If you have a dog, do you NEVER leave your kid(s) and dog alone EVER?

[DrNortherner]

I have a 6 year old ds and a 12 month old black lab. He is my first dog.

He is lovely, gentle, kind, playful though a tad boisterious!

Now, sometimes I go upsatirs and ds and mu dog are downstairs alone. AS the dog he so friendly it has never occurred to me that this could be a dangerous situation.

Should I remove my dog from the room ds is in and close all doors so the dog can not get to him while i am upstairs or is the crazy as Labs are hardly known for mauling children are they?

Views apprecited please, and hones answers on what other dog owners do.

Many Thanks

Dd is 5 and i have never left her alone with the dogs. This is because we have 3 and 2 are giant breeds. She isnt physically big enough to stand above them and hold her ground if they were to start to play and they would knock her down.
They have never knocked her down yet when we are there because it is easy to control and I doubt they would play together in that way with her next to them but she could be seriously injured in an enclosed space if they knocked her down.

I dont worry so much about any aggression as they've never shown it, are submissive dogs and dd knows how to act around dogs but as physcially it is unsafe I've never had to consider it from the viewpoint of her being bitten.

I think it depends on the dog and the age of the child, to be honest. My DDs are 9 & 7 and we have an 8 month old lab puppy. I am happy to leave Dds alone with her as they understand how to behave with her. However, I subscribe to the 'dog is a dog NOT a human' theory. She is not allowed upstairs, she does not get on the furniture, she eats after we do and she waits for us to go in a room before she enters. She is bottom of the chain and she knows it. We also train her.

I would never leave her alone with other people's children, not because I do not trust her, I do (although no dog should be trusted 100%) but because other children are not part of our unit.

I would not have left the children alone with her, had we had her when they were babies or toddlers.

Dogs and children can be a fabulous combination.