Thinking about getting a Yorkie . . .

[Cirlonde]

Like you said, each dog is going to have a different personality, but I'll at least chime in with my dog's response to kids. She absolutely loves them! She's not quite a year old, but from the time we got her she seemed drawn to children. My husband and I don't have kids, but we lived in an apartment complex where children basically roamed free! The first time Chloe encountered a girl who was about ten years old, Chloe ran right up to her and the girl squatted down. Chloe jumped up in her lap! I was much more nervous than the dog!!

Also, my mother babysits twin four year old girls and I take Chloe over to play with them sometimes. When she was a very young puppy (couple of months old), I was that hovering hen who was so scared the girls were going to wear her out or drop her. But we just explained to the twins that they could try to coax Chloe into their laps but they could not pick her up or carry her around. I didn't want them to start some kind of tug of war with her as the rope!

So, in my opinion, almost any dog/kid combo can be a match made in heaven as long as rules are set down and everyone abides by them all the time. If you get the puppy first, try to introduce her to kids at an early age so she gets used to them. If you don't have family with kids, take the dog to a park or something. Always be in control of the situation and alert, but let the dog get to know the kids. I've never had a kid just run up and try to grab my dog. They've always asked if they can pet her and I just explain that they can, but they can't pick her up. When you do have kids, start early teaching them how to behave around animals (it sounds like you've already got this part down.)

The only real problem we had was that Chloe would lick at the girls and this would get them excited. They'd scoot or jump away from Chloe, or jerk their hands back, and this caused Chloe's "chase instinct" to kick in which just made the problem worse because then the girls would get kinda scared and jerk away even more. Chloe thought they were playing and they thought Chloe was "attacking". Once we separated everyone and explained to the girls what was happening, they stayed calm and we haven't had the issue since.

Sorry for the book, but I hope it helps you out!!
-C