Doodles & Children
THERE IS NO CHILDHOOD FRIENDSHIP QUITE THE SAME AS THE BOND BETWEEN A CHILD AND THIER DOG
Samantha Dickinson & Molly
Casper & Stella with Toffee 'CreamofBritish Scarlet O'Hara'
Firstly the beautiful children on this page are not my own, mine have long since grown out of the 'cute stage' so thank you to Stu & Suz Mayhew for the fabulous photos of Jay, 5yrs old and Daisy 6yrs, with thier friend Hudson who is 8 months old. Keith Dickinson for the photo's of Samantha. Kate Fishwick's children and Doodles Buddy & Maizee.
I am often asked 'Are Labradoodles good with children?' I think the question must be 'Are the children good with dogs?'
In general a Labradoodle has a wonderful disposition and is accepting of all people and animals but both dogs and children need to learn to respect each other.
Life will be exhausting for the parents in the first few weeks of getting your puppy, you will feel like you have had another baby and you will need to watch him every waking moment, especially to achieve house training.
Puppies need to sleep a lot, when sleeping he needs to be left in peace, this is where a crate is invaluable and the children must learn to allow him to rest. Puppies have sharp teeth and children soft skin. Puppies learn how hard they can bite from thier siblings, when you watch a litter of puppies playing they will bite each other and pull on ears and tails but when the victim screams really loudly the offending puppy will stop and the game is over, this is called 'Bite Inhibition'. A childs reaction is often to scream but they wave thier arms around like windmills which in turn excites the puppy, who will start to jump and nip at the waving hands, the parent must step in and end the game before you get to this stage, so that the puppy learns not to bite the children.
Young children should never be left alone with a young puppy or dog as both can unintentionally cause harm with over excitement. Children need to learn to be calm around him and puppy needs to learn not to bite thier soft skin
Puppies/dogs need boundaries, just as our children do. I always recommend going to training classes, perhaps if your children are old enough they can take an active part in this too. Socialisation is so very important for his development, if you have school children to collect take your puppy with you to meet all of the different people and to experience pushchairs, loud screaming,lollipop ladies etc, etc.
THERE IS NO CHILDHOOD FRIENDSHIP QUITE THE SAME AS THE BOND BETWEEN A CHILD AND THIER DOG
