Darran Rowe Dog Behaviourist Hamilton with Dog

By Darran ROWE

What happens if you children are scared of dogs?

So the first thing to remember is that some dogs just love kids and some kids just love dogs. The problems come when we get a combination that doesn’t match.

Firstly when the children are scared of dogs and the dogs are fine with children. Here the dogs can start to get nervous. They’ll even want to get closer to the children than normal to ‘try’ and make it all good.

Secondly, the more scary situation is when the children are fine with dogs, but the dog is scared of the children.

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In the first case we always give the children the time and space to become comfortable with the dog. The dog is always restrained, so that it can’t make a mistake and then hurt the child by accident. Dogs are so tolerant when socialised correctly and will happily play this game, for as long as it takes until the children are comfortable.

In the second case, we should be applying the same logic as the first except this time the dog is the scared one. But we rarely do. We should be giving the dog the space to get used to the children, and we should be controlling the children’s actions so they don’t make the situation worse. But we rarely do.

The second case goes wrong regularly and unfortunately it’s always the dog that pays the price.  

If you want an awesome resource that can help you to train your children to behave around your nervous dog or new puppy then check out this stunning website. It’s packed with really useful information and videos to help you to keep your dogs and children safe over the Christmas period.

The Family Dog


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