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dog at a party with kids
Hi All,
We have a 2 ? year old Husky/Australian Shepard mix named Boomer, who we adopted from a rescue when he was a few months old. All three of us (H, Boomer and I) have all been invited to a BBQ where there will be 5 or 6 kids (toddlers through 7 or 8). We?d like to bring Boom, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for how we can make this interaction go smoothly.
Boomer does have some experience with kids. We meet them regularly on walks and he?s played with our friend?s daughter who?s 10. He can get over excited, forget his manners and playfully jump (when our friend?s daughter gets excited playing, not when we?re walking and not all the time), but he has strong command skills so telling him to stop and lie down ends that. Overall he's really outgoing and ridiculously sweet.
We plan on exercising him beforehand so he?s not too energetic and we?ll of course, be right there with Boomer and the kids the whole time. Also, if we need to, we can put him on his leash or bring him in the house. I just want to make sure we?re being responsible, and that Boomer has a good experience. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Re: dog at a party with kids
First and foremost, keep in mind that all the children at this BBQ are going to be younger than your neighbor's daughter, who Boomer is used to. Toddlers can be particularly unsettling to dogs because of their jerky, uncoordinated, and unpredictable movements.
You or H will definitely need to be right there with him at all times. It's a good idea to keep him leashed initially, and only let him off the leash when you/H are actively participating in whatever play is going on. No matter how tired out Boomer is, he's likely to remain a little amped up if there are young children running around the whole time.
Our Boxer is the same age as our friend's youngest daughter (she has 3; one is 2 years, one is just turning 5, and the other will be 8 in a few more weeks). Our dog has been around the girls quite a bit from the very start, so I know exactly how she acts with them (she gets insanely excited when they start running around, which still startles the youngest two since she starts chasing them and bumping at their legs). Even so, I continue to watch her like a hawk when we're at birthday parties running around outside. I can monitor her excitement levels and behavior, and make sure none of the kids are acting inappropriately with her. All it takes is for one kid to decide he/she doesn't like the dog doing something and to smack the dog since they probably don't know how else to react.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6