B's toys and kids

[Mia]

Am I wrong to say kids should not play with your puppies toys? We don't have kids yet, and our pup is 8 months old. We have a friend, who brought over his 3 year old, and he's been around our pup before, but today the child decided to play with Mia's toys, which I knew was a bad idea. Mia kept jumping on the boy to try to get the toy, and my boyfriend was getting mad at me for not disciplining the dog, I mean we didn't let the dog maul the kid, but it's hard to hold her still when someone else is playing with her toys. Any suggestions on what to do when little kids are around?

[lvoss]

Put the toys away. That way they are not a problem for the dog nor the child. If the child needs some play time while they are visiting then that is a good time for the dog to have some crate chew time with an extra good crate chewie.

[Mia]

good point in putting the toys away…but as far as the crate, I think my B is clostrophobic or something, because being enclosed freaks her out, which is weird because she was fine with the crate trainning at night when we first got her. Maybe I just give her too much the run of the house (although some parts of the house are gated and that's fine), and she thinks everything is hers. But from now on I will put her toys away if kids come over for a visit.

[lvoss]

If your dog doesn't like being crated then maybe creating a "safe place" for when kids visit that the dog can be where it can have some time away from the kids.