Do you allow your children to walk the dog?

[dancingmama]

So the hotel thread made me wonder about allowing our children out of our sight.  Do your children walk your dog?  At what age did they start?  Do you watch them or are they on their own in the neighborhood?

 

 

 

 

[FaithManor]

Well, we have teens, so walking the dog is a no brainer. But, if we had owned a dog when they were young, 7 or 8 years old probably if they were going to take long walks. We've never lived in high crime places. Never...knock on wood, ever so thankful, so walking around town is no big deal. When dd was in kindergarten, we weren't homeschooling yet and her school was three blocks from our house. I walked her the one block to the corner where we could see the school, and she walked the other two. At release time, a school aide walked with the other "walkers" out to the street and waited with them until traffic had passed, escorted them across the busy road, and then away they went. If the baby was asleep, she walked the entire way. If he was awake, I loaded him into the stroller and met her at the end of the street so we could stroll and talk together.

 

She was the youngest child in her kindergarten class.

 

My 13 year old house sits, so we are bit more free range by nature here. DD had lots of adventures and was babysitting by the age of 12, so by 18, she was a very self-sufficient young adult with lots of common sense and practical boundaries.

[Plateau Mama]

I used to have my daughter walk the dog, until the dog tripped her and broke her wrist. She was 9. Now instead of regular walks we play fetch with her. My daughter will walk her occasionally, but until she was about 12 I didn't allow her to.

[Momling]

I don't "allow" as much as "insist" they walk the dog on days I don't get a chance to. I think maybe around 7 is when I felt they had the strength to hang on to her (she's a big dog). They'd just go around the block at that age, but now they walk much further. They also walk into town and to the park and my older walks to babysitting gigs or to her ballet carpool's house.

 

I should add that I am much less free range when we have foster kids because I have less confidence in their decision-making and boundaries and because I feel an added responsibility to the state to provide extra supervision. So I do recognize each family and situation is different.

[Halcyon]

"Allow"? It's one of their chores.

 

Started around 8 but we live in a safe neighborliness and our dogs bark at everybody and nobody wants to come near them :)

[Chris in VA]

We live in an unusual set up--40 acres of church land in the middle of a busy suburb of DC. I feel safe, but did not allow dd to go off property til recently. The boys were around 10 and 11 when we moved here, and the development "next" to us was not there then, so they would've had to cross an 8 lane street/hwy to get to anywhere.

 

She can walk the dog now, at 13, but he won't always go with her! He waits for my permission.

[bettyandbob]

We didn't have a dog a several years ago, but my dd was walking other peoples dogs at 10. She had a pet sitting/dog walking business. At 16 she, of course, walks our dog alone. 

 

It depends on the kid. It depends on the neighborhood. My 12 year old has significant disabilities. It would be a major milestone to get him to the point of walking our dog on his own, but we will work toward that and continually assess the possibility. 

[J-rap]

I did, but then again, we live in a small town that's mostly very safe, and our dogs were always big and looked a little mean...

[Carrie12345]

I don't allow my kids to walk our dogs b/c they aren't strong enough to control our dogs if they decide to chase a rabbit or dislike another passing dog.  Well, I guess my 15yo is, but we got the dogs when he was 7.

 

My daughters ARE allowed to ride there bikes around the neighborhood.  The 6yo is allowed around our quarter mile loop with an older sibling.

[dbmamaz]

I live in a very safe neighborhood.  When my now-teen was in 4th grade, so 9 yo, and I went back to work full time, he ended up getting bullied at the aftercare.  I ended up letting him come home to an empty house, and I would call home and make sure he walked the dog and had a snack, and then he would play video games until his older sister came home.  The fact that I was using 'walk the dog' as something to keep him calm/safe/occupied in his home-alone time makes me think he'd probably been doing it before that, but thats the first I clearly remember.

 

Dh is more over-protective, I dont think my youngest has ever walked the dog alone - this dog is heavier than the one we had before, and this kid is much more fearful.  But no, he did it once by himself, probably everyone else was sick or something - and the dog HATES dh.  

 

so it would depend on the kid, the dog, the neighborhood.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Reminds me of a scary/funny story.  When we first got our Aussie, I let the girls take her for a walk up the street.  They were 5 and 10 at the time, we'd been here awhile.  The next thing I know, there is a cruiser in my yard with the girls and the dog and he told me that this wasn't a very good neighborhood!  We had never had any issues, seen or heard anything to indicate so, but I was certainly going to take his word for it.  Scared the heck out of them, even though he was very kind.

[creekland]

It was "insist" here too... though we no longer have any dogs as our last one passed away a couple years ago.

 

When I was young it was our dogs who watched my sister and I.  We had two German Shepherds and we were their sheep.  I have memories from being 3 years old (my sister was 4 and not yet in school, so I can date the memories) and playing in the woods behind our house - going as far away as the next road over - which is a mile across as the crow flies.  The dogs were always with us.  My parents only knew we were playing outside...

 

Once when I was a little older - maybe 7?  (The dogs died when I was 8, so before then.) - I was coming home walking on a crusted snow and fell through (not water, but high snow - high for a youngster anyway).  One dog stayed with me and the other ran home barking like crazy.  I yelled, but also kept struggling to get out and finally made it myself.  When I got in the door my dad was there just sitting and reading.  I was mad and asked him if he had heard Penny (the dog that went home) barking.  He said he had, but didn't think anything about it.  Apparently German Shepherds aren't as good at barking knowledgeable sentences as Collies are...

 

So, maybe it was dangerous at the time, but it sure makes a great memory.

 

Had I not survived?  It was a good life.  To this day I'd rather "live" and die young than grow into old age and do next to nothing.

 

It's just a personality style.  My kids share it.  There have been times I've held my breath (and I always check things out when our dogs were barking), but I've let them live.

[catz]

We don't have a dog, but kids walk dogs in our neighborhood all the time (we're in a nice neighborhood in a largish city). If we had a dog, I'd have no problem with it.

[kewb]

One of the requirements of getting a dog was that they would walk the dog. 

[bettyandbob]

One of the requirements of getting a dog was that they would walk the dog. 

 

Um, yeah.

 

The title of this thread makes me shake my head, but clearly I live in a different world than some people. 

[dancingmama]

Oh, my children have been walking dogs since they were 7 or so.  My son even walked the neighbor's dogs for awhile.  

 

I was just surprised at the number of people who seemed to never want to have their children leave their sight, ever.  So I wondered if perhaps I was a little lax in my parenting, having my children out of my sight on a daily basis.  

[catz]

Interesting link came up on my FB feed yesterday somewhat related to this.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/01/16/7-crippling-parenting-behaviors-that-keep-children-from-growing-into-leaders/

[Pawz4me]

It depends on:

 

Size of dog

Breed of dog

How well trained dog is (or not)

How dog savvy kids are

How many other dog walkers are likely to be encountered, and how well trained (in general) the neighborhood dogs tend to be

 

Personally, my kids are icked out by the thought of picking up poop.  And since IMO that's a mandatory part of dog owning and dog walking . . . neither of mine have ever walked our dogs alone.

 

One of my huge pet peeves is seeing a very small child (regardless of age) walking a strong, muscular dog.  I once witnessed a girl who weighed maybe 60 pounds walking a very well muscled young Rottie in a crowded, public situation where many other dogs were around. The girl was way too small to be able to physically control the dog had he decided to act up, and very likely she wasn't old enough or mature enough to posses the skills to control the dog in a non-physical way.  There are so many ways I could see that turning into a disaster -- dog breaks free and gets lost, dog pulls hard enough that child falls and gets hurt, dog bites someone due to thinking he needs to protect the child (and dog pays for that by losing his life), dog gets into a fight with another dog, etc., etc.

 

In general, my concerns about dog walking are much more for the dog than for the kid.

[mommymilkies]

My oldest started walking the dog at 10-11 just around the block.  We live in a safe neighborhood.  She also uses a Gentle Leader harness and she's never had a problem.  She likes doing it.  I've offered to take over, but she likes it.  The dog goes poo in our yard at the end of the round, so she doesn't have to pick it up anywhere, but she does on the rare occasion it happens.  

[Amy in NH]

It depends on the size of the child and the size of the dog.  Dog-walking chore has moved down the ranks of my kids as they've gotten older/bigger. 

 

But we live in a very rural area and the dog walking does not take place on a road, so this is probably not helpful to the issue you are discussing.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Depends on the dog.  Libby the Disabled Wonder Dog?  Sure - they can take her for her flop around the block.  Rocky the dog with Puppy ADHD?  Ds16 can handle him.  Dd12 has only been strong enough to handle him starting this month.  It has nothing to do with being free range, which the kids have been since around 8 years old.

[Acorn]

I totally agree that my concerns are more dog related than child related.  My kids can definitely walk about the neighborhood on their own before I would agree to dog walking.  When we are dog walking, we see 6 - 12 other dogs.  A few of them we casually "know" but many are single encounters.  There is just no way to predict the dog interactions in some situations.

[AimeeM]

No, but our dog situation isn't typical. Our GSD is other-dog aggressive and our subdivision is full of people walking their dogs. There is no way our 12 year old (who is outweighed by the GSD) could handle him if he went for another dog.

 

As for letting her out of our sight - she is allowed to play in the neighborhood unsupervised (relatively - she does check in). Our 4 year old and 1 year old? Nah. Lol.

[Χά�ων]

We are rural but DS took his dog for a walk before we moved at 7.

[SKL]

Depends on the dog, LOL. 

 

Normally, school age is old enough to walk a dog.  We do not have a dog, but my kids walk my sister's dogs sometimes.  She follows them.  Her dogs are GSDs and not very used to being walked.  That is the only reason they do not walk the dogs alone yet.  They are 7.

[AimeeM]

Quoting Pawz4me:

dog bites someone due to thinking he needs to protect the child (and dog pays for that by losing his life), dog gets into a fight with another dog, etc., etc.

 

In general, my concerns about dog walking are much more for the dog than for the kid.

 

 

This is my concern as well. While not generally people aggressive, our GSD would definitely bite if an unknown person approached our daughter; even if he weren't ill, he's proven to be far too protective of the children for walking to ever be a viable idea (the children walking him I mean; my husband and I can physically restrain him and he does listen to OUR commands; but the protectiveness he shows over the children isn't extended to us in most cases - he seems to think we adults are capable of discerning bad people from good people, but he seems to think the children are incapable of the same).

[Lara in Colo]

Do I allow the dog to take the children for a drag?  No.  Do I let the children go around the neighborhood by themselves? Yes.

 

[dirty ethel rackham]

It depends on the size and temperament of the dog and the size and skill of the child.  When we first got Bear, the 65 lb wonderchewer, squirrel and rabbit chaser extraordinaire, I was barely strong enough to walk him - he was a delight on leash until he saw a squirrel or rabbit.  If he saw another dog, he would get so excited because he wanted to meet that dog - tail wagging, play bow and pulling on the leash.  I ended up with tendonitis in my elbow.  We did lots of training with him and I would work on distracting him before we approached any of his usual distractions.  After we got the Easy-walk harness, we allowed our daughter to walk him (she was probably about 5'4" and less than 90 lbs at the time.) 

[Ivey]

Our dog usually runs with Ds16 in the mornings, but on days that he doesn't run, I send Ds11 to walk her. She's only 3, so he's been walking her since he was 8, with no issues. 

[Paige]

I let my kids walk the dog around our property line alone when they are about 8 or 9. It's about the size of some suburban blocks. Our neighborhood is rural with no sidewalks so I'm not comfortable letting them walk on the street and we don't really have a block to walk around. We used to have 2 dogs and I would only allow them to walk one of them. The other was much too strong. Even when he was a puppy and only 15-20lbs, I could barely control him and would sometimes get bleeding cuts from the leash because he pulled so much. I'd never have trusted the kids with him. My 6yr old is allowed to go with the other kids walking the dog and she has been allowed for a while, but she can't go alone. Part of it is safety for her, but most of it is that I don't think she's strong enough to control him if he bolts.

[Gentlemommy]

My 5 and 8 year old girls each have a dog. They have full responsibility of their own dogs-feeding, watering, training ( we teach them how, but they execute it), walking, picking up after, and bathing. They go together on walks around the neighborhood. Our neighborhood is small (about 50 homes, four streets), and I'm comfortable with them heading to the park (5 houses down from ours) or the tennis courts to let the dogs run.

Edited to add-their dogs are tiny, less than ten pounds, so easy for them to control. Neither dog is aggressive towards people or animals, but we've instructed the girls not to allow them to meet dogs unless we are there. I don't want our little guys to become lunch lol. They also both know how to carefully pick up poop.

[LibraryLover]

Probably starting at 10 (alone). Before that with a sib. 

 

 

[Truscifi]

Our dog? Sure. Ds10 has even walked the dog and pushed the baby in his stroller while dh and I did yard work. He didn't stay within sight the whole time either, though he was within shouting distance. Our dog is a relatively well behaved 25lb terrier though. My friend has a 90lb rottie mix who is sweet as can be, but I would not allow ds10 to walk him because he is excitable and outweighs ds10 by about 20lbs.

[shanvan]

So the hotel thread made me wonder about allowing our children out of our sight.  Do your children walk your dog?  At what age did they start?  Do you watch them or are they on their own in the neighborhood?

I allow my almost 16 yr old Ds to walk his dog within our neighborhood.  I do not allow my almost 12 yr old Dd to walk her dog unless one of us is with her.  She is sometimes allowed to take him out on the front sidewalk (where I can see her from our 2 large front windows) to practice obedience.  If I am outside working in the front yard she is allowed to walk down to a certain house on our street and back.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I'm glad this was asked.  I wondered about kids walking around the block at what ages.  Our block is 14 houses, I think.  But half of that is on a main subdivision road.  So far, we have let Tumbler and Swimmer RUN the block together. But we are quitting fostering so have been considering how much more freedom we all will have (my big freedom is turning up the water heater and leaving the shampoo on the side of the tub!).