A love story to melt your cockles

It certainly is. Nice to see the kind of dog that you would trust around a child.

Reminds me of the golden lab my sister had when three of her five boys were small. She had the patience of a saint and she needed it! Golden labs are truly the only dog I would trust around small children.

My son had a black labrador who was so gentle and protective of our 3 grandsons. Whenever we went for a walk, the dog would always walk with the children. If they ran on ahead, so did Fred. They could clamber all over him and sit on his back and if he got fed up, he would disappear into the utility room. Sadly, he developed cancer and had to be put to sleep earlier this year. ?

When I was a kid in Liverpool a friend of mine had a Golden Lab called Percy. Often the local kids would knock at my Friends door. They hardly ever wanted her, but usually asked if Percy can come out to play, and he did!

Reminds me of another story about a golden lab. I used to work for Boots Chemists back in the late 60's and we were regularly visited by one (on his own) and given lots of fuss from the staff and the customers. He always used to visit the chemist counter then trot over to a rotating display of dog toys, have a good sniff then leave.
This went on for several weeks, then one day he came in and pulled a squeaky pork chop off the display stand and bolted out of the shop. Our one and only encounter with a shoplifting dog!

That's so funny Fiorentina, I think he had been casing the joint all those weeks

Beautiful video. I was very fortunate to grow up with dogs and my children have done so too. I think it's important.

Fiorentina We took our little doggie into Boots when her bandage came off her broken leg just as we had stepped off the train from the PDSA. The staff were lovely and no one told us that she wasn't welcome. Not that I'd have listened to be honest, it was a very stressful time. All better now though, even with her plate in her little leg.

When my son was in the RAF, his boss used to bring his scatty young Labrador into the office. DS used to walk him during the day. They were "mates"! After my DiL died, and DS was "adrift', his boss went away for a couple of weeks and asked DS if he would take the dog home and look after him. It was two weeks of chaos but great fun, when he didn't think he would ever have anything to smile about again. It was nice to ring him and hear him laugh when he told me what the dog had been up to! He wasn't entirely sorry to see him go home - he was very house proud and the dog wasn't - but he loved every minute of that two weeks. He said it was small but welcome step on the road back to normality.

Brought a tear to my eye. What a special dog. I love labs.

This truly worries me, I would never have allowed my children, or my grand-children to clamber all over a dog like that. Yes, it looks cute and we all say ah...... but that poor dog. Labradors are lovely dogs, and great for the blind, but they can get fed up and just as likely to turn nasty as any other dog. Sorry, just not my thing I am afraid. There are too many stories recently of children being attacked by docile dogs.

I, too, cringe every time I see a picture on facebook of newborn babies lying next to dogs; even dogs like whippets who are the gentlest creatures ever 99.9% of the time. I even see similar pictures with dogs such as mastiffs and they totally freak me out.At the same time most of the photos of my children when they were very young seem to include a family pet so I guess my attitude must have changed over the years. But my children never crawled all over the dogs or hit them etc. They were taught, from an early age to treat the dogs as dogs not as playthings.

We have always had dogs both when the children and grandchildren were small. I thoroughly agree about chlidren climbing over dogs, it is a very silly thing to let them do. All my children were taught from an early age how to behave with dogs and sitting on them and pulling them about is just not right. We have had all breeds of dogs from labs, dobermanns and greyhounds, and the children have respected them all and have been respected in return. .Never do to a dog what you would not like someone doing to you.

I don't recall mentioning that my grandsons either hit or pulled the dog. If they had they would have been quickly dealt with. They were never alone with him and certainly treated him with respect. Their parents are responsible adults and certainly not silly or foolish.

It looked as if the small child was hitting the dog about the head in the video; that's what concerned me.

I watched the video with increasing unease. If you google which dog is involved in most dog bites, the answer is Labrador.
I grew up with dogs and my own children and grandchildren have all grown up with dogs in the family. I would never allow a child to clamber all over a dog in the way shown here. It's just not fair on the dog.
I don't want to be a misery guts or to suggest no dog can ever be trusted with children. My first cocker spaniel was rock solid around children but I would never have allowed the children to clamber over or torment her.

Looked to me like the Child was patting the dog, not hitting it. The Dog was so relaxed that he/she had her eyes closed, you could see from the dog's bosy language how relaxed it was.

www.dogbiteclaims.co.uk/dangerous
Hope this link works.
If a dog has teeth, it will bite and I accept that children should be taught to behave appropriately with their pets.
Stats can be read in different ways so one needs to to take into account many other factors when making assertions as to the 'dog most likely to...'
Most of the incidents involving Labradors biting individuals, are situations involving postal workers or delivery drivers. The dog is protecting it's territory. The Labrador is the most common pet dog in the UK so logically there would be a possibility of a greater number of incidents reported involving them.
However, if you read the article via the link you will see that the Lab is not in the top 10 most aggressive dog list.

Whether or not a dog is on the aggressive dog list or not, I still think it is unwise to leave the animal alone with a child, and to allow a child to sit on, and 'pull about'an animal. They are not play things, so should not be treated as toys. I agree that many dogs are possessive and like to guard people, that is another matter altogether.

It doesn't matter whether labs are in the top ten list of aggressive dogs. What matters is that we all educate ourselves and our children about dog behaviour and psychology. All dogs need at least basic training, all children need age appropriate advice , no child should be allowed to climb all over or torment dogs in any way. Small children should never be unsupervised with dogs. Simple.

I think we agree Iam64, you express your opinions better than I do.

I don't think anyone on here advocated leaving a child alone with a dog, hitting, tormenting them or pulling them about. My grandsons would from time to time climb onto their dog and hug it with one or both of their parents present. They had the dog for 10 years until it became ill and it was always gentle with everyone, especially the children.

I put this post on here to share the joy that the little Boy had with his beloved Dog, and clearly the dog was enjoying all the attention too. I didn't see anyone hitting the dog. Clearly the child was not left alone with the dog because his father was right there with the video,

Suddenly I am reading about newborns left with dogs, of course we are all entitled to how we feel, but why could you not just take this at face value, a lovely video, no dogs or humans injured or abused or tormented. I thought it lovely, and wanted to share it as I thought others would enjoy it too, WRONG!! There are always people though who, no matter what anyone esle says, or posts will feel duty bound to put the mockers on it, they know best of course
!! I will think twice before I bother to share anything nice on here again, that's for sure

? It was a nice video. Brought back pleasant memories. Many thanks.