If you are thinking of introducing a dog to your family, you will have a big range of breeds that you could choose from. However, you do need to think carefully about the type of dog that you want to introduce to your home, especially if you want to bring a large dog into a household with small children.
Let’s take a look at some of the things you should know.
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Gentle Giants
Though big dogs often have a reputation for being guard dogs and fearsome creatures, many will know that larger dogs can also often come with the sweetest of temperaments.
It can be a little nerve-wracking to have such a big animal around your young children, especially if the dog is physically bigger than they are. However, you will often find that such animals have very sweet and gentle personalities that make them the perfect fit.
Let’s take a Great Dane as an example here. They are mighty and fearsome dogs that can be very intimidating to look at, so you might find yourself wondering, are Great Danes good with kids?
Just take a look at Native Pet’s guide to find out more details but the short answer is yes! This is common for many of the big breeds of canine – many of them have a good temperament with children that will help to make them the perfect family pet.
Choosing the Right Breed
If you are going to be finding a big dog to bring into your home, you need to make sure that you understand the history of the breed. The more you can know about the dog, the better you will be able to control it within your home, and the better you will be able to predict some of its behaviours.
This can be incredibly important for laying down boundaries with your dog, your family, and any visitors to the household. For example, many people like to get pastoral dogs for their family pets. They are intelligent and easy to train, and they have many protective traits that makes them good guardians for others in your family.
Likewise, gun dogs are also very smart and easy to train, making them fantastic family pets.
Even if you adopt a mutt, you might think about giving it an ancestry test to find out about some of the dogs mixed up in there. This will help you to prepare for some of the genetic issues that they could face as they age, plus it could help with training them and ensuring that they are sociable.
Training the Dog
It can be really easy for the dog to fall in love with you and your family, but with that comes some issues. You have to ensure that the dog is well-trained and well-socialised so that it does not show any signs of aggression around other dogs or other people.
No one wants to become a pariah because they have an unsociable dog. The major issue here can be that the dog is large and therefore difficult to restrain. If you can socialise the dog from an early age and make sure that it is properly trained, you should be able to avoid this issue. Make sure that you have powerful recall, so that your dog will come back to you no matter what.
Teaching Your Children How to Behave
It is also important that you teach your children the correct way to behave around your dog. As mentioned, this dog could be much larger than them. Even if they are walking it on a lead, there is a strong chance that they will get pulled over if the dog sees something that might distract it.
What’s more, children can be rougher than they know. Even the gentlest of dogs can have bad days, and can snap at a child if their ears or tails are pulled once too often. Therefore, it is important that you take the time to teach your children how to behave around the animal.
It won’t be entirely the dog’s fault if the child actively antagonises it. By taking the time to teach your child how to behave just as you would take the time to train your dog, you can all learn to live together as a happy family.
Bringing a big dog into your household can be a great move, but you need to make sure that you are prepared for the responsibility that comes with such an animal. Look after them properly, and ensure that they are properly trained, and you will hopefully be able to enjoy a long and happy life together. Big dogs can so often be a massive part of the family unit, and yours will no doubt be a treasured part of the family for many years.
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