Pooch Parenting

In this episode of the Pooch Parenting Podcast, I talk about the importance of working with a specialist who will save time and money as you try to solve your dog related challenges. I'm currently raising a pair of orphaned dobermans and have been so grateful for the support I am getting from Puppy Culture. Similarly, when I needed to learn about aggressive behavior, I felt fortunate to be able to take a focused class from Michael Shikashio. 

I'd love to be that kind of support for you - a dog and child specialist. Stop wasting time trying to get specialized help from a general practitioner - get the help you need from someone who can help you to make progress with your dogs and kids fast.

Resources mentioned in the episode
Dogwood Animal Rescue Project

Puppy Culture

Michael Shikashio

The Pooch Parenting Society - a supportive membership for parents with dogs

The Pooch Parenting Coach Collective - a membership for dog professionals who want to build their confidence so they can take on more clients who have children

To see a video of my puppies playing and an irresistible photo, please visit the show notes page: www.poochparenting.net/episode57

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.

In this episode of the Pooch Parenting Podcast, I talk with parenting coach, Mel Peirce. We talk about how to "parent from neutral." Our conversation covers topics that will set up parents and their dogs for success. We discuss parenting expectations, self-talk, and being proactive - all of which will help parents with their kids AND their dogs!

Topics we discuss include...

• Patterns in parenting, planning ahead, be proactive
• Parenting from Neutral
• Avoid situations where you "command and demand"
• Positive self talk: "I can handle this", "today's going to be a good day"
• The danger of having expectations in parenting
• Being curious as a strategy to increase parenting satisfaction
• Instead of spiraling, pause to consider what went well.

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.

After trying barn hunt, a dog sport, for the first time with Pippin today, I got to thinking about comparisons between sports for dogs and sports for kids. Sometimes adults try to promote their own agenda when it comes to choosing family activities. But if I learned anything today, it was clear that the passion of the participant is one of the biggest factors we should consider when choosing a sport.

The Pooch Parenting Coach Collective - a membership for dog professionals who want to build their confidence so they can take on more clients who have children

The Pooch Parenting Society - a supportive membership for parents with dogs

The Barn Hunt Association

Barn Hunt - American Kennel Club

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.

This podcast episode was inspired by a Facebook post written by a mother who was in distress because her dog had bitten two of her children, resulting in visits to the emergency room. I discuss what happens when dogs bite kids, including:

• who to ask for advice
• parenting challenges when living with kids and dogs
• factors about dogs to consider
• factors about kids to consider

Dog Advice

Who should you ask for advice about your dogs and children? Consider these factors:

• Your Budget - you will need to pay for professional help. This might include getting the help of a veterinary behaviorist, dog trainer and/or behavior consultant...and maybe a combination of all of these. If you can not afford to get adequate support, you may not be able to safely keep this dog as a member of your family and there is NO shame there. 
• Expertise - don't ask for advice from people who are not qualified to give it. Other parents or dog owners have likely not spent years of their lives studying dog behavior. Just as FB is not a place to ask for medical advice, it's not the place to ask how to prevent dog bites to your children. It's 100% worth the investment to get help from a positive reinforcement professional. Your child and dog's lives are at stake. Dogs who bite kids don't usually have a very long lifespan, so don't mess around hoping for the best. This won't resolve itself.
• Asking for help on social media will likely lead to painful, shaming comments that will make you feel worse about yourself than you already do. Find someone compassionate to get support from instead.

Parenting Kids and Dogs

As a mom and teacher with 16 years of experience, I tend to truly understand what many families are going through, and love to offer them solutions that will make their lives easier. People who have not lived with young children don't understand how chaotic and stressful it can be. 

It's important to be honest with yourself about your bandwidth and what you can actually implement with your dog. Perhaps all you can do right now is to use a baby gate to give your dog or children a safe space. If that is adequate to solve your problem, great. If not, you may need to make some hard decisions about your family's future with this dog. To make REAL change, you may need to commit to spending time, money and other resources on improving the dynamics at home between your dog and children.

Children

Kids can be hard to live with. And that's not an insult. It's just how it is. They are like puppies - curious about exploring the world and testing boundaries. This is all normal. But it can be a difficult combination with your dog. Not all dogs love living with kids, so it's important that you choose one who does. If your dog came first, you will have to put in some extra effort to help them adjust to life with kids. And for some dogs, that may not be possible. 

The most common advice parents hear and trainers give parents is to "never leave your kids and dogs unsupervised." This is oversimplified and discounts how thinly parents are spread. You can use gates, pens, crates, and doors to separate kids and dogs when you can't pay complete attention to their interactions. Frankly, your sanity depends on this. It's impossible to watch attentively all the time when you need to cook, work, decompress, do laundry, and play with your kids.

While the expression "kids will be kids" can be a cop out for teaching kids manners, it also rings true. Kids are unpredictable, loud, and chaotic. That's not a bad thing. It can actually be really fun. But it can make life hard for some dogs. If you want to keep everyone safe, you need to set firm boundaries, teach respect, and prevent interactions unless the dog and child both give consent. 

The Pooch Parenting Society

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.

It’s National Dog Bite Prevention Week - and I believe that when we know better, we do better.

That’s why I’m so excited to be sharing the Sanity Savers for Parents with Dogs Online Summit with you!

In just 40(ish) minutes, you'll get actionable ideas you can use to make living with kids and dogs safer, easier and less stressful

You’ll hear tips from Parenting and Dog Experts on...

• Helping your dog to enjoy being around your kids (and vice versa!)
• Preventing jumping, chasing and nibbling
• Easing your own temper - and that of your kids
• …and so much more

The best part?

It’s entirely FREE.

I can almost guarantee you’ll come away with at least one idea! And who knows where that one idea might lead! At the very least, it should give you some pointers that will make living with kids and dogs easier, safer and less chaotic.

Register, and get instant access to the Sanity Savers for Parents with dogs online summit.

Dog Rescue Organizations

Please reach out to get a super duper discount code for my Kid and Dog Relationships online workshop. It's the perfect resource for all of your adopters who have children. We want to help your adoptions be successful - and this workshop will help to set parents, kids and dogs up to succeed.

Dog Pros

If kids aren't your jam, please consider referring these clients out - to me or another dog and child specialist. As a mom and teacher with 16 years of experience, I tend to truly understand what many families are going through, and love to offer them solutions that will make their lives easier. I can help them prepare dog for new baby, cope with the chaos that comes with toddlerhood, and can help kids do lots of activities that strengthen their relationship with the family dog. 

ps. If you want to discuss some of your cases and be sure you are on the right track, I also offer 30-minute coaching sessions to other trainers and behavior consultants.

Additional resources:

• On-demand workshop: Kid and Dog Relationships
• The Pooch Parenting Society - a supportive membership for parents with dogs

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.

The other day, a member of the Pooch Parenting Society sent me a Facebook post from a dog rescue organization about neurodivergent families and asked for my opinion. She has two special needs kids and had some pretty big feelings about it...and wanted to see if I felt the same. I do.

The Facebook post that was shared with me was written by the founder of a dog rescue organization and explained the reason behind her policy not to adopt dogs to families who have autistic children. Yes. you heard me right. She has labeled a group of people as a red flag and considers neurodivergent families inappropriate to live with dogs. (I can only imagine what Temple Grandin would have to say about this...)

Dog Rescue Organizations

Before anyone gets too heated, I want to remind everyone that the majority of people who go into the animal welfare field LOVE animals and want what's best for them. I worked at our local animal shelter as a volunteer for many years and was even on staff in the behavior department for awhile. I see the heart that goes into the work at shelters. But loving dogs is not an excuse for bigotry. This podcast episode (and article) are intended to offer support and ideas so that neurodivergent families can be successful with dogs.

Family Frustrations in Dog Adoption

As a dog and child specialist, I work with lots of families who have tried and failed to adopt dogs because of their rules not to adopt to families with children under the age of 10. While I may not agree with that policy, it's a clear policy. It's a result of a lack of resources to vet parenting and management skills. In my line of work, I see dogs who are uncomfortable living with children WAY more often than children who mistreat dogs. Children are unpredictable and can cause dogs lots of stress, which if not prevented can lead to inappropriate interactions.

High Stakes Between Kids and Dogs

Children are vulnerable and can be harmed easily by an excited dog, even just in play. And even the tiniest of bites could cause tremendous damage to a youngster. In previous episodes of this podcast, I have shared stories of babies who were killed by the family dog. And in the Master Course in Aggression course that I took from Michael Shikashio, he shared a story of a dog who nipped a child who ultimately died because the dog happened to nick an artery with its tooth. This was a horrible tragedy, but was an accident. 

The average pet family does not have a lot of experience truly understanding dog behavior and how they use their bodies to communicate. As a result, it can be difficult to keep everyone safe. The stakes with kids and dogs are high, which is why it's a field I chose to focus on. Parents need specialized support and resources, which can easily be included in the adoption process with any rescue, shelter or even breeder.

Continue reading on www.poochparenting.net/episode52

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.

In today's episode of The Pooch Parenting Podcast, I review the Netflix movie, Rescued By Ruby. It's a true story about a man who dreams of joining the K9 Search and Rescue team with the state police. "Typical" search and rescue dogs are too expensive, so he tries a more creative strategy to join the team. He adopts a difficult dog named Ruby from a local shelter and uses positive reinforcement training strategies to give her clarity and structure. Ultimately, his hard work and positive approach to working with Ruby helps them both to become successful

This episode includes:

• Why some shelter dogs are returned or are unsuccessful in their adopted homes
• The effectiveness of positive reinforcement training
• The importance of persistence with dogs and the need to work with the behavioral traits that the dog has
• How to set dogs up for success by making sure that they know what you want

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.

In today's episode of The Pooch Parenting Podcast, I talk about the risks of getting free advice when it comes to your family dog. Despite the best intentions, free advice can be misleading or even dangerous. In Facebook advice groups, for example, the blind is often leading the blind. Even though people can get some good advice from generous professionals who volunteer in these groups, those can often be outnumbered by people simply sharing their own experiences - most of which are not backed by research or science. 

If you want the BEST advice, along with coaching and accountability, you would be well served by hiring a qualified professional, such as myself, to guide you. You usually get what you pay for.

This episode includes:

• Why people should be proactive with putting together a trusted team before getting a dog - the same way that people are proactive when they are pregnant or adopting a child
• Examples of how free advice isn't necessarily helpful and how it can be harmful
• Crowd sourcing advice can lead to dangerous behavior and ignoring dog body language

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.

In today's episode of The Pooch Parenting Podcast, I answer a question that I hear quite often: should kids be allowed to walk the dog alone? And if so, how old should kids be before they can walk the dog by themselves?

We consider:

• Safety concerns for the child and dog
• Outcomes of the walk
• Developmental stage of child and dog

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.

In today's episode of the Pooch Parenting Podcast, I talk with Marie Silverberg about Windsprites and why they make good family dogs. I was unfamiliar with this breed, a blend of whippet, sheltie and borzoi, as recently as 2 years ago, but now they are on my radar, and are a breed I recommend for families with kids. In this episode, Marie and I talk about the origin of the breed, what their behavior and physical characteristics look like, and why they are good with kids.

Michelle of Pooch Parenting is now retired. Thank you for the support over the past decade. Many of her resources are now available on YouTube for FREE.