[MoGraceLiz]

I don't want to scare you, but thought you'd like to hear my story. Twelve years ago I raised Yorkies and my son, 7 at the time wanted a big dog, so we looked for a golden and found Nikki. A wonderful dog, by the way. She being a puppy was out with my yorkies in the fenced yard and bit my female, Allie. We rushed her to the vet and found that a couple of ribs were broken. We attributed it to playing too rough and began to watch carefully.

It turned out that it wasn't rough play and we, at the time, felt it was important for our son to have his big dog and we placed the yorkies (3 of them) in wonderful homes.

Now 4 years ago, we began with the yorkies and got Mo, a male yorkie puppy. Nikki and Mo got along great and they played nicely together. A couple of months passed and we decided to get a female to start our breeding program again. Got the little girl home and so adorable she was...Nikki continued to play with Mo and we watched the new baby very carefully. One morning while I was readying for work, little Lilli was watching me and then I went to get clothes out of the dryer....well she followed me, I thought, then I heard a terrible growl and ran for the living room. Apparently Lilli was watching Nikki and Mo play and started to join in when Nikki lost it and killed Lilli. It was horrible, and still stings my eyes and heart when I think about it.

Since then, we no longer let Nikki in the same part of the house as the yorkies. She is old and very gentle but she is an animal and instincts can kick in at any time. I realize this is probably a rare case, but because it was awful, we keep them separated. I've gone over and over it in my head trying to figure out why it happened. Of course I've never been one to tell someone that my dog wouldn't bite, because we really don't know that for sure. No matter how much we think we know the dog. A dog is a dog. Nikki is a wonderful golden, and we couldn't ask for a better natured pet than her, but I'm still cautious with my granddaughter, and the yorkies around her.

This is a true story, and it might never happen to anyone, but I now side toward caution in every case. Nikki is at the end of her life, once she's gone the yorkies/biewers will have full run of the house but until then, we'll have gates.

I'm sure the golden you are talking about will be just fine, supervise them in the beginning. In my case, we did supervise, just not long enough. I'm still sick about it.

Thanks for listening