Living with dogs provides children with an added opportunity to learn compassion and unselfishness. 

There is hardly anything more precious than watching a child playing with a litter of puppies or witnessing a powerful bond between a child and dog. Remember “The Little Rascals, Our Gang” and their faithful Pit Bull “Petey” who followed them everywhere? Then, there was “Lassie and Timmy,” “Private Rin Tin Tin” and his young Calvary companion “Corporal Rusty” -- plus many more. How could we ever live without the companionship of a dog? I know I couldn’t – not happily anyway. 

It is very common to hear ‘dog people’ say they think it is good for children to grow up with dogs, particularly as it provides the opportunity to learn responsibility.  Children who live with dogs may learn to share earlier through offering their toys or food to their dogs. They may also learn the natural consequences of their own actions. Some parents have mixed feelings about allowing a child to feed the dog, although this can be an important part of learning to share with and care for another living creature. I know I’ve seen these things work a number of times with children. 

Living with dogs provides children with an added opportunity to learn compassion and unselfishness. Many dogs are sensitive to human emotions and interact accordingly. A crying child may draw out attention from their dog in the form of a lick or nudge, for example. Feeling better for it, the child may learn to reach out to others who are distressed.  

Do our dogs have emotions? I certainly believe they do. When I look into my dog’s eyes – or into any dog’s eyes – I’ll see emotion there. I can be gone 5 minutes or 8 hours and be greeted by my exuberant white tornados whose sole purpose in life is to make me feel welcomed and loved. All I have to do is listen to the mournful howls of the 2 dogs next door as they wait the long hours for their owner to come home and be with them. All I have to do is walk by the house up the street and receive ample warning from the German shepherd behind the fence that I better not come any closer. All I have to do is watch my husband’s shepherd Lobo -- still leery of any dog that resembles the black Belgian Tervuren that once bit him severely in the face at a training class at 7 months of age. …Yes, our dogs have emotions. 

Some people say that dogs behave out of instinct, not emotion. Well, this is fundamentally true. But isn’t emotion instinctual? It certainly is for our species. We cry and laugh, feel sadness, depression, joy, fear, and we consider all these part of the human repertoire of emotions. Why discount the same possibilities for dogs? Much canine behavior can be chalked up to instinct. Consider the wolf pack. When the leader returns from a long absence, the rest of his pack greets him in much the same joyful way as our dogs do upon our return. When a dog licks its owner’s face, I consider that an act of affection, it is mimicking the action wolf pups use to beg food from their elders. When you reach down to pet a friendly dog and it rolls over on its back, it’s behaving in the way the more submissive members of the pack respond to their leaders. In the wild, this intertwining of instinct and emotion is what binds the pack together. Our domestic dogs are social creatures that continue to exhibit traces of their wild ancestors’ behavior. 

While puppies and children seem like a natural combination, they are too often an unsuccessful combination that results in removal of the pup. As a result, many breeders refuse to sell puppies to homes with young children. I know personally from such experience. You have to go over this seriously with puppy buyers. The alternative is for breeders to educate these puppy buyers of the many potential problems of bringing a puppy into a home with children under age 5. This can help maximize the family’s successful adaptation to the pup. This doesn’t always solve all oncoming problems though. There are still many meaningful yet naïve parents that don’t know enough about having any kind of animal, let alone teaching their children about them. So, where do we go from that point of issue? Well, I guess it’s our responsibility as breeders, animal shelters, etc., to be able to identify as best we can in such dilemmas and then make our final decisions from there. It can be a hard call…especially, if our prospective dog/puppy buyers are not straightforward with their statistics. 

Puppies and children (depending greatly on their age) may be too young to respect limits during playtime. Parents must take responsibility for maintaining limits and must understand that a puppy will not have knowledge of words like “easy” or “gentle.” Both puppy and children will need to be gently guided when they begin to get rambunctious. 

Puppies have sharp nails, sharp teeth and lots of energy. Nips and scratches can happen accidentally, so parents will need to constantly supervise puppy-child interactions and should not rely on isolating the puppy from the children as a substitute for adult supervision. Just as puppies need to learn not to nip, children need to learn not to elicit such behavior. Children can unintentionally be very rough on puppies. Parents should not expect a pup to tolerate rough handling and should be prepared to intervene with the child when she or he is rough. Both puppies and children are time consuming and have a lot to learn. Parents might best be referred to a breed rescue agency to adopt an adult dog as an “instant companion.” Adopting a dog in need is a great way to teach youngsters the value of life and to give them the empowering experience of saving a life. 

Many experienced police K-9 officers don’t think a child should have a dog until they are at least 9 years of age. Then, the child should be old enough to comprehend slightly better in most common things. This makes it a lot easier on the child, animal and parents. Of course, this again, depends greatly on the breed, personality in both dog and child and the parents’ knowledge. I’ve met a number of children in my lifetime that were certainly old enough to know right from wrong when it came to their animals. But, for whatever reasons, those children were extremely abusive and rebellious.  Most of them were insensitive children with no guidance, and probably should never own any animal. Without help, these children most likely will carry that problem with them in everything they do, and possibly for the rest of their life. 

“To a man the greatest blessing is individual liberty; to a dog it is the last word in despair.” These words, written by William Lyon Phelps, briefly explain the dog’s constant need for reassurance that it is part of the family. This is a need that is natural to all dog-like species. 

Here’s a little story about the relationship between our great-niece Sydney Hart and our white German Shepherd Lobo. As a tiny baby, Sydney was always fascinated over anything that had fur.  She was only 6 months old the first time she had met our four white German Shepherds Sedona, Lobo, Surfer and Lily. For Lobo, he was the only one that had taken a great interest in the baby. One afternoon, Sydney’s Grandpa Robert and Grandma Barbara came to our house with Sydney so she could meet our shepherds. Robert took Sydney to the back yard and sat in our large log swing set. Lobo followed all the way jumping up and down to see what Robert was carrying. As Robert sat in the swing he placed little Sydney in a sitting position in his lap. Lobo sat right in front of them never taking his eyes off the baby for even a second. Sydney’s eyes filled with exhilaration as she made little exciting noises to the large dog sitting in front of her. Lobo was so zealous over her that he barked right in her face. Any other 6 month old would’ve probably cried in fear, but not Sydney. She laughed out loud, and reached out to touch the one-hundred-pound dog. For that, there was Sydney’s first kiss from her cousin Lobo. 

Not having children of my own, I could only share my dogs with nieces, nephews, and friends through the years. There are some dogs that just love children right from the very start – and Lobo was one of them. As Sydney grew, her mother Melissa and father Stephen found two puppies for her at the Humane Society. The puppies, Willow and Sophie, were mixed breeds of medium size. The pups turned out to be fantastic with children. Sydney does everything with her dog friends. One day, Melissa saw Sydney out in her back yard drinking out of the dog’s water dish. She was lapping up the water on all fours. She had even seen Sydney a number of times peeing in the yard. …“Sydney, what in the world our you doing?” Melissa yelled out to her. In this quiet little voice she replied, “I’m going potty, just like Willow and Sophie do.” I love that story. When my husband Joe and I would get together for family functions, Sydney would always come up with something interesting at the dinner table, such as…lapping the top of her water glass or putting her food down on the floor to get mother’s attention. It was so hard not to laugh – she knew just what she was doing. Then there was the time Sydney was sitting on the sofa -- holding her foot up to her head so she could scratch her ear. She’s a beautiful little girl with a big imagination and a great sense of humor. Now at 4 years of age she has 2 dogs, 2 cats and 3 gerbils. That isn’t counting all of the other things she catches outside.           

 “Sydney was probably raised in her ‘other life’ with the twin brothers from the famous tale of Romulus and Remus,” Grandma Barbara said. As the tale changes a bit here --they were condemned to death as babies and thrown into the River Tiber. They were the illegitimate sons and daughter of the vestal virgin Rhea Silvia and the God Mars. A female wolf found the twins, and baby Sydney Hart with her maternal instincts took over and she suckled them and took them to a cave overlooking Rome. The children were later discovered by a shepherd and became part of that family then. There are other stories of children being raised by wolves including several cases recorded between 1843 and 1933 in India. In 1920, a Doctor Singh brought back two girls to his orphanage that lived with wolves. The oldest girl was eight and they walked on all fours at their time of rescue. They fed entirely on raw meat, and they lapped their water crouched on all fours. When they felt threatened, they hunched their backs, bared their teeth and growled. I don’t know if Sydney will like reading this history in her baby-book when she reaches the age of 18. 

When Sydney was 2 and 3 years of age she would call Lobo “Elbow.” It wasn’t until she turned 4 that she could pronounce his name correctly. I love taking photos of the two of them together. They are great subject matter because of their gentle and humorous nature. Besides that, from day one, Melissa is always taking photos of Sydney -- so, she and Lobo became our family models. 

Two years ago I was getting ready to take my annual ‘00 Christmas photo of Sydney and Lobo. The two of them were interacting with one another in the living room while Melissa and I were getting some last minute things ready for the photo shoot. Lobo was watching attentively over Sydney’s shoulder while she was taking all of his toys out of his large basket. Sydney happened to turn around as he was breathing down the back of her neck. She turned her head, looked up at him and said, “Boy, he’s a big one!” It was just the way she had said it that made us roar with laugher. She was always coming up with something comical in her vocabulary. 

Sydney and Lobo are truly the “Heart and Soul” of a very unique relationship. It has been an enjoyable happening. I feel things of this nature can even bring friends and families closer to one another. I remember that special summer afternoon of last year at our house when we had gotten together with family. As soon as Sydney walked into the door she wanted to take Lobo for a walk in the backyard. I had gotten his leash and a little bowl of treats for her. I snapped the leash on to Lobo’s collar and off they went. Sydney was giving Lobo all of her silly commands and he was obeying each and every one of them. We could see he really wanted the entire bowl of treats in one gulp, but patiently took one treat at a time for each command. Then, Sydney was starting to walk Lobo in tight circles and we could see he was getting slightly dizzy. Poor guy. He was so patient with her. He would keep looking over at us as if to say, “help!” 

Most of us in the dog world believe life is richer with dogs. Dogs grant us extra opportunities for affection, laughter, companionship and forgiveness, and for teaching those much younger than ourselves about the wonder of being alive and of knowing a creature so pure and special as a dog.  

Hold It Like This!	Good Job!	That's How He Does It!