Young GSD or puppy for first family pet. - Page 3

When it's done right, theres not to much more rewarding  than fostering a childs love and respect for dogs or watching a kid and dog that are best pals.   I imagine most of us who are crazy for GSDs had dogs as children.  

One story sticks with me. I will try and make it short.

Owner has GSD and a wonderful one at that, has friends over with small child, adults get up and go into a different room, child screams and dog growls. Adults find the child with a bite on the face. the parents demand to put the dog down or sue. Vet states knows the dog all its life and demands to do acropsy (sp). Finds 2 crayons shoved into the dogs ear canal.

THE DOGS ARE GREAT, IT IS THE KIDS YOU CAN NOT TRUST. 

I loved bringing my kids up with a puppy and having them grow together. However, The shark part is so true, many a tear from the kids about how ruff he played. My yongest daughter cured him of bitting, She remembered the story I use to tell her about, How I bit her ear to get her to quit biting me when she was a baby. So she bit  the pups ear, I saw it and asked her what the dickens are you doing, she told me "Well I stopped now he will". He did to!

We forget what it is like to have another baby, we remember the smell of a baby and the cuddles and blowing bubbles. What about the Diapers, throwing up, not sleeping, feeding schedules. Dr. visits, keep me busy, or I will find things to do myself that you may not like. If you love babies, by all means get the pup, do not forget to get a crate for your sanity, if you do not have a run.

I was a stay at home mom and had a 3 year old and was pregnant with my 2nd child when we got our first GSD puppy.

I don't recall any real problems doing this................but in retrospect, I had a farily mellow puppy.  My kids were raised from day 1 that the crate was not a playhouse and they were supervised with the dog and he turned into quite the friend and guardian of them as they got older.  Would go out in the yard while they played and watch them.  Now this dog was old Am lines, not a lot of prey drive, but was really a fine dog. (My youngest is now in grad school so that was a long time ago and I got the puppy through a reference from a good dog trainer)

I think if you can find a young adult with really good nerves and training you will be ahead of the game.  No matter what any puppy is a lot of work and chewing and biting and I sure remember some heartbroken moments when Polly Pocket was beheaded or some othe toy got mauled. Small kids have so much "stuff' no matter how you try to pick it up.

Now I have three grown GSDs and two grandkids.  The dogs have been exposed to the kids since birth and while they were not raised with small kids as puppies I have never seen any signs of aggression.  They seem to know the children are human and were very interested in them as infants and less so as they got older.  They are still very much supervised and I only let them interact with the kids one dog at a time.

I think you can do it both ways, just make sure you are the one in charge at all times and teach the children ground rules from day ONE and watch out for their kid friends (you would be surprised how sneaky and mean some little kids can be to dogs)

OMG Nancy, you had me laughing at some very old memories.  I had completely forgotten chewed toys until I read your post.  I then remembered that one of my GSDs, back in the early 80's, chewed Barbie's feet so they were completely flat.  My daughter still played with her but could no longer put the shoes on, her feet looked like pancakes!  ROFL