About a childminder with Staffordshire terriers

[chilled7up]

I thought I found the perfect childminder for my son until I realised that she has 2 staffs at home. They were friendly but now I'm worried and confused. What would you do?

I rjected a potential minder for this. She said they were always locked up, the. During the interview one ran in and licked my baby on the face.

No way would my kids have gone there.

OP, you say you feel 'uneasy' about it. Thats your answer. Always trust your gut instinct.

Actually, Greta, funny you shoudl say that.

I went around Xmas to the house of the woman whose daycare DS would be going to. (Daycare was still being built) She had a terrier type dog, lovely woman, very kind and great with kids.

At the end, the terrier kind of nipped at DS for genuinely no reason. He wasn't trying to pat her, or running away or anything. I thought there had been no contact so this woman and I laughed it off and reassured DS that the dog was only playing as apparently the dog was a really nice one with kids.

Wasn't till I was getting him in the car that I saw that the dog actually had nipped his hand, luckily only just breaking the skin! Poor DS, he'd been so honest that he'd been bitten and we had believed the dog! I still sent him to that daycare - it was fantastic, but there was no way I would have sent him to the woman as a CM after that.

DS is a little nervous of dogs now.

YANBU if you don't want a child minder with dogs. YABU if you differentiate because of the breed of dog. I have Golden Retrievers, a breed that people can't wait to say hello to when out and everyone seems to love and welcome (unless they hate dogs in general) and I also have a staff cross. The Goldens could do just as much damage with a bite.

The best thing to do is to discuss any concerns with the childminder.

Trust your instincts on this one, if you are unsure, then look for somebody else as you'll only be worrying.

They are banned where I live, so I wouldn't have the dilemma. I wouldn't send my children to a home with any pets/situation that I didn't feel comfortable with.

I used to work with someone who had her face ripped off by a dog (fortunately the doctors were able to put it back but she has a permanent and very visible scar across her forehead). It was apparently a labrador or something (I forget specifics - just that it was a dog that people think of as 'safe').

If your problem is with dogs in general, then fine. But as midori says, differentiating on the basis of breed is U. Any dog can be dangerous and you should assess the dog, not the breed.

Any dog can turn, I read something about a child whose face was ripped apart by an old English sheepdog, the pictures were horrific. You would not have thought it. The chid knew this dog and it was normally fine, one day when she was stroking it, turned on her

I wouldn't use CM with two dogs as imo the dogs should count as charges too. She is looking after them as well so would have less time and attention for your dc iyswim.

I wanted to go with a CM who was lovely and had been keeping Staffies with her minded children for over 25 years without incident. However I couldn't. I kept wondering what if and for my own sanity had to give up the place. If you are worried my advice is don't do it.

My cm had dogs, not staffies but big boisterous and loud. They lived in the conservatory when the kid where there, and were watched and wiretapped from afar.
I suspect the lived there most of the time anyway as there was never anyevidence of dog hair etc in the house. Even when they settee big and went after school the dog that was left was still kept there

Don't stereotype, all dogs are the same.

I hate this argument I really do. When you hear about dogs attacking children you are never told about how the child was pulling its ears or tail or whatever.

I trust my dogs (3 boxers) impeccably but I would not leave them alone with a child because i cannt trust the child to not annoy or hurt them

My childminder has a lovely little dog (Lakeland something or other) - I was wary at first but she explained that she had fully researched about them and having seem him, he fits right in with the other children! I would definitely be more wary about a bigger dog, but having no experience with dogs at all, this would just be a 'gut' decision.

I wouldn't leave my child with anyone who would allow a dig and a child to be unsupervised together.

Children are generally not good with dogs unless they have been trained well

*dog

I think it is utterly irresponsible for a childminder to have a dog, any dog. There is no way i would send my child to a CM who had a dog. I love dogs, i think that it is unfair on the dog to have to put up with other peoples children or worse, be kept outside to keep the children safe. I think it is an unacceptable risk and boggle at the fact that this is allowed. I have two terriers who i trust 100% with my DD but i really woulndt be comfortable to have other children running around thm.

I wouldn't use a CM with 2 SBT's, in fact I wouldn't use a CM with a large dog at all

Don't do it. You will never settle and never forgive yourself if something happens to your child. You are not sure or you would not be posting for reassurance.

I am a dog owner myself; I have a chocolate labrador with a lovely temperament but she is not perfect. She is great with kids, is well trained but boisterous and has even knocked me over. No dog is 100% reliable -ever.

Staffies may be 'lovely' 'family dogs' to a point, but we had one when I was a child, and he certainly had his moments. He once bit my younger brother, who had perhaps been a bit rough in playing with him (but not very, he could only have been 4). He also twice bit a boy who played at ours regularly, because he caught me when playing kiss chase!

On a couple of occasions he got out and attacked sheep, and on another he killed a chicken. It sounds like he was poorly controlled, but these were all accidents.

As our Staffie got older and the family home broke up, he got aggressive with my dad, growling at him in defence, and would only respond to me. He also growled, hair on end, at my friends. He used to sleep on my feet, and if I got up to the loo in bed, would get nasty when I tried to get back in.

Don't get me wrong - I loved my dog, but there's no way I'd have one around my own DCs!

my dd has a staffy and a ds1 and baby on the way the dog is very good with my grandson.

OP understand your concern to an extent but why did this have to be about staffs? It's so bloody ignorant to think just because the press love to villify them (and usually the daily fail, does that not tell you something?) that all staffs are dangerous and aggressive. Any breed of dog can be dangerous, you do realise that? It's down to good or bad training and discipline and the dog being treated properly, and any dog can be well or badly trained.

And as it goes, staffs as a breed are characteristically very energetic, friendly, happy, intelligent and very soppy and loving animals. Yes they are strong, but no small child should be left alone with any animal.

My brother has a gorgeous 2 yr old staff, and he is more like the family dog as we all love him to pieces. He loves cuddles from everyone and is so soppy and pathetic, I talk to him like he's a baby and he loves the fuss. He's been protective of me since ive been pregnant and rests his paw on my bump when he sits next to me. I'm getting fucked off with comments I get from people (MIL and GMIL) saying 'oh you'll have to be careful with the baby around the dog, he's so strong blablabla'. Yes because I was just planning on leaving the baby alone with him, in fact I was going to put her in his cage to sleep! FFS I'd be careful around any dog, just cos he's a staff people like to come out with this rubbish.

Sorry for rant this is just a real sore point with me.

OP understand your concern to an extent but why did this have to be about staffs?

this has already been explained, it might not be the most likely to bite dog, but the problem with the specific breed (and a few others) is that if they do, they are hard to disengage and the damage is much more extensive then if a more anxious nippy breed nips

it doesn't matter if you don't leave them alone because once they bite the extensive damage is done and its hard to get them off, yes a yorkie may be more bitey, but you can disengage it with less damage done, once a staffie bites its rarely a small wound!
EVERY SINGLE recent staffie attack on a child I've read has happened right beside supervising adults!

And you do not know how your dog will be with a new child just because of how its been with previous children, you don't! mine was a beautiful calm dog with every child till the one it bit! God knows what was going through her head? did that child have a different tone of voice? or manorisms? or hair colour that my dog had negative associations with? who knows! it was a new child it hadn't seen before and something happened in her mind! luckily she wasn't a breed that does a lot of damage with a bite but of course we still put her down . And yes she was supervised, I was right there!

further to my last sentance in my most recent post, I am NOT CRITICISING people having staffies (or any other dog) as a family pet.. with children it knows. I am demonstrating why a CM setting is not a place for a dog! Even if a dog has been fantastic with 50 children in the past, you do NOT know how it'll react to strange child no 51!

its TOTALLY different to having a dog in a home with the SAME CHILDREN all the time, that's fine!

I would not send my son to a CM who had a dog, not matter the breed. You cannot watch the child or the dog all the time so the risk of something happening is too big.

Cherie - I think that is exactly it. When I worked in A&E every most of the owners were present when the dog bit and not a single dog had ever done anything like that before. The worst bites I saw were from labs, collies and staffies. THe small yappy dogs didn't seem to do as much damage.

This is why, even though I love dogs, I've decided to minimise DCs contact with them. Not in a fear-frenzy way, but just to make sure they are respectful of dogs, but I wouldn't now have one.

Equally, having seen horrendous riding accidents as well, there is no way they're getting on a horse either!

I think we'll stick to guinea pigs.