Reply to Best time to get a dog with young kid without waiting forever

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[quote=Anonymous]We got our pup when our kids were 2 and 4.  Kids were young enough to be in the stroller or scooter for walks so everyone's energy needs were met.  Pup was crate trained from the start and I spent alot of time with training the first six months.

I limited where the pup was allowed and if he wasn't in a crate, he was attached to me.  Kids were separated unless supervised.  Kids were responsible for keeping their toys off the floor in the dog's area, they did a good job with this even at that age.  It was alot of work, but not even slightly near the work of a newborn.  The dog was in a small area of the house until he "earned" access to other areas, so that really helped with workload.  As he "earned" access, he was attached to me with a leash.  So, for example, if he tried to jump on the couch, I was stepping on his leash to prevent it from happening.  Mine is a hound mix and extremely food motivated, that made training relatively easy.

Once he was able to do basic commands, like sit, I involved kids in training and would have him eat out of their hands.  He has no food aggression or reactivity to be handled or loud noises.  That was all important to me and something we worked on from the start, although I think some of that is breed specific and we lucked out.

He loves my kids (especially sitting under them at dinner time) and they love him.  He's more expensive than I anticipated though, especially for boarding/travel.  He's adds work to the house, it's another thing to take care of.  I love him and am the one that pushed for the dog and am really happy we have him, but I don't think we'll get another dog when he dies.[/quote]

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