Shelties with kids...

[roxyllsk]

Depends

I don't have any kids of my own. But I do have nephews and neighbors with kids of all ages. So while my shelties don't live with kids, we encounter them all the time.

My first 2 shelties didn't care for kids. When they had enough, they'd just walk away and go somewhere else.

My bi-black absolutely adores children. He will actually march right up to any child we encounter on a walk. He doesn't jump, he doesn't lick them, he just walks right up to them calmly while wagging his tail slowly. He doesn't mind when they hug him and if they sit down he sits down right next to them. I'm working on getting him his therapy dog certification. The neighborhood kids actually will ring the doorbell to see if Romeo can come out to play with them. I joke that he has his own fan club.

My blue likes kids but she's very bouncy and energetic and some kids don't really like that. She likes to bark a lot too, which scares some kids.

 

[RikyR]

Zulu was only with us 5 days (10 weeks old) when 5 of our grand kids spent the weekend with us. I was a little nervous, but he did great. Now with 7 grand kids, ranging from 15 months to 12 years, he has a blast when the house is full. He has his very own flock to herd! Here is is giving our youngest her first puppy kiss!

 

[JacqueZ]

It's funny, Honey grew up with my nieces, and she learned very quickly not to jump on the girls, and not to nip at their heels if she wanted to play chasing games.

My oldest niece turned 6 and Honey has apparently decided she is a big girl now, because her shoes are fair game, while the little one still doesn't get touched.

I explained that to her, and she was super proud about it! (her being the older of the nieces)

 

[mimiretz]

I grew up with a Sheltie. I was 5 when we got Charlie, my sisters were 3 and 1.5. My youngest sister could get away with anything -- pulling his tail, his ears, even trying to ride him like a horse. He protected all of us -- I always felt totally safe with Charlie, even to the point of always taking him with me when, as a teen, I went out at night.

 

[tesslynn]

Years ago when my wife became pregnant I worried about how our Sheltie would handle it. When we brought my son home the dog immediately became excited and wanted to sniff him but was not rough in any way.


The Sheltie decided that the baby was his---perhaps the sheep he always wanted-----and was a constant companion for my son. The Sheltie knew how to make my son laugh (even when we did not ) and seemed to genuinely enjoy getting his fur pulled or any other interaction.

The only real disadvantage was that when our Sheltie passed my son cried for days. But then again I was pretty broken up myself.

That is how it was with my 1st sheltie...she "adopted" him from day one, and was his constant companion, chaperone, she would "herd" him when he tried to crawl the wrong way. They were like Lassie and Timmy only better, ha. I was never concerned about my previous shelties and kids. But I think it is all in how they are exposed and trained.

 

[seashel]

Revel was 8 and Yogi 4 (on the day) when Jessica was born. Neither had any experience of children at all really, apart from the odd pat here and there. We did not prepare them in any way for the baby coming home but they were totally fine from the start. Just tolerated her as a newcomer and a rather boring one at that!

Jessica was four when I got Epic. He is great with her and exceptionally tolerant considering his general behaviour. I would not however trust him overly much with other children unless he got to know them first. I am quite cautious with any of his interactions.

Angus is reasonably good around children in general but Jessica can be loud and rather unpredictable and it does worry him sometimes. Heck she startles me sometimes!

It worries me when I see dogs advertised for sale/rehoming as 'good with kids'. My thoughts are that just as dogs don't get on with every dog they meet because they are friends with a few, I don't think they can be expected to get on OK with all children because they are familiar with one or two. Oddly people seem to realise that dogs need socialising to a range of adults but think that because the dog is fine with one child it is 'good with kids'. I see a lot of dogs advertised as 'good with kids' on the basis there are children in the family but plenty of dogs are fine with their 'own' child and not at all good with other children.