<When Good Pets Go BAD>

When DC was 3, I warned him repeatedly to leave our Yorkie alone. He continued to taunt her, and just as I was taking him out of the situation, she nipped him in the face. No blood, no marks - but it scared the living shit out of him. He's now 6, and continues to carry her around, but knows when she's growling, he must leave her alone. It wasn't our dog's fault, it was my DC. We now have 2 dogs, and the 3 of them get along great. What's crazy is that our Yorkie will attack strangers but never children. I put her in our bedroom when children are in our home, just to play safe.

Anonymous wrote:Dachshunds are really mean little bastards. And don't let your kid ride on their back, dachies have severe back problems.

+1

I winced when I read that.

Anonymous wrote:Do they pee all over the place like my in-laws' dauschunds.

YES!!! they do! Doxies are difficult to house break

Sounds like your dogs have accepted your kids as the littlest pack members and will protect them accordingly. They obviously consider themselves a the pack leaders.
I wonder about as the kids get older and bigger if the dogs will feel their place in the pack in jeopardy. I would look into that as time goes on. Figure out how to think like a dog and proceed accordingly, like Caesar on the Dog Whisperer. First step is to make sure that they see a grown up human as their pack leader.

They are great with kids but aggressive towards dogs and others? Doesn't sound like a good dog to me.

Do they pee all over the place like my in-laws' dauschunds.

OP, when I was a child I was at my friend's house and witnessed their friendly family dog maul the friend's little sister's friend. The girl who got mauled was patting the dog and (we think) upset the dog when she patted too hard on her rump. The only memories I have of that day are sitting in a corner of the kitchen screaming, and later a massive puddle of blood in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Up to that point, the dog had been the most docile dog ever. Your dogs are great with your kids SO FAR. Maybe I'm overly cautious, but I know I would never allow my kids to be even slightly rough with any dog, no matter how much I trusted it. At the end of the day, dogs are animals who follow their instincts when they feel threatened, no matter how seemingly harmless that threat is to us.

Dachshunds are really mean little bastards. And don't let your kid ride on their back, dachies have severe back problems.

If your dog bit your kid, your kid shouldn't torment the dog, then, no?

The minute you leave them alone you are going to have a problem. Remember kids first

That's great. I was bitten by a dachshund when I was a kid, so I'm a bit skittish about them, but I'm glad you've got good ones.

My really sweet, gentle, non-aggressive dog bit my 2yo on the hand. No blood but you could the impression of her teeth. My DC screamed. Before that I would have bet money that that would never happen. I was wrong and I blame myself.

Go touch some wood now.

For every great story, there's also a really sad one.

Before I had my 2 kids, I got 2 rescue dachshunds -- they are very nice to me and people they know but they HATE strangers and can bark, act aggressive and irritating, esp when the doorbell rings or someone new enters the home. Neither of them have ever bitten anyone, but they act aggressive. They HATE other dogs, esp big ones and they do try to attack other dogs on walks.

When I was pregnant, everyone warned me I would have to get rid of my wiener dogs and that they would bite my baby. They told me horrible stories about dogs biting babies in the face, etc. They made me very upset and paranoid.

Turns out, I now have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and the dogs are amazing with the kids. They LOVE the kids! They have never so much ass even growled at the kids! My 3 year old even sits on my one dachshunds back and pulls his tail, etc. Of course, we teach them "to be gentle" but you can't avoid some of this stuff at all times.

Anyway, my dachshunds are awesome and I just wanted to put that out there.