Hello lovely dog people.
We are hoping to adopt a rescue dog. We've been talking about it for nearly 2 years now, looking since Easter last year and looking in earnest for the last 2 weeks (2019 will be the year!) I have found lurking on the doghouse topic invaluable in both helping us to decide what sort of dog we could give a good home to and keeping me sane whilst we wait for the right dog to come along, so thank you.
Anyway, my stupid question is when can a dog be left alone with children? I know it has been answered on here before, but it's the specifics I am still unsure of. I mean, I know that child and dog do not need to be 1-2-1 chaperoned until the morning of the child's 18th birthday, but am less sure about where it is sensible to draw the lines.
DC are 8 and 10, plus we have DSS who is 15 and here approx. every other weekend. After the initial settling in period, I am assuming that, if both dog and children are happily engrossed in calm and separate activities it will be ok to leave them all as-is when I go to the loo or have a shower? Or should I be putting the dog and children in separate rooms? Also, I leave 10 yo DS home alone for up to around 20 minutes. Should I be taking DDog with me, or are they ok left home alone together? Separate rooms or free-ranging the house together? Again, I am referring to months down the line when DDog has fully settled and assuming there are no unwanted behaviours from either DDog or DS!
Moving onto much shakier ground, we have a small village shop. Outside the shop are 2 areas where dogs can be tied. I would never leave DDog alone, but would it be appropriate to leave 10 yo DS outside with the dog whilst I nipped into the shop for a loaf of bread? Or is it too much of a risk in case DDog gets into a fight with another dog, for example? I would have assumed no, but every Tom, Dick and Harry in our village seems to do this!
Finally, DSS is 15 and lives in a household with a dog who he walks daily. I am assuming it would be ok for him to walk our dog alone if he wants to, once we are confident that he has good control of course. I remember walking our family German Shepherd from about 14, but this was back in the 1980s so things may well have changed since then!
Thank you
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The doghouse
Really stupid question about dogs and children from novice dog owner
16 replies
SockEatingMonster · 15/01/2019 14:45
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