What age were your kids when you got a dog?

[workingmumuk]

My LO is about to turn 3 and is an only child. I'm thinking of getting a golden retriever pup once she's in school as I'm desperate for a dog and have been since I was a kid.

Puppy will be my first puppy but not my first dog as I had 2 rescue dogs growing up 🐕☺️

Is 4 too young to be around a puppy? Or should I wait a bit more?

What age were your kids when you got a puppy?

Any advice about talking to your kids about how to behave with puppy?

We got our cavapoo a couple of months ago, we have DD6 and DD2

not going to lie it’s been really hard work especially with DD2 for the first month whilst they learned to play together.

There’s been a few times I’ve wished we’d waited a bit longer - I think school age is perfect.

but overall it’s been a good experience for all of us, Puppy has settled really well and we can’t imagine our family without him.

we did deliberately pick a cavapoo for their calmer temperaments and small size - I’m not sure I’d have handled a retriever temperament and size bounding round.

2.5 years

Our first dog was 3 when we had DD, so he was over the boisterous puppy stage. He died when she was just turning 8; his successor was 10 months old when we got him, fully housetrained and quite a placid temperament.

Ds was 9 when we got a labrador. Essentially a furry crocodile with razor sharp teeth and grew really fast. Needed a lot of time training. Glad we never did it any younger, if anything we should have left another year or two. Even at 9 you need to have eyes in the back of your head and make sure they are not left unsupervised, especially when they have friends over and during the pups teenage phase. The food thing at 9 is they can easily walk with you for a daily hour long walk in the rain/snow/dark.

I'm also of the mindset that dog will be very much for me.

I will be doing loads of training... I'm planning very advanced training and have books, local dog trainers, and classes lined up.

But I also know how much pups can nip and jump up etc. and don't want to risk my child getting bitten whilst puppy is in that excitable phase.

It's interesting to read the different stories and hear different experiences both good and bad.

If you had a golden retriever especially, please do comment and tell me how they fitted in to your family.

16, 13 and 10, the best thing we ever did x

Kids were 15, 13, 10. I'd not want the youngest much younger - it's been a lot trying to help them understand her body language and respect her boundaries. I don't think I'd have been able to rest easy with a very young child in the house.

Youngest was seven

will your child be okay going out in pissing rain for a walk..3 times a day

towelling off a golden retriever and sorting a 3 year old 😳

and they are bloody massive

DS1 was 8 and DS2 was 16w when we got a 16w old pup. All 3 are the best of friends now. DS1 is 9 now and happy to walk/pick up poo etc (was told from the off that he would be expected to help). DS1 and pup are 15m now and wherever one is the other isn't far behind.

Our youngest was 4 sows still had a lot of child care and people and children coming and going.The other DC were teenagers .

We had a small, young dog before the children came along. We had her from being a puppy and her puppy stage was hard!!

DC are 4 and 5 and we recently got a cavapoo puppy. Her temperament is very calm, so it has been ideal. No issues at all, apart from encouraging the children to be calm and teaching them how to manage typical puppy behaviour. I think it’s an ideal age when they’ve done a year at school and understand the concept of ‘rules’ more and considering the feelings of others. They are loving taking responsibly for feeding both dogs (with support) and helping with training.

However, I can imagine if you had a puppy like my first dog, it would be more challenging alongside having children!

Mine were 8, 6 and 4 when we got our first rescue dog. Best thing ever.

It's interesting you saying that the ideal time is after a year of school, another commenter said the same.

Cavapoo is another breed I'd consider, as originally I looked at Cavalier King Charles Spaniels - but the list of hereditary diseases in the Cav King Charles is just shocking!

It's a great pity about cavaliers, SIL has always had them and they've been lovely little dogs. Maybe it's possible to find good breeders, I don't know. I'd be concerned that crossing with a poodle wouldn't necessarily eliminate the breed problems. You're right to be cautious - there's a lot of dodgy 'breeders' (aka disguised puppy mills and illegal importers) nowadays, especially of popular breeds and poodle mixes.

This is a good point and why I was asking if 4 would be better, once she's in school.

As a family we don't spend much time inside - we often joke that my daughter is a Labrador because she needs to be walked twice/three times a day and she wants to be outside the very second she wakes up in the morning...

So that's one of the reasons we wanted a dog.

And rain doesn't put us off - we are out in all weathers hiking the trails around our home.

Thank you for pointing that out though because it is one of those little things to think about and plan for.

14 & 17 but the plan was to get one when the youngest was 7. Lots of charities I'd spoken to wouldn't rehome if the DC were under 7.

Our youngest was still a baby. The only issues we really had were a crawling child checking out the water bowl and lack of time for training.

The DC all loved having a dog, the dog was amazingly child-social - despite being your typical JRT who'd tell any other dog to get lost, she was used as a stooge dog to work one friend's child through his fear of dogs. We made very sure that the DC gave her space, never pulled her about and let her sleep in peace.

The DC have all grown up into massive dog lovers.

It depends a lot on the child. My kids are active and didn't mind the jumpy, nippy stages.

House training the puppy is much easier if the kids are school age.

At the time, my kids were 1, 5, and 13

I grew up with loads of pets (dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc... you name it, we probably had it!).
Anyway, after 5 years of longing, we bit the bullet and got our pup. We got very lucky with our boy. He was easy to train and lovely to walk with. I think too, I was so 'on' all the time with toilet training and getting up in the night and just being 'on call' so to speak with our then toddler, that the puppy chaos just melded with the toddler chaos. I seemed to be able to manage both pup and toddler without too much stress. I look back though and we had such an easy dog to deal with. Just loving and calm from day one. He's going on 7 now and his bond with the kids, particularly our youngest, really melts me. Still, you've got to have eyes in the back of your head and be on top of the supervision.
What was absolutely essential to the bone was attending proper puppy school. I was taught how to teach pup to walk obediently alongside the buggy, walk to heel, recall, recall, and more recall. In order to make having a puppy work well with a 1-year-old, I needed to be trained as an owner! It paid off and then some. The thing about puppy school is that you can actually engage with the teacher and ask for support with specific issues that relate to owner and dog.

10 and 13.