To have four large dogs in the home with my family?

[fallingdownasteepsteadyslope]

We have 5 children. Wasn't particularly planned as we have two sets of twins. Our oldest two are 9, the middle child is 7 and the youngest two are 4. We have four large dogs (three are what we consider giant breed).
Our 7yr old has made friends with a new girl in the class. We invited her over for a playdate but new girl's mother is refusing to let her come due to our 'big beastly dogs'. She's seen all of them as we take them on dog walks. She then said I was irresponsible to 'have so many dogs and so many children because one of the children will get bit eventually'. It set me off thinking, if you saw me in the street, would you think I was ridiculously irresponsible and 'a inadequate mother'? BTW, this mother has four dogs of her own, three cockerpoos and a cav.

I'm slightly in awe of the OP.

I can't imagine being responsible for 5 children (including twins and the extra challenges they bring 😁) and 4 dogs without having a nervous breakdown 😱. And you even have time for MN.

I bet your home is loads of fun and your kids friends have a great time when they come to play.

Unfortunately I would have said no to my 7yo coming though, but that is because she is utterly terrified of dogs and I would worry that it would be too much hassle for you.

The little girls mum sounds odd.

5more I agree that there's a huge blindspot.

I don't dislike dogs - a lot of them are lovely and if my circumstances allowed (and I could be bothered to put in the legwork) I'd probably have one of my own.

The fact that somewhere along the line dog on human attacks are invariably a human's fault doesn't mean we should stop be wary of dogs. My trust in dog owners being able to handle their animals isn't exactly strengthened when I hear outrage from some about dangerous dogs being pts, or of situations as described upthread where parents allow young children to play rough and tumble with a couple of staffies (I'd feel the same about a couple of spaniels or labs or ).

5moreminutes

Those stats include all related dog injuries, i.e. falling over a dog, tripping because of a dog or getting your nail caught in a dogs fur.

Now compare with other injuries, car, garden, parental abuse.

It is not 'odd' to compare when hysterical people say that they kill regularly. It's not true.

If people are unable to judge risk properly, it's perfectly okay to point out what children really are at risk from. It's generally not dogs

Reactive those are statistics for overnight (or longer) hospital admission, as you'd see if you clicked the NHS link, not for getting finger nails stuck in dog fur

I mean, it's fine to state that you just don't like dogs but don't dress it up as some false chance of being killed.

In 25 years of owning and rescuing dogs, I have no experience of 'countless' attacks either.

The headlines this morning are knife attacks from humans, I suggest that we sort out human behaviour before demonising dogs further.

5moreminutes they include all dog related injuries such as falling/tripping over a dog if it's the one I saw earlier.

The link won't open for me. It's about deprived areas isn't it? Which corellates to my earlier explanation about treatment of dogs going back to human behaviour.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest, and My dc are vary of other dogs (not their own)

From where you live it's fine.

I couldn't have 4 big dogs in my house too small. As long as the dog needs are met it's ok to me. You sound like a lovely dog owner.

Right, but in one state alone (where I live), there are over 1,000 admissions to hospital for injuries sustained from trampolines. You'd be looking at over 6,000 nationwide per year.

But no one is suggesting kids shouldn't be allowed to play at their friend's house if that friend has a trampoline.

Last time I let ds go to a friends house with a dog I turned up to find him cornered by the dog which was stood in front of him growling aggressively. It was a labrador which I'd previously met and seemed like your typical friendly lab. He is now very wary of dogs.

I love dogs, work with them and handle aggressive and fearful dogs on a daily basis. The only time I've ever feared for my life was when a st Bernard escaped it's kennel and cornered me alone in a dog ward. I sat curled up in a ball for 2 hours whilst it sat snarling and guarding. It weighed double what i did and i wouldn't have stood a chance if it had decided to attack.

Regardless of how good an owner you are or how well trained your dogs are, dogs are unpredictable and dogs and excitable children are generally not a good mix, particularly if the children haven't been educated on the subtle behaviour an anxious dog displays. Incidentally there are lots of good videos on YouTube on the topic of dog body language, anyone with kids and dogs should show these to their kids.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32912084 BBC link citing over 7000 hospital admissions for dog bites - I'll try again with my other linkreactive - the NHS link discussed the higher incidence in deprived areas but also had various other information about hospital admission for dog bites.

Reactive I'm not trying to demonise dogs, but it makes me cross when people claim they'd send their small children unaccompanied to a house containing dogs they've never met as if that's a badge of honour - it's a badge of blithe foolhardy carelessness.

How many people do you know who have been bitten by a dog in their life? How many who have been stabbed?

Kids get a lot out of interaction with the right dog in the right circumstances, I'm not anti dog. However the people who minimise the risk of unknown dogs and small children being thrown together are the ones who own dogs who will bite someone soon if they haven't already, and will always say it's someone else's fault...

www.nhs.uk/news/2014/04April/Pages/Dog-bite-hospitalisations-highest-in-deprived-areas.aspx

For Reactive - hope the link works this time.

It is an NHS link, and discusses the 5.8% rise in annual overnight hospital admissions to 6743 overnight admissions for dog bites nationally in the year ending January 2014, as well as the fact the rate is higher in certain areas of the country, notably deprived areas.

I cannot get the pictures to upload at all!
@5moreminutes confused, are you are trying to call me a troll? Never been accused of that before but I suppose I've never revealed that I have an Otterhound before. Slightly confused as to how the amount of children I have links to my dogs. I will also reveal to you that I am an expat from America and we got our Otterhound there, not in England.
Sooo...
I returned to the woman to ask her once again about a playdate and she accepted!!!! So, the dogs will be off with DH and the older girls when she comes round.
Beautiful dogs everybody!