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Originally Posted by idreamofyorkies  Anymore stories/opinions from people are welcome. My next question would be, if someone were to own/breed even Yorkies and did so with their small children. Do you think baby gates/places for only pups and places for only kids could work out in a large home? What would be advice on if someone were to do it, advice on this from the ones saying hell no and don't do it would be great since you guys are the ones with the most fear about it!  |
My neighbor (whom I got Blazer from) also runs an in-home daycare. After the pups were born she put Abby (Blazer's mother) and the pups into the spare bedroom and put up a babygate at the door. Abby could jump the gate if she wanted out and we could get in there, but not the kids. The kids were allowed to look at the pups quite often, but could only touch them when an adult was holding them. As the pups got older we allowed the kids a little more access (one child in the room at a time, sitting, holding the pup on their lap.) Eventually we moved the pups to the gated off kitchen so that they got used to hearing and seeing more things- children, vacuums, the cat, ect. We would allow "puppy play time" where one or two were allowed out of the kitchen to play around the seated kids with their mother and "aunt." Later down the road we would take the pups outside (private, fenced in yard) with the children and we would form a circle for the pups to play in. These pups learned to play around children and the children learned how to be around the pups. All of the children (ages 3-9) in the daycare have smaller breed dogs- Pugs and Shorkies- and have always been around the two small dogs in this daycare. The only close calls we ever had with a pup almost being hurt was by an adult.
Blazer is from a litter of 6- half of the pups went to families with children. One pup is being trained to be a therapy dog in a small group home setting where at least one woman is in a wheelchair. We turned down quite a few people who were interested in Blazer's littermates and really weighed the possible issues with letting the pups go to the homes that they did. I understand the need to screen but I feel that it is super important to screen based on knowledge, not just a random rule "No kids, no other dogs, no cats, no old people, no non-fenced yards, no blah blah blah." My neighbor personally knows every person that has ever taken one of her pups and still gets updates on all of them from time to time.
When it comes down to it I feel that you need to train kids how to be around dogs and you need to train dogs how to be around people. No one is perfect, even the best trained make mistakes, but that's life. I don't live my life based on the worst case scenario possibility, there is ALWAYS a "what if" and you'll just go crazy trying to live like that!
Sorry if that was a rambling mess... LOL!