Ages of kids looking after/home alone with dog

[thewalrus]

Sorry, not the snappiest/more effective title.

I just wanted to get some views/experiences on what age children can be left in the house with a dog. Also, what age they can walk a dog on their own. I realise this will vary significantly from child to child and dog to dog!

My situation is that I have a very sensible/competent 10 year old, who's started to want me to leave her in the house rather than taking her with us ferrying her siblings around (short, local outings). I'd be happy to do this now if it were just her, but wouldn't yet feel confident leaving her with the dog.

Dog is a 10-month-old, incredibly good-natured mini schnauzer. She's obviously still young, but she's showing every sign of being a very calm and trustworthy little dog.

Views/ experiences??

[tabulahrasa]

If your child is old/trustworthy enough to be left responsible for a whole house alone, I'd also be fine leaving them with a well behaved dog.

Walking is a different matter, more because they then have other people and other people's dogs to contend with.

[CherylBlossom]

Agree with the above. Too many times I have seen children walking dogs they can't/don't control so I would be much more wary about the walking. Even if it's a tiny/sweet natured/whatever dog, kids like to chat and get distracted and you never know what's around the corner.

Saying that I often rode my horse alone around the age of 10 so I guess my parents felt it was ok to leave me in sole charge of a horse...

[dalmatianmad]

As above, if your child is sensible enough to be left in the house alone I would have thought they would be OK left with the dog?

[Bubble2bubble]

I regularly leave my 9 & 11 year olds alone with the dogs, though only for up to an hour at a time. Dogs and kids are both happy with this.
The rules are that the dogs, if they want, can only be let out into the secure back yard, not the front of the house, and no one is allowed to answer the door.
I generally come home to find that dogs and kids have not moved from the sofa spot they were occupying when I left them..

[thewalrus]

Thank you, that's all very helpful, and kind of what I was thinking about being at home being the thing that would happen first. I'm not in any rush to hand over the dog-walking, asking out of interest more than anything.

I was out on ponies on my own at 11/12 too Cheryl - hard to believe now!

[georgedawes]

I agree with the others. The dog walking would be a no from me purely because of other dog owners...I see so many out of control dogs on walks I'd hate to put that responsibility on a child to deal with, however well behaved your own dog is!