Doodles and Children: Your experience and advice welcome

[DJ & Chance]

 

My puppy Chance has always been outgoing and super friendly with strangers.  I’ve taken him to work on campus from time to time, and he has been enthusiastic about meeting the employees and students there.   But he hasn’t had much experience with younger children.

 

Today while we were on a walk, six children noisily approached us.  My guess is that the ages were 8-10.  Of course they wanted to pet Chance, but I could see that he was nervous.  Two of the children were bouncing basketballs, and that noise in particular seemed to alarm my puppy.

 

I put Chance on a sit/stay and asked the children not to touch his face but to gently stroke his back instead.  But they were too excited or distracted to comprehend, and youthful hands were waggling towards his puppy face and the bouncing of basketballs continued.  Chance didn’t growl or snap but I think he might have done both if I had not instructed—sharply—the children not to touch him.  In the end, mom arrived and we posed in the streets for a photo.  Chance snuggled between my knees and several of the children, calmer now, stroked him gently.

 

This incident will make me very cautious with Chance around young children.  I am a bit sad because he is such a friendly little guy. 

 

Do any of you have experiences or wisdom to share? 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Perhaps as he gets older this may be OK. I often let 1 or 2 calm kids interact with my dogs. But too many excited kids would get the dogs revved up in Luca's case, and might be a little overwhelming for Calla. If kids don't listen and bother your dog, cut off the interaction. The last thing you need is someone getting scared or hurt.

[DJ & Chance]

Thanks, F.  Makes sense.  These kids were "in your (dog's) face" excited. Young doodles such as Chance look like fluffy stuffed animals and that may exacerbate the problem with kids without "dog sense" or experience.

[Adina P]

When I was actively and furiously training Rosco at a park one day, and we were working on sit stay during pettings, I spotted a group of what looked like girl scouts (I think they were 'brownies' though).  In any case, I mustered up the courage (I'm kinda shy) to ask their group leader if they'd like to help me with my dog training. They gladly agreed and what I did was instruct the girls to line up and then one at a time walk by my dog.  Then a second time they were allowed to pet him briefly and walk away.  It was an AWESOME training exercise because he got pet by many young girls over and over, but only briefly.  So he had a high chance of success.  So my suggestion is to seek out opportunities where you are more or less in control of the 'distraction' in order to give him some good experiences and success.

[DJ & Chance]

Great idea!

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

I think this question should read "my doodle" and children. Each and everyone of our doodles are different with kids, they all have different personalities.

Daisy seems to love all little people but I know there are lots of doodles here on DK that don't quite have that going on.

Children and Adults alike need to take heed in what the dogs owners are saying to them, if they don't then you must move on.

Good Luck!

[DJ & Chance]

You are right--didn't mean to generalize.  Thanks.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

I have parked myself at the school gates on numerous occasions with both Riley and Boris but I did this from a very young age. Now if they see huge groups of young children coming towards them they are absolutely fine.  I do always say to children that not every dog is friendly and that they must always ask the owner if it's ok to pet. As I don't have young children in the family it was one of the very important socialization tasks. Trouble with doodles is that they look so cuddly but as with people they are not all the same. You could find the gentlest Pitt bull and an unpredictable doodle. I would find some children and get them to help you to overcome Chance's fear. Get boys and girls and ones that are wearing hoodies and hats to help if you possibly can. I used to give the children treats to give to the boys.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I say the exact same thing to kids, Nicky.

[DJ & Chance]

He has played with children in smaller numbers and so it may be that the size of the group caused the problem. The treat idea is a good one. Thanks.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I honestly think that possible more than the kids it was the basketballs!  He wasn't comfortable in his surroundings and he couldn't get his focus off the bouncing basketballs long enough to focus on the kids so he was just really uncomfortable and he was just trying to let you know this.  Now, that being said, because he isn't raised around children, you do need to focus some extra training efforts to his being around children.

Our Lucy in particular has an issue with anything on wheels (skateboards, bikes, rollar blades).  She also can't focus really well if there is noise going on.  She has to know what is causing the noise.  In a nice calm environment she is good with kids, but toss in the extra things and she is very nervous.

[DJ & Chance]

I think it was probably a combination of the size and behavior of the group and the basketballs.  I plan to get a basketball and bounce it around!

[Christine & Shelby]

Agreed.... very similar for my Shelby :)