are English mastiff safe around kids? (how much, poodles, golden retriever, poop)
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There are so many great options between "tiny" breeds and an English mastiff!
This isn't about your kids, it's about what you want, and that's a giant breed dog. You need to be honest with everyone including yourself. The fact that one could unintentionally overpower or knock your girls sprawling is reality.
The other obvious fact is how "safe" any individual dog ends up being around kids will depend a lot on the owner, not the breed. If you don't know how to raise, train and manage a dog, your kids can suffer for it. That holds true regardless of size. A 15 pound, poorly socialized, untrained terrier mix could inflict serious injury too.
These days it seems there are lots of mastiffs/bullies/danes needing homes. Why not find and connect with a rescue group that works with such breeds and get real time information from the horse's (er, dog's) mouth from the people who know them. And who know why they ended up where they are. Lumbering goofball or not, lots of large/giant dogs lose their homes because their owners couldn't physically handle them, they cost too much to feed/care for, and they made too much mess.
Last edited by Parnassia; 09-23-2023 at 02:25 PM..
Hello everyone.
I have two 4 year old daughters, one of which is of average height in the other is a little smaller for their age due to a disability.
Which dog breed should we get? Me and my husband aren’t really wanting to get a tiny sized dog breed, we are more sort of in the realm of thinking about an English mastiff or great Dane. would this at all be possible?
There's a lot in between tiny dogs and an English mastiff.
Any guardian dog breed, and especially a giant breed, is a lot of work and not very practical. These are not labradors that you can whack over the nose with the newspaper and they just shrug and get on with life. Because of their size and protective nature, when it goes wrong it goes very wrong.
Aside from that, the bigger the dog the longer it takes to mature, and giant breeds take 3 or so years to grow out of puppyhood. Do you want to add an 80kg puppy into a home with small children?
Kids have issues with making loud noises, hitting dogs and being obnoxious. The dog should not be punished because someone's dumb kid provoked it in snapping or biting......
FWIW there's a Mastiff on my block that is really really aggressive, he's for home protection so he charges at people. For obvious reasons he's fenced in but yeah, he'd bite gleefully.
My daughter's best friend got a Mastiff with 2 kids, don't remember how old she was. She did have a littler of puppies, so cute. Did really well with the kids. The dog just recently passed. How old are your kids, maybe you said, but I didn't see it.
Unless you have experience with lg, xlg dogs, I would pass.
I don't care what breed of dog, both the dog and the kids must be carefully trained about how to behave around each other and small children should never be unsupervised with any dog, it doesn't matter what breed.
What I always suggest for small children are the short haired spaniels: Boykin, Britany, field spaniel, Sussex spaniel, Epagneul Breton, Welsh Springer, English Cocker. Best from a show line as they will have better control over their own energy level. They are more "kid sized". They have been bred for centuries to be friendly towards strange people and strange dogs. They have been bred for centuries to be cooperative, Generally, they love kids and they are tough enough to live through the occasional fall or being stepped upon by a clumsy child. (pass on the show bred English Springer and show bred American Cocker Spaniel. Too much hair to take care of)
If you must have a giant breed, consider getting a Leonberger. They were never bred to be guard dogs and the breed was developed to be a pet and status symbol. And again, the children must be carefully trained and supervised about how to behave around the dog and how to treat the dog.
I dont know about Mastiffs but Danes are usually very sweet. Of course, this is all subject to how the dog is treated as a puppy.
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