For years, I have always had a somewhat ‘serious’ dog around, some were lovers of children, some aren’t. That said, any larger breed dog can hurt kids inadvertently and I never leave even my 10 year old grandson alone with my dog. I have a trained mali and my dog will definitely bite, but is a baby with kids and family, but a rough enough player that you don’t leave them alone. Just common sense. Dogs will sometimes act aggressive to certain people, for reasons we can’t comprehend, even commonly non-protective breeds. The only time I have been seriously bitten was by a neighbor’s coonhound that just walked up to me sniffed my leg and took hold. Nobody knew why, he never had done it before or after.
Had you been cuddling with coons prior to the dog approaching you? ;]
I know what you mean.
The Dobe has an obsession with kids to the point of being idiotic about it.
His only desire in life is that they let him snuggle and kiss them.
However, he is a very big dog and his mad desire to entertain them could be harmful to kids too small to deal with his ‘give it all ya got’ paw shakes.
When they pet him, he does the typical “Dobe Donuts” wiggling ecstatically in a circle thing and I have to be careful that his big rump doesn’t accidentally knock them down.
I’m a spectacularly lousy judge of character but he isn’t it.
If acts edgy about some stranger, I take his word for it and move away from them.
On the flip side of that, people that I thought “looked scary”, he loved right up to immediately.
He apparently sees things ‘inside them’ that I can’t.
Just kidding about the coon cuddling.
My dad had a Bluetick who was completely berserk.
He was so afraid of the dog that I had to feed and care for it.
“Rock” never managed to bite me but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
IMO, he probably could’ve benefited from a full tick panel just to make sure he didn’t have Lyme or Ehrlichiosis because otherwise, he was just plumb mean.
Helluva coon hunter, though.