Are Small Dogs Good With Kids?

Question: Are Small Dogs Good with Children?

The short answer: No and it depends.

Are Small dog breeds good with children? This is a raging debate between many different parties. People who place rescue dogs with families willing to adopt do not believe children are safe for small dogs. On the other hand people argue that some small dogs are good with kids.

The arguing points are valid on both sides of the spectrum as to whether or not small dogs are good with children.

People who say no.

People who believe small dogs are not good with kids look at it from a small dog’s perspective. The people feel that a child could easily harm a small dog thinking it is more like a toy, not a live breathing creature. The idea of a small dog attacking a child is just as real as a big dog attacking a child. So as far as safety for a child is concerned, it probably is pretty minimal compared to a bigger dog.

Sometimes, though, parents feel their child is ‘dog friendly’ and a small dog would be a suitable match for the family household. However, they couldn’t be more wrong.

Many times breeders and adoption agencies will refuse families with children younger than seven or eight years of age. They do not feel it is in the best interest of the small dog. They do not want traumatize the dog a second time. People may think small dogs are safe for children because they are little.

However, many children do not realize the power of their own strength that they develop as they grow. They are not aware of what little effort it can take on their part to accidentally and unintentionally cause death for a small dog.

On the flip side, some people agree that certain breeds of small dogs are safe for children to be around. Small dog breeds such as beagles, terriers, and collies are thought to be okay for children and behave just fine around them without posing any kind of threat to the child. The biggest small dogs you want to avoid, more so for the sake of the dog’s safety, are the toy breeds such as Chihuahuas.

In order to keep both child and small dog safe, if you get a small dog, be sure to monitor both the child and the dog at all times. If you cannot watch them at the same time, then place the dog in a safe room or in a crate that the child cannot gain easy access to.

As well, with proper behavioral training and enough exercise, a small dog can easily adapt and fit in with the family thus making the small dog good with the kids.

A word of warning though. A parent will need to caution their child to never put his or her face in front of a dog. This is just in case a dog, regardless of size, spooks and snaps at the child’s face, which could lead to severe medical injuries. Small dogs may not be good for kids in the long run – both for the dog’s and child’s safety. It is best to research all of your options and figure out why you really want a small dog versus a big dog or if you should get one at all.

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City Dogs & Their Wastes

Many urban areas are experiencing a new and profound concern with the increasing accumulations of dog litter in the city streets. With the huge concentration of dogs in metropolitan areas, whether as household pets or guard dogs, the city is experiencing a comparable increase in waste materials dotting the already run-down urban landscape.

Concern over environmental pollution in general is also on the rise. Many citizens and some media reporters have made a sensation over dog litter, claiming that every disease from the common cold to bubonic plague comes directly from dog litter. Some people have gone overboard by attempting to agitate parents with such slogans as “children before dogs”.

Fairly speaking, dog litter presents few problems of medical concern to the average citizen residing in large city areas. The more serious health hazard is, of course, to other dogs and not to humans. Diseases such as hepatitis and distemper are passed from infected dogs to healthy ones through saliva and urine, while internal parasites are transmitted through the stool of infected dogs.

However, for a human to contract any disease from dogs would require that he walk the street barefooted or physically ingest dog waste or fleas which is, of course, highly unlikely. The argument of the “children before dogs” group is that children will unwittingly eat dog fleas and stool. We assume that parents would not let their young children to play unattended on public streets, parks and pavements; and when they are old enough to play unattended, they have been taught the basics of cleanliness and hygiene.

More likely to be of significant danger to human health is contamination of food by roaches, rats, and the common housefly, none of which seems to be exciting enough for these same people who are so concerned with dog litter.

But regardless of who’s judging who, most people agree that dog litter does present an awful smell and unsightly pollution of our environment in an area that can hardly afford it. Every dog owner is responsible for the mess created by his dog. Whether it is a Great Dane or a Chihuahua, each dog does his share in contaminating natural resources and infuriating pedestrians.

It is puzzling that dog owners who are fortunate enough to have a backyard have no difficulty keeping it clean of dog waste; but these same owners will walk their dog out the front door and allow her to pollute the public street, which is basically everyone’s’ front yard.

Animal lovers have a sensitivity to nature and animals that is not known to people who have never loved a pet. But the love and sensitivity must go beyond our pets and encompass our human neighbors. We cannot ignore the rights and privileges of other people. Our dogs are our responsibility and we have no right to inflict them on others.

If we all clean up after our pets, we will be contributing to a substantially cleaner, more pleasant environment. It is up to us to preserve decent cities to our pets as well as for ourselves and our neighbors.