It was a learning experience starting with Dot. The first puppy since we had kids. My two(now passed) mutts knew the kids from infants and they knew they were MINE. To the adult dogs, they were a part of the pack to be protected and respected as my charges. That was with a VERY ultra alpha bitch. They were her charges. It was her job to keep them safe. They were very little then though.

The kids were 6(almost 7) when the puppies were born here. There was one incident of Dot snapping at Tanis at about 3 months old, just establishing pecking order. She had 3 seconds of believing she might meet Jesus with all the commotion I made over it. The message was clear to her

McGuire, well, he was a hard case. Tanis must have an air about her that I don't see. She is usually the target and I don't see her doing anything I would find that would to set off bad behavior

He bit her in the face more than once. It was not an aggressive move, it was dominance. He was putting her in his place. He is still a very dominant(but sweet) dog. It took a few things to break him of that(and that was all around 9-10w old!!) This is not something I would suggest to just anyone, as the timing has to be perfect, but, he went for her again and I snatched him by the neck skin, flipped him on his back and had Tanis straddle over top of him, stare at him until he turned his head.

He never did it again, ever. This was done with me right there, supervising and I knew what to do. Do this to a fearful dog and you'll ruin it. McGuire is extremely confident.

Anyhow, my kids can jump on my dogs and wake them up from a sound sleep and I have no fear they would be bitten. They can do anything to them and have no worries. BUT, my children are trained to respect the dogs too. They don't do anything that would make the dogs want to bite them