behaviour around children

[hippychickuk]

as a lot of you know, my son aaron is disabled.. pappy is totally different around aaron, than what he is around my 2 older girls, who are not disabled. pappy has not been taught to be any different around aaron. if he is playing tug with the girls, he puts effort in with tugging. when he plays tugging with aaron, hes considerably more gentle. and you can clearly see, that pappy hardly puts any effort in with tugging. its strange that pappy 'just knows'. with the girls hes just one big dufus, and is big and clumsy. if he sits next to them, he will just plonk himself down, if they are in the way, he will sit on them. usually his front paws. hes so gentle with aaron though. i noticed that if the girls hurt themselves and cry, pappy will go over to them and put his head on their lap, and try licking their faces.. when aaron hurt himself earlier on, and started crying. pappy went a bit crazy, it was almost like pappy was in a panic. he wouldnt stop until he could go up to aaron and, im assuming, making sure he was ok. hes not dominant with the girls at all, and he knows his place in the pack.(if this makes sense)
does he see aaron as the weakest, or is it because pappy senses how he should be around aaron??

[Stuart]

Pappy will not see Aaron as week, a pack member who is week will often `get left behind`, but he will be well aware that Aaron is different, and so his actions around him will be different,.. he may well see Aaron in the way a dog see`s a pup, and so is in need of careing for

[sami]

My Max was terrified of children and avoided them at all costs but there was a disabled child who lived near to us who was always in the garden when we walked past. He always ran across to us to fuss Max who would quite calmly let him and would even take a biscuit from him. He wouldnt do this with any other child.

[jesterjenn]

I think Pappy just understands Aaron needs a gentler approach than the girls.

Jess and Harley are like it when Jack either give them their toys or a treat. They just seem to know I think it's great

[Moobli]

I would say the same as Jen, that Pappy probably just realises there is something a little different about Aaron and that he needs to be treated with more care. What a wonderful dog you have

[hippychickuk]

thankyou.. he sure is wonderful!!

[Caryll]

I think some dogs 'know' when a child is disabled in some way, and will react accordingly. I know that Dempsey is incredibly gentle with disabled kids, although he'll rough & tumble with others.

[laney]

How wonderful Pappy is , bless him thats so lovely , Mowgli is a little bit like this with my mum , she is waiting for two new hips and has some days when she can barely walk , on those days she says ' go slow Mog granny cant do it today ' and he plods next to her , other times he is a big goofball as usual , I think they just are super sensitive dogs and know when someone they care for needs a little extra , good boy Pappy Lx

[kazP]

Aren't our dogs wonderful (sometimes ). All the time that has been spent training Abi to not jump up at people when they arrive is totally wasted when my son visits. Abi is so excited to see him that she's squealing and going mental trying to get into the car with him once he's opened the door. Then one day he arrived and in a weak, quiet voice said 'not now Abi' (man flu )... she immediately backed off and just followed him into the house. The minute he sat down, Abi just rested her head on his lap instead of launching into the usual manic rugby tackles they'd have on the floor.

Rather than this being a 'one off' she has shown the same respect to my father-in-law who has a wooden walking stick... I mean, she'd normally kill a stick like that in seconds. And when a friend of mine was on crutches after breaking her ankle, Abi would wait until she sat down before nudging for a fuss. Normally Abi behaves as though she's got a rocket up the bum, so some sort of instinct must kick in?