Today Finn met my neighbor's 7 year old son and 11 year old daughter (Griffin and Zoey). These are great kids, who are well mannered and calm around dogs. Finn was initially very concerned that he was going to be taken away from me, and got that worried look on his face, but after some reassurance his tail came up and he was willing to follow the kids around on the lawn (on leash). They were very sweet with him and he soon looked like he was going to doze off as Zoey was gently petting him. It was dusk or I would have videotaped it-- maybe we can do it again this weekend so you can see it yourself.
Finn is an incredibly sweet and loving dog. We're recommending that he not go to a home with kids under 7, simply because he's small enough that they might try to pick him up and dogs that are elongated in the spine (like Corgis and Dachshunds) need to be lifted kind of carefully to prevent back problems. (For example, we don't just grab them across the middle and lift, which would place a lot of pressure on the center of that elongated spine, we lift from the front and back together, keeping the spine straight and supported). But from what I'm seeing, well mannered kids 7 and above would be no problem. Obviously, kids over 7 who are not well mannered around dogs would not be a good fit, and a child under 7 who is exceptional about taking direction and being gentle could be an exception to our rule. So he's sweet and gentle, and needs kids who are, too. For example, at this point in his "getting to know us" I think it would upset him and shut him down if we were to try to play roughly with him. (We're gentle with him, and he seems incredibly grateful for that-- though there is no evidence that he's been physically abused). A few weeks from now, once he knows us and trusts us, he may not consider that kind of play to be impolite but right now it would be very confusing and scary to him.
His housetraining is still in its early stages, and he is never out of his crate without being closely supervised, and we take him out very frequently. So it's not surprising that he has not had any accidents at all in the house. If he's in his crate and he needs to go, he'll yip and let us know. So things are working well so far on that front.
I introduced him tonight to target training with a target stick, and videotaped the whole thing for you, and then accidentally deleted it from my camera while trying to free up more space on the memory stick! Darn it! I'll try to get his session tomorrow, though, since it's still very new to him.
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