Hellobee Boards

Honestly i don't want a dog until my kids are all in school. And puppies? omg. so much work. I just find animals unpredictable in general and I'm not keen to add another furry animal to our home until they can understand how to treat animals kindly. They're kinda rough with my cats and dogs just make me more nervous. I know I couldn't devote the time to training and raising one properly with little kids at home. I know DH really wants a dog, though. But it's not going to be anytime soon for us.

So exciting!!

I've always heard that retrievers are good with children. How large of a dog are you thinking?

I think I would consider your sanity more than M's age. I think she'd be happy having one at any age.

Elementary school age is what I'm waiting for - by then kids are generally old enough to help give the dog food and water, brush their fur, understand that they have to be gentle, etc.

I prefer mixes to purebreds - they cost much less and tend to display less of the behavioral and health problems that may be associated with whatever the purebred version of that breed is. I would like to get a lab or retriever mix. DH and I are going to have to compromise because he has always had small dogs, and I am just not a small dog person. Specifically, he likes dachshunds, but they're generally not very good with kids (he had one when we first got together and it was no exception - an incredibly stubborn dog that would turn aggressive very easily and peed on everything despite intensive training) so there so nooooo way we are getting one of those.

We have a golden retriever/shiba inu mix, and he is amazing with LO. Any kind of retriever mix would be awesome. Our neighbors yellow lab and black lab are also awesome, but they're kind of hyper. I like more mellow dogs

Ha, agree to no puppies!

Samoyeds are some of the kindest dogs I've known. We had one growing up and my sister basically grew up with him.

My relatives have a havanese that has been awesome for them.

Some of the herding breeds have been known to try to herd kids (think border collies). With that said, one of ours is a Sheltie and she's awesome, but is probably least into E of the three.

Just remember that dog = always having to think about getting home in time to let him/her out, or having someone else available to do it. No spontaneous overnight trips without family or a pet sitter on call.

I would say when they can actually help and know to keep their hands to themselves. 5/6ish?

My Mini Aussie is a dream with kids. So is my rescued Shepard mix.

If we didn't already have dogs, I probably would wait to get one until they're old enough to take on some of the responsibilities that come with caring for one - like 6-7 years old?

That said, our LO's were born into us already owning 2 dogs, and it's been really great for them! They are really affectionate with the dogs, and they're not scared of animals in general. They're actually a little too eager to go up to strange dogs and want to pet them! We have two malti-poos so they're really low maintenance dogs. I think a low maintenance, hypoallergenic dog (most poodle mixes), would be great if you want to introduce a dog now when your daughter is still really young. My kids love taking the dogs for walks!

I personally love and prefer big dogs (used to own a beautiful husky!!), so I hope to get one of those when the kids are older, but I know we just don't have it in us to handle one now. We don't have the yard space, and it'd be impossible for me to give it the exercise it needs daily.

Never! We have a dog and although DS loves her, having a dog is so much work.

In your situation, I would say until she is really begging for a dog and she can help with some of the responsibilities.

DD is so into dogs right now. I think the older kids at daycare are pretending to be dogs and she walks around barking. One of her godmothers got her a toy dog with a carrying bag and she walks around with that thing. She also has a shirt that happens to look like her dog and she's so happy pointing to it while pointing at her dog.

However, we don't plan to get her a real one. It's just too much upkeep for us. Maybe she'll get a motorized version

I have no direct experience, but my neighbours were going back and forth over this for a while...their youngest is 3.5yrs and they just got a dog.

While a dog would make my LO so so happy right now, I think we are going to wait until she's old enough to understand that the dog is a gift for her, that way she will be really excited

@lawbee11: Don't do it!! lol Honestly, as much as I love my dog and we had her before LO, if I could turn back time and see what an added stressor it would be having a 15 month old and a dog I wouldn't have done it. It's just really hard right now. They absolutely adore each other, BUT it's ALOT of work. If you really want a dog now go for it, but if you wait there are many perks to that too. There's nothing like the excitement of being a child and knowing that you get to help pick out a doggie to bring home and love.

We have 3 dogs (yes we're crazy ) a Boston terrier (10 yo), a boston/rat terrier (brat, 8yo) and a weimarner/lab mix (2 yo). The brat is a rescue and is scared of all little kids so she spends her days running from DS. The Boston will put up with him for short amounts of time and then will just run away. The weimarner/lab is amazing with him but she's also still a pup (she was 1 when J was born) so although I've heard that labs are great kid dogs I wonder if it wasn't more her age and temperament vs her breed. She is crazy crazy hyper and still likes to chew at just over 2 so she has other issues but she's great with DS and he loves her. She's also a great size, her parents were both around 90 lbs but she's 40 and a good medium size.

We had our dog before DD arrived.
When we picked her we were cautious of avoiding breeds with short life expectancies. As morbid as that may be, some popular breeds only average 7 years. We really wanted to avoid losing a pet when our kids are young.

It's tough having a dog because she does require care, but the love she had for DD is so so worth it.

So my advice is get one yesterday!

We have a big, old dog right now and I think it's been GREAT for L. He has learned eyes and ears and nose and tail all using our dog. HA. He learned how to be "gentle" because of our dog (and cat). I honestly think it has been fantastic for him to grow up with our dog, even though I know he isn't going to be with us much longer.

I would say 3+. My LO is almost 2 and adores our dog, whom we have had for 4-5 years. That being said, we have to be very vigilant when the two are together. LO does not understand that she shouldn't sneak up on the dog or try to pick her up. She is finally starting to understand how to pet her gently and not to pull her tail, but she is still not 100% trustworthy with the dog. Our dog is a sweetheart, but has growled/snapped at LO a few times when LO surprised her or inadvertently hurt her. I think that when LO is older, probably around 3, she will have enough of an understanding not to do those things at all and it won't be as stressful.

ETA: Our dog is a papillion mix from a rescue. She's about 10-12 lbs. In general, she is very tolerant of LO and clearly loves her (sleeps by her door, comes to get me if LO is crying, licks LO to death when she comes in the door), but like I said, she's growled when she was sleeping and LO pounced on her, and another time when LO pulled her ear really hard.

We have two dogs (a 12 lbs yorkie - bigger than average, and a 17 lbs beagle terrier). And while we can't imagine our lives without them, if we didn't have them before LO was here, we probably would have waited until he was school-aged to get a dog! Not for responsibility or expecting DS to take care of them, but just for the dog training to be around babies/etc.

I grew up with 3 dogs since the day I was born so I don't really believe your LO has to be any age to be "old enough" to get a dog. We'll have one dog when I give birth to our LO.

I have a soft spot for labs/lab mixes. Such sweet and playful dogs!

Not really sure what would be a good age since we got our dog while I was pregnant with LO1 and I'm so glad we did it then. I'm grateful that we were able to get through the puppy stage without having to worry about any LO's on top of all that training and housebreaking and the chewing phase. I've always had German Shepherd mixes and my current dog is no exception. My last two dogs have been rescues so we aren't sure what they were/are mixed with besides Shepherd. I think for *most* dogs, as long as you are diligent, repetitive, and committed to training then you won't have any issues with dogs and LOs.