socializing puppies and children

[Discussing Labradoodles & Goldendoodles]

For people without kids and who don't have little cousins, nieces or nephews around, how do you socialize your puppy to children?

I have a 9 month old maltipoo who likes quiet, calm children and when parents bring kids into the park, as long as the kid sits quietly and pets him he's very happy. What he doesn't like is the high shrieks, sudden movements and he gets really worked up when kids (especially pre-teen boys) start running around.

So far Noah loves kids. He gravitates to them and really wants to play with them.

I can't see myself having any kids for at least another 7-8 years, but when the time comes, I don't want to worry that my dogs will hate babies. I just could never ever give up my dogs!

I don't know any kids and none of my friends have kids yet. There are a ton of kids in Manhattan and especially in my apartment complex, but just having a friendly pat here and there doesn't seem like much socialization to me.... I would love to have Noah involved in the reading to dogs programs so I want him to love kids!

[Leslie and Halas]

What about people at work? Or maybe people in your obedience training? So any of them have kids? I use my friend's kids and work people's kids. My friend's kids are a little shy around dogs. Halas is excited when they come over, so that makes both the kids nervous. But after a couple of minutes, the younger girl wants to play a little bit with Halas, but the older girl just keeps ignoring him. He's so used to this, that, if the older girl stands up like she wants to play, Halas will sometimes bark at her because he doesn't know what she's trying to do. The younger one will throw his toys to him, but she doesn't want to run or wrestle. The kids from my work really want to run and wrestle (they're used to a golden retriever) with Halas, and it took him awhile to figure this out. He was really used to the limited playing that the other kids did. So when these new kids started to run around trying to get Halas to chase them, he kept looking at me like, "What do I do?! Can I run after them?!" I told him it was ok, so he ran and wrestled and had a blast. But he still knows not to do that with my friend's kids. So I think they learn very quickly.

[Adina P]

he kept looking at me like, "What do I do?! Can I run after them?!"
What a sweetheart he is!

[Adina P]

Here's some advice from the past: http://doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/getting-experience-around-kids
(LOL...'advice from the past' sounds like advice from the 1950's..)

[Carole (*Koda*Monty*Bindi)]

Jane~

I would be MORE than happy to send our 10 year old son up to you to socialize your pups! LOL As I sit here and type he and Gaston Cramer are zooming around the play room playing hide and seek! If I put him on a plane to you by 5 he should be there by bath time tonight! LOL Oh, when he arrives would you mind going over his spelling words with him.....we are obviously avoiding working on them at the moment! LOL

~Carole

[Tamara & Giada]

LOL...........can I send my 11 yo ds too??

[Oliver]

PetSmart and other pet stores and places like Home Depot are great for exposing pups to new things, including being around kids! However, Oliver has recently learned that jumping is okay when it's on strangers (not for us though!) because most of the time kids and families run up to him faster than we can say, "Please let him sit before you pet him." :\ Now I always try to make sure that my husband is with me so that I can focus on Oliver behaving and he can focus on the people/kids/potential petters behavior. lol That was one small difficulty we had with introducing him to kids- he'd get toooo excited! Parks are also good places to see kids :)