Author Topic: Danes and Toddlers- Advice?  (Read 4902 times)

Offline reidreid22

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Danes and Toddlers- Advice?
« on: January 08, 2008, 04:42:25 am »
My husband REALLY wants a great dane. We are both completely in love with this breed and even considered them when we bought our home. Huge yard. Wide open living/kitchen/den areas. Very big rooms. We even kept our old couch and put it in the office specifically for a dog we do not yet own. Problem is we have an insanely energetic and not often well mannered two and half year old son. He tends to try to ride our neighbor's big dog as well as pull him around by the collar. I constantly snatch him away telling him thats not how we treat dogs. But... he's 2.. kmow what I mean. So my question is- Do we wait until he is older to get a Great Dane? Or get a puppy and train them both to be gentle with each other? I don't want to make either the dog or my son miserable but its getting hard to hold my husband off of getting a dog. Any advice would be super helpful! :) Thanks!

Offline GoldenPyrs

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Re: Danes and Toddlers- Advice?
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2008, 08:29:09 am »
That's a toughy, but I'd be inclined to wait awhile.  Here's why, as you know 2 1/2 yr olds are impulsive, energetic & often noisy and that can be a tough combo for a new dog to take patiently.  With time & coaching (from you & your husband) your son will learn to approach dogs more slowly, pet gently, etc. and things will go much better then when you adopt one.  If you introduce them now in this busy toddler stage, I think that it could be problematic.  Other's may disagree with me here, but I have 3 boys and I'm not sure that I would have introduced them (for the first time) to a new pet when they were that age.  I would have been worried about what choices I would have faced if the toddler & the dog didn't get along well, because for me when we adopt a furry family member it's for life.  Does that make sense?  It would probably be better IMHO to wait a few more years now to give it a better chance of success.  What does everyone else think?
« Last Edit: January 08, 2008, 08:32:36 am by GoldenPyrs »
Marie

And my pups:
Daisy a 9 y/o Golden/Lab mix
Sammy a 6-7(?) y/o Great Pyrenees adopted 3/07
Cassie a 3 y/o Pyr/Mystery Snuggle Bunny mix adopted 2/07

My angel girls waiting at the Bridge:
Cara 1989-2001 Great Pyrenees
Sally ? - 1993 Dobie(rescued '92)
Halley 2002-2006 Great Pyrenees

Offline mynameislola

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Re: Danes and Toddlers- Advice?
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2008, 11:59:12 am »
Five is also the limit I would put on having a house dog, especially one that big.  You will need lots of time to train the puppy, and there isn't much of that with a toddler.  Assuming you have no other children, IMO the perfect time to get a pup is in the winter of the child's time in first grade. 

It took me a year to find Zita's breeder and what seemed like forever for the right pup to get born.  If you start looking now, by then you will have found the perfect pup.
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Offline People Whisperer

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Re: Danes and Toddlers- Advice?
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2008, 12:04:29 pm »
I totally agree with Tina and Marie! It is very hard and time consuming to teach your toddler how to behave around big dogs...or any dogs period. Children get bitten by dogs a lot because they won't leave them along. Big puppies can get irritated easily and snap without thinking.

My dog is very mellow and has never shown any kind of aggression ever. Although, when there are children around and they keep hanging on her and kiss her muzzle and touch her paws after a while I can see she is getting annoyed so I ask children to stop. I don't have children myself but I can see that any dog can get tired of aggressing and energetic toddler.

Kudos to you for thinking about all this ahead of time  
 
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Offline London_Pyr_Lover

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Re: Danes and Toddlers- Advice?
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2008, 02:22:04 pm »
I also agree on waiting until your child is older.  Although I do not have children myself, I have family members with young children, and although my dog is very patient and easy going, she does have a threshold for how much excitedness she can handle.  Once that threshold has been reached, I know to remove her from the situation to avoid her reacting negatively.  Unfortunately you may not always be able to do that having a young child and large puppy or dog in the same house all the time.  So for the sake of the dog, and your son, start researching now, but hold off on actually getting the pup until your boy is older.   ;) ;)

Good luck in your search, and Welcome to BPO!   :D
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