV cord coming out of the wall and we had to wait a few days for the company to send people out to fix it, then he finally understood what I meant by saying Conan was bored (I had a knee injury, and my boyfriend just isn't the exercising type, herding is something I can do while I work on getting back to jogging).

You can't teach wonder, you can't teach the bond, but eventually your kids will appreciate what you love and live for. Just remember to love them for who they are as well after all they have to put up with our insanity along the way.

My nephew is helping me with my lab's training. He's 13 and could care less about the dog but I was able to tie it to something he really loves, target shooting at the local shotgun range. He's also excited about the idea of goose hunting in the spring. So through the mechanics of training he's learning the base skill but not the emotional investment (which is fine) but his interest in the dog as a means to an end is there.

Awesome topic!
My kids are 13 and 15 and just now they are starting to show some chops with the dogs. Up until recently they have been reasonably helpful and very loving toward the dogs, but without the concentrated enthusiasm that I'd like to see.

I don't worry about it much though because in my 20 odd years in various working breeds, it has seemed to me that in families where working dogs are taken seriously, kids rightly understand that the dogs aren't something that they can play with frivoulously. I think a lot of kids understand at some level that there's a right and wrong way to do things with these dogs, and hold back because they don't want to mess up. To me that's a good thing for the most part becaus it's true: they could screw up with the dogs and in a worst case scenario someone could get hurt or a valuable dog could be lost or damaged.

Also I think that when they are young most kids don't have the maturity to do Randy's "zen" thing which to me is exactly where the good stuff comes from in working/sport dogs.