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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OK, sounds like most people think it's a bad idea. I was thinking a larger/mid-sized breed like a lab or, oddly enough, an English Sheep Dog (my grandparents had one), or a standard poodle. Definitely something that wouldn't get smooshed.

[b]I see videos of people rolling around with these dogs all the time. Is that not really the case? Is it not specific to the breed, but just the individual dog?[/b]

I wasn't thinking he would have unfettered access to the dog for touching, but more that a dog might like having a kid like that around because the dog would want that kind of attention, and the result would be less touching of everyone else.

We are teaching appropriate boundaries, but as a PP said, this is his "love languages," and if I can find a way to help him get what he needs while still curbing his encroachment on other people's space, I'd like to do that. I thought a dog might help a lot.[/quote]

You're right, you do see those videos all the time.  Any dog trainer worth 2 cents will tell you that the dogs are displaying extreme stress signals.  Lip licking, yawning, ears back, "whale eyes", panting, stiff body language, etc.  Owners just don't know how to read their dogs' language.

The next step when the signals are ignored is often the dog growling, because it doesn't know how else to get its point across.  Then the dog is yelled at for growling, so it stops.  Finally, the dog will sometimes resort to biting, because it just wants to be left alone, and the people aren't getting it.  Then the dog is handed over to a shelter as a bite risk, or euthanized for "aggression".  In reality, the signs were there all along that the dog was unhappy, but people were ignoring them.

DO NOT LET A CHILD ROLL AROUND WITH A DOG.[/quote]

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