I am curious how many of you with super high drive dogs think your dogs will never be able to live with smaller animals and even young children. Observing my guy, the cats have a reasonable chance if they have claws, but I seriously fear for toy dogs. Prey drive is extreme-good when we're playing, but...
How does this translate to adding small (smallish) children into a household? I remember a thread somewhat along these lines awhile ago, but can't recall where it was. If you've got a beast who deeply desires to catch and bite a moving animal, are the chances pretty good he'll want to catch a fast moving, yelling kiddo? I'm thinking pretty high probability for bad interaction?
He met kids when he was small and was usually good if they were...but lots of barking and lunging if they got vocal or active-as he's grown, mothers aren't letting kids near him anymore, so I just don't know. I suspect he's getting reinforced with some chase desires when people hustle their children away from him.
I have to say, I don't think it's all bad-I would just keep him crated when the kids were over.
How many of you have dogs that can't be around small kids, not because of aggression, but just because they want to chase and catch?

I cannot get into the whole drive explanation but can tell you my experience. If it is prey-drive only, you are speaking of... the only danger i see and need to constantly keep my eye on is... the kids have a ball or toy and Brock wants it... he jumps at it to get it... knocks down and scratches kid. So he doesnt see kids as prey but if they are between him and his prey... look out!

Alex,

Puppies are harder to deal with than an adult would be. The thing that you need to do is teach "house manners". How you want the dog to behave around strangers including children. It is better to do the introductions away from home. The dog is going to be a little less excited and have a greater expectation that they have to follow obedience commands away from home.

You also need to know your dog. With my puppy we still have to out her up while the other dogs go through their greetings with a visitor. If we don't she gets so excited that she will bite to get her attention from the visitor. If we wait until the other 2 settle down then introduce her she is fine.

You also really need to teach the children what is acceptable behavior around the dog. Every tends to look only at the dog, but the children need to have good house (dog) manners also. If the children can't behave the way they should, stick them in the crate and leave the dog out.

Alex.
Like Richard already pointed out, it all get resume on you teaching "house manners"/ob training. My dog (4 yo GSD) is allowed to "run free" inside the house (no sofa jumping, etc). When people como to visit, he will be the first to "get in front" of the door, and see who is it (he is protection trained). But once visitor have been introduce (adult a/o children), he will stay calm at his corner, showing that alofness characterized by the GSD.
He is a high prey drive dog (with the soccer ball or football) but not inside the house, outside he will bark and jump at you until he gets is prey.
Now, a puppy is a whole different thing, I own a 3.5 months old female pup (working line GSD), and she will greet the visitor and ask them to pet her and when confident will start the puppy bite/mouthy thing proper of puppies. I am working on her manners right now (I don´t like to crate dogs). Having differents things that puppy like to bite/chew on, help a lot, so their attention will not be on the people, but on their toys.

This past weekend I was over at the in-laws house with my 4 year old twins. They have a lab 1 year old that LOVES to retrieve. He will literally do it until he drops. Of course the owner was in the house, leaving the dog unsupervised with the children, so I took it upon myself to supervise the trio, I had only seen the dog one other time before. I didn't even know his name.
Let me tell ya that it's hard trying to tell a 4 year old why they shouldn't do this and that around a dog. When my son finally started getting bit on the legs (not hard, but i'm sure it would've escalated if I hadn't stepped in) I think he finally started to realize why he can't play "catch me if you can" with the dog. Then my daughter tried running with the ball (yikes!) wich ended up with the dog "trying" to hump her.
I had fun playing with the dog ,but it was hectic trying to keep the kids in line. I think I got tired out from throwing the ball before the dog did. That's when it started turning hectic with the kids "wanting a turn". Bottom line is, if the dog doesn't wear you out first, the kids will!
This is why i'm waiting for the kidos to be in school full time before I even think about adding a Demon spawn (GSD pup) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> to my litter. boy o boy, i can just see it now..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I will work on some house manners. He's a year old now, and I confess to having let him be a wild man. I was afraid to spoil his drives if I did too much obedience. I may never be able to "undo" some behaviors, like sleeping in my bed (yes, yes, I know) but perhaps supervised visits with little people can be possible. I doubt he will ever be that GSD out playing ball with the neighborhood kids-but they should be able to come in the house without fear.
Thanks everyone for the input. Good to hear others have dogs that turn into wildebeasts when there's guests in the house too!