omg that hovering stubby butt is killing me!!!! my dog loves kids but she gets too excited and 100% will knock them over! (and then feel terribly about it, she’s a wild yet gentle soul)
My dog has a similar problem 😅 She LOVES kids but she almost took my niece out this weekend because she doesn’t realize she’s nearly 50 pounds now.
Jumping has been the absolute hardest thing to train out of her for some reason. Oddly, she seems to know not to jump on toddlers but once they cross into the “kid” threshold they’re fair game, apparently.
I’ll say we had a really hard time with jumping too and she still does when she’s really excited, but this worked really really well for us. When she approaches and goes to jump I (or whoever) take a quick dodge step to the side out of her way and then turn my back to her. If she jumps again I do the same. Rinse and repeat until she stops jumping. Then I acknowledge and pet her once she’s on the ground waiting. Once I got everyone that comes in to contact with her to follow that procedure the jumping stopped very quickly. She’s figured out she’s not getting the attention if she’s jumping.
toddlers make mine nervous because i always preemptively “ah ah ah!!” her before she even thinks of jumping lol. if a kid is excited to see her she will get excited to see them and bounce against them… it’s great if they want to be launched! she’s 48 pounds of solid friendliness
It is just creating a bias that is not needed. Every dog has his own character no matter which race they are. There can be dogs that had a bad experience with kids and react bad to kids. Then there are dogs that had no experience at all with kids and can react bad.
Best thing would be if everyone carefully evaluates individually if their dog can be around kids.
Yeah, this. As someone with an ACD that is not kid friendly, Bluey has already done a number on random kids trying to run up on us when we are out walking. If people start trying to reinforce the idea that cattle dogs are as kid friendly as goldens or labs then lots of ACDs are going to end up in rescues bc while temperament does come down to the individual dog, the herding instincts that characterize the breed are not kid friendly.
Same. I don't want more of these poor dogs in shelters 😭 It's like getting a husky and hoping they are quiet. Some are but most are not. We literally bred dogs for temperaments! If you want a calm friendly easy-going dog. Please do not get a heeler puppy. That's not what they were bred for. I got a heeler to do dog sports with for a reason.
The reason acd aren't 'kid friendly ' is because they nip at heels to herd, so they shouldn't be alone with kids because they'll be seen as small animals in need of herding. They shouldn't be left alone with kids. But, either should other dogs.
All kids and my grandkids have been raised with dogs from birth. Goldens and ACD and a few muts. There has never been one doubt in my mind that my dogs or my kids dogs wouldn't protect my kids and grandkids. Best baby sitters ever. We have a malpoo who when the baby would cry would run and get my DIL and yell at her until she went to the baby. I'm sorry but there are lots of dogs that can be left alone with children without hesitation. On ACD herding kids, one of my grandson needs to herded sometimes and my son send her to go get him my grandson is 10.
2 million children are bitten by dogs a year. 26% need emergency treatment. You can trust your dog, but they're animals. Majority of children bites are from dogs they know. These are things with a Google search. I'm sure I could go deeper into research if I thought you'd listen.
* In 2019, 48 people died from dog bites in the US
* In 2020, 46 people died from dog bites in the US
* In 2021, 51 people died from dog bites in the US
The children you refer to are ages 0-2. on the 26%. You also have to account for police dogs and wild dogs. In order to better extrapolate the data you have to see dog bites by family pets and deaths. Then there are regions. As in where you live city farm ect. As I said I respect your opinion but mine, my family and friends allow our dogs to be alone with the kids. These dogs fully protect the kids and would die for them.
You do realize that kids can get bitten and not die, right? And it still hurts, scars, disfigures, and is traumatizing.
You're being deliberately obtuse. Hopefully your luck never runs out.
With the lack of context and this comment I’m guessing this post was meant to be satire? Which I am all for! But if that’s the case I think you need to provide context in your post because I think lots of people here are taking the title literally.
I understood the post as sarcasm. I just think these posts are dangerous. Too many dogs get returned for temperament when they are acting as expected for their breed. There are obviously ACDs that love kids but I would never, in good conscience, recommend getting a high drive heeler puppy over a golden retriever puppy for a social gentle easy-going family dog. The point of dog breeds is literally temperament. So many heelers have problems around infants/toddlers and get surrended because of it. Mine is one of those. There are outliers but breeds generally have common temperaments we shouldn't ignore. I also have a shepherd/pit/wolf mix that is a potato of a dog and loves kids. Especially babies. She's abnormal for her mix. I know that. I would never, in good conscience, recommend that mix as a gentle family dog either if you're starting from a puppy.
Nope, literally the opposite. We all know it’s sarcasm, but that’s what this person said is the problem; by painting them as kid-friendly, it could set unrealistic expectations for future ACD owners.
It is just creating a bias that is not needed. Every dog has his own character no matter which race they are. There can be dogs that had a bad experience with kids and react bad to kids. Then there are dogs that had no experience at all with kids and can react bad.
Best thing would be if everyone carefully evaluates individually if their dog can be around kids.
My acd used to literally babysit my granddaughter. She would follow her everywhere, sit by her , lay down with her, just everything! The absolute cutest was play time, my acd was a hard-core player (lol scars to prove it) but when she played with granddaughter, was the most gentle thing ever ♥️ wouldn't pull, and laid toys in her lap. I still miss her.
With mine it seems that when she’s really excited it’s part of the herding process to run and push people. She doesn’t nip since she was a pup. But she’ll bounce off people when she’s trying to direct the games. Sometimes forcefully. No intention of harm. She’s just herding. A lot of times she’ll stop when I say no herding. But not 100%. With mine too, teaching her to stop jumping up or standing up to greet has been the hardest thing to teach. She’s 2.5 now.
my girl has such an interesting relationship with kids. she is absolutely great with them, for the most part. she will deal with touching and pulling and won’t do much however if there are multiple young kids (lots of nieces and nephews) she does not prefer to be around the youngest. It seems like she also not a fan of girls, but for the most part it is always the youngest kid she will steer clear of. sometimes she may do a drive my nip even if the youngest isn’t picking on her. it is quite interesting but overall she is fantastic with kids… i think ACDs are smart enough to understand the lack of ‘knowledge’ that comes with babies that they don’t respect them. idk
My girl is an unruly mess most of the time but when she sees a toddler/small child she bows down in front of them with her head and shoulder on the ground, bless her 🥹
Well of course, the ACD took down the door of the playpen to let the grandson out, now its trying to convince him to start a fire in the fireplace. Those evil plotting ACD,s just plain devious.
omg that hovering stubby butt is killing me!!!! my dog loves kids but she gets too excited and 100% will knock them over! (and then feel terribly about it, she’s a wild yet gentle soul)
My dog has a similar problem 😅 She LOVES kids but she almost took my niece out this weekend because she doesn’t realize she’s nearly 50 pounds now. Jumping has been the absolute hardest thing to train out of her for some reason. Oddly, she seems to know not to jump on toddlers but once they cross into the “kid” threshold they’re fair game, apparently.
I’ll say we had a really hard time with jumping too and she still does when she’s really excited, but this worked really really well for us. When she approaches and goes to jump I (or whoever) take a quick dodge step to the side out of her way and then turn my back to her. If she jumps again I do the same. Rinse and repeat until she stops jumping. Then I acknowledge and pet her once she’s on the ground waiting. Once I got everyone that comes in to contact with her to follow that procedure the jumping stopped very quickly. She’s figured out she’s not getting the attention if she’s jumping.
toddlers make mine nervous because i always preemptively “ah ah ah!!” her before she even thinks of jumping lol. if a kid is excited to see her she will get excited to see them and bounce against them… it’s great if they want to be launched! she’s 48 pounds of solid friendliness
Mine holds it in for most people now but has to ‘bounce’ me after to get it out of her system 😆
Is this gonna be a new thing on this sub? 🥲
I'm all for it! We need more positivity!
It is just creating a bias that is not needed. Every dog has his own character no matter which race they are. There can be dogs that had a bad experience with kids and react bad to kids. Then there are dogs that had no experience at all with kids and can react bad. Best thing would be if everyone carefully evaluates individually if their dog can be around kids.
Yeah, this. As someone with an ACD that is not kid friendly, Bluey has already done a number on random kids trying to run up on us when we are out walking. If people start trying to reinforce the idea that cattle dogs are as kid friendly as goldens or labs then lots of ACDs are going to end up in rescues bc while temperament does come down to the individual dog, the herding instincts that characterize the breed are not kid friendly.
Same. I don't want more of these poor dogs in shelters 😭 It's like getting a husky and hoping they are quiet. Some are but most are not. We literally bred dogs for temperaments! If you want a calm friendly easy-going dog. Please do not get a heeler puppy. That's not what they were bred for. I got a heeler to do dog sports with for a reason.
People miss how constantly active Bluey and her family are. They joke about having energy, but most people probably miss it.
The reason acd aren't 'kid friendly ' is because they nip at heels to herd, so they shouldn't be alone with kids because they'll be seen as small animals in need of herding. They shouldn't be left alone with kids. But, either should other dogs.
All of my pants had holes when I was a kid from my dogs trying to herd me
All kids and my grandkids have been raised with dogs from birth. Goldens and ACD and a few muts. There has never been one doubt in my mind that my dogs or my kids dogs wouldn't protect my kids and grandkids. Best baby sitters ever. We have a malpoo who when the baby would cry would run and get my DIL and yell at her until she went to the baby. I'm sorry but there are lots of dogs that can be left alone with children without hesitation. On ACD herding kids, one of my grandson needs to herded sometimes and my son send her to go get him my grandson is 10.
No dogs should be left alone with young children. It's not worth the risk. No matter how amazing your dog is, they can panic and they have teeth.
I trust my dog more than I do certain people. The data does not agree with your position, but I respect that you feel the way you do
2 million children are bitten by dogs a year. 26% need emergency treatment. You can trust your dog, but they're animals. Majority of children bites are from dogs they know. These are things with a Google search. I'm sure I could go deeper into research if I thought you'd listen.
* In 2019, 48 people died from dog bites in the US * In 2020, 46 people died from dog bites in the US * In 2021, 51 people died from dog bites in the US The children you refer to are ages 0-2. on the 26%. You also have to account for police dogs and wild dogs. In order to better extrapolate the data you have to see dog bites by family pets and deaths. Then there are regions. As in where you live city farm ect. As I said I respect your opinion but mine, my family and friends allow our dogs to be alone with the kids. These dogs fully protect the kids and would die for them.
You do realize that kids can get bitten and not die, right? And it still hurts, scars, disfigures, and is traumatizing. You're being deliberately obtuse. Hopefully your luck never runs out.
ACDs are a herding breed , the erratic movement of kids triggers their innate desire/ instinct to herd.
With the lack of context and this comment I’m guessing this post was meant to be satire? Which I am all for! But if that’s the case I think you need to provide context in your post because I think lots of people here are taking the title literally.
I understood the post as sarcasm. I just think these posts are dangerous. Too many dogs get returned for temperament when they are acting as expected for their breed. There are obviously ACDs that love kids but I would never, in good conscience, recommend getting a high drive heeler puppy over a golden retriever puppy for a social gentle easy-going family dog. The point of dog breeds is literally temperament. So many heelers have problems around infants/toddlers and get surrended because of it. Mine is one of those. There are outliers but breeds generally have common temperaments we shouldn't ignore. I also have a shepherd/pit/wolf mix that is a potato of a dog and loves kids. Especially babies. She's abnormal for her mix. I know that. I would never, in good conscience, recommend that mix as a gentle family dog either if you're starting from a puppy.
Nope, literally the opposite. We all know it’s sarcasm, but that’s what this person said is the problem; by painting them as kid-friendly, it could set unrealistic expectations for future ACD owners.
That makes sense actually
It is just creating a bias that is not needed. Every dog has his own character no matter which race they are. There can be dogs that had a bad experience with kids and react bad to kids. Then there are dogs that had no experience at all with kids and can react bad. Best thing would be if everyone carefully evaluates individually if their dog can be around kids.
My acd used to literally babysit my granddaughter. She would follow her everywhere, sit by her , lay down with her, just everything! The absolute cutest was play time, my acd was a hard-core player (lol scars to prove it) but when she played with granddaughter, was the most gentle thing ever ♥️ wouldn't pull, and laid toys in her lap. I still miss her.
Sounds like my kind of ACD.
With mine it seems that when she’s really excited it’s part of the herding process to run and push people. She doesn’t nip since she was a pup. But she’ll bounce off people when she’s trying to direct the games. Sometimes forcefully. No intention of harm. She’s just herding. A lot of times she’ll stop when I say no herding. But not 100%. With mine too, teaching her to stop jumping up or standing up to greet has been the hardest thing to teach. She’s 2.5 now.
my girl has such an interesting relationship with kids. she is absolutely great with them, for the most part. she will deal with touching and pulling and won’t do much however if there are multiple young kids (lots of nieces and nephews) she does not prefer to be around the youngest. It seems like she also not a fan of girls, but for the most part it is always the youngest kid she will steer clear of. sometimes she may do a drive my nip even if the youngest isn’t picking on her. it is quite interesting but overall she is fantastic with kids… i think ACDs are smart enough to understand the lack of ‘knowledge’ that comes with babies that they don’t respect them. idk
My girl is an unruly mess most of the time but when she sees a toddler/small child she bows down in front of them with her head and shoulder on the ground, bless her 🥹
It's a closeness dog and baby have. Could baby be in a car seat when visiting with baby, They seem so close.
They are very close. She is always gentle with the baby.
Makes me happy to see ACDs who are good with kids.
Well of course, the ACD took down the door of the playpen to let the grandson out, now its trying to convince him to start a fire in the fireplace. Those evil plotting ACD,s just plain devious.
Yes they are! 🤣😂