Robin and very small children

We do not have kids so it has not been easy to gather data on Robin with kids. At the adoption event he was fine with the older kids petting him. One small boy petted him and kept moving in closer to his face and he did a small back of the the throat growl.

Today at the mall we walked past the mall playground. Three very small kids came bounding over to pat the dogs. Robin was wagging his tail and looking happy to be patted by maybe a 5 and 7 yr old. A little boy (maybe 4) patted his head and he was OK with that but then came around his side and kept trying to grab the leash from me. Robin was still OK but then the boy started patting Robin's rear end and I could tell Robin didn't like it so I asked the boy to only pat his head. I repeated it several times and the boy wouldn't listen so I was getting ready to go when Robin gave him a small growl. His sister called him away and off he went.

So the good thing is Robin doesn't seem to dislike kids on sight. He hasn't snapped or lunged at them and seemed to welcome controlled petting. The bad news is Robin will not tolerate everything that young kids are likely to do. So the verdict for Robin will be, no kids.

One good thing is that Robin has no body sensitivity for us. We can touch him all over even while eating and he has no issues. I can put my hand in his bowl, the other dogs can eat from his bowl and he has no reaction. He is fine having his paws touched, his teeth brushed and his ears inspected. If he darts ahead of me through a door and I grab him by the hind legs to hold him back or even grab his tail he has had no negative reaction. Not even a hint of it.

So could Robin be trained to be more tolerant of little kids? Probably. I could have had the three kids stand in line and offer him a treat if they were the type to listen to instructions. Instead they were sort of all crowded around him which was probably a bit overwhelming. For kids who can't follow instructions or are too young I would limit his exposure until training could be done.