Allowing children or strangers to walk your doggy

Hello everyone.

I was just wondering what all you opinions were on allowing children or strangers to walk your dog. My pup Tish is 13 weeks today and my son Ryan is 11 and he is always asking me if he can take her for a walk but i always say no. I don't want Ryan thinking i don't trust him or think he's not responsible enough, but frankly i am petrified that he would lose her or have her taken from him, or even not be able to handle things if a dog approached her and was being hostile towards her.
At what age did you allow your kids to walk your dog?
Also i see ads a lot in shop windows advertising dog walkers, usually it's hand written so im assuming it's a local kid wanting to earn some spends...how would you feel about this. Personally i wouldn't i really enjoy taking Tish for a walk, and of course there is the trust issue.

I personally never let my daughter walk my dogs unless I was with her, until she was about 18 (ours are big dogs) there are a couple of problems I see having a youngster walking a dog, 1 another dog may charge at your dog and start a fight the child may get caught up in this and get injured,2 a child can get distracted and release the dog by accident. 3 someone could take the dog from the child (heard of this happening and dog has not been seen since) the time for walking a dog is also a time for training it children dont tend to do the training.

as for dog walkers I would ONLY allow my dogs to go with someone reccomended to me that I could trust.

Mo

I never let my girls walk my dogs alone and even now they are 18 and almost 20 I wouldn't. I have a Staffie and a Pointer, these dogs are my responsibility and I know them inside out, I know to look ahead to see who is about, I know the local dogs, I know their body language and signals, when they tense, when they are relaxed and when they greet other dogs I know the 'signals'.

My girls are responsible and sensible but I know them too, easily distracted and not so tuned in to the dogs as I am. They love them, no doubt about it, but that doesn't mean they would be safe walking them alone.

Your dog is very young and a bad experience at this age could affect your dog for the rest of his days, is that a fair responsibility to place on your son.

I believe in being honest with kids, tell him exactly why you don't think its a good idea. Do you go to training classes, maybe your son could get involved in that so that he feels involved in the handling of your dog in a safe environment, this will also mean that he learns how to handle a dog safely from an 'authority figure'. I know my own kids tend to believe that anything mum comes out with is to be challenged and argued (that's normal I gather

Of course its your call but, personally, I wouldn't. He is still very young and its a huge responsibility to place on his shoulders.

I have two boys aged 10 & 14 and never allow them to take my dogs out , i have seen the results of a child aged about 9 taking a staffie for a walk to which this staffie managed to get hold off and kill a cat , i did report the parents and am glad i did no child should be allowed to walk dogs on their own with out supervision only the other day a cross breed was been walked by a young girl managed to slip its lead and come after my three

My kids (or anyones kids) NEVER get to walk my dogs..My husband is lucky if he gets to take them..and if he does he takes Lola..(He is NOT getting my boy)..

I don't trust anyone with my dogs..

I do have large powerful Alaskan Malamutes tho

If they were titchy wee yorkies then it might be different

Agree with the above posts...

I would maybe sit your son down and explain WHY you don't want him walking the dogs... it's not that you don't trust him, you don't trust anyone!!

I guess if he wanted to go for walks with you and Tish together you could let him walk her, but only with your supervision.

I would definitely get him involved in Tish's training - we have some superb junior handlers at our training classes (puppies to advanced level) who do really well...

If he can accompany you to puppy class and beyond, then that would be a great start!

with having rather Large dogs i wouldn't let my 16yr old son walk mine. my daughter is 22yrs old and VERY dog savvy and does walk them. My OH sometimes does and they play him up so now he will only come with me.

as for other kids.....well thats a big NONO!!

i hate kids with dogs as they never seem to be able to cope with them and they DO become a nuisance to other dogs.

I would not let my 13 year old son walk Sydney on his own - mainly because of others around them.
We do however let him take the lead when we are with him to supervise. After all she is our family dog and he should be involved.
Would not let anyone else take her out. I would be worried the whole time.

this covers it for me..........I also have big dogs

No I don't feel it is fair to put the onus on kids to walk dogs, as you do not know what sort of situations they may encounter and probably not be able to handle. It was different years ago but now with all the druggies and lots of irresponsible owners and the DDA I just would not feel comfortable with it.