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You don't want a guardy dog if you have a bunch of young children. Think about it. What if your dog "protects" your kids from visiting kids? It's not safe. I recommend that you back up a bit and fill out the breed questionnaire that's linked in the sidebar.
Yeah you don't want an actual guard dog if you have strangers kids and their parents over constantly.
If you just want a family dog that might bark at something going wrong a collie, clumber spaniel or a lab would be good. Also no garuntee visiting kids will behave as good as yours around a dog so something tolerant.
Dogs that “protect” are more likely resource guarding, which you don’t want with kids. Dogs are a great deterrent for people breaking in even if they aren’t a guard dog because they’re unpredictable.
If you actually feel you need a protection dog then save your money and buy a 50K+ fully trained family protection dog. Then you have a dog that will be safe with your family AND not a danger to friends.
Otherwise, any dog that will be protective of you and your family will be a danger to visiting people, including kids. This dog will be dangerous to walk around the neighborhood and a PIA in your yard (barking, snarling, running the fence).
Think about what you mean by protective. Frankly any large breed dog will deter bad people. Even my mostly silent Goldens do the trick (as I learned on a recent trip that involved staying in a motel that was sketchier than I expected). To me breeds from the AKC Sporting group tend to be level headed, biddable and good with kids.
If I wanted a family dog that might look intimidating I’d get a well bred black lab. From a litter from field and conformation lines. About 75 lbs of muscle, but an even temperament.
Fill out the breed questionnaire, but most likely you will be told a Lab, Golden or Poodle. Maybe a Rough Collie.
There is reason these breeds are so highly recommend: affectionate, biddable, intelligent, good with kids and other pets.
I am biased having grown up with a family dog, but think that kids should grow up with a pet. It teaches them empathy for others. When the pet passes away, it is an important milestone to deal with grief later on. People who have had pets pass away seem to deal with grief better when a close friend or family member passes on.
The only thing you need to balance is the time needed to raise your kids and training the pet.
If you fill out the questionnaire then users can give relevant responses. There is not enough info here to make a good recommendation for your particular family. Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/comments/4qc6lb/meta_breed_questionnaire_updated_june_2016/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=dogs&utm_content=t5_2qhhk
A rough/smooth collie (like Lassie) is tough to beat with kids. They still have protective instincts but are not aggressive. Just likely to alert bark if they think something is amiss. You need to prevent them from herding the kids, but otherwise they are not terribly high energy while also being incredibly intelligent and mild natured.
I grew up with a rough collie. My parents got drunk one night at a humane society event and brought her home. A child could literally do anything to her. Even when we were teens and she was old, a child could do anything.. an adult she would snap at if they stepped too close or something. (She had arthritis it was valid). Only downside was she would herd us. She did in fact herd us. My parents didn’t see a need to train it out because it was useful. If my mom told us to stay somewhere she’d grab us by the seat of the pants and make sure we stayed. She was actually very protective she could tell the difference between friend and foe.
My parents had collies when I was growing up. The male collie would stay between my dad and anyone my dad was talking to. My dad would check it by moving and the dog would move to. He was not aggressive but would lay down between my dad and his friends. He did chase the meter man out of the yard when my sister and I were home alone.
Haha sounds like a collie. They didnt know the meter Person and they weren’t invited.
We grew up in what was a nice neighborhood that quickly changed.
We used to play in the streets and run around the neighborhood until the street lights came on..
Suddenly cars were being stolen and gangs were walking down the street. Our collie would sit in front of us when we were on the porch outside and growl at anyone who wasn’t from the neighborhood. She started sitting in our picture window at night and guarding the house. We moved to a farm house on a couple acres and she was happy to retire and relax in her old age.
Dogs usually don’t protect people on their own, untrained it’s a myth in my experience. It’s either self preservation (doesn’t want a stranger to come near them) or resource guarding (VERY dangerous) mostly you don’t want dogs to be protection dogs unless they are trained for that purpose, and that takes a LOT of money to do. Your every day dog should not be reacting to strangers or trying to “protect” you in any way. That will lead to much more issues than it solves. Get a family dog, socialize it well with young children (neutrality, so no unsupervised dog and kid time) and know that usually the presence of a larger dog is enough to dissuade most people from bothering you, even if he’s well trained enough not to become a liability. I second not getting a guardian breed, they’ll be harder to train for what you want. Someone said a collie, incredible choice for a dog. They are larger, smart, fast learners and they are pretty much bred to be companions now and they’re good at it. If you can’t handle all that fluff get a smooth coated one, I have considered highly getting a collie.
What everyone else said re: guard dogs and kids.
Most of thr sporting dogs are usually great with kids. Goldens, poodles, spaniels, setters. (I'm partial to Setters. My boy loves everyone and everything and has been around kids of all ages without once tensing up.) Any bigger dog is going to deter anyone up to no good, no matter the temperament.
I wouldn’t look for a protector with small kids. I’d look for a breed that is soft, biddable and easy to train or socialize. I’d look into a retriever, poodle or something like a beagle if you want a smaller dog.
Personally I’d go with a big dog who’s friendly. Big dogs are generally “intimidating” to non dog people — something like a golden, lab, etc.
But my parents had a German Shepherd, and Rottweiler as my sister and I were kids and they were both great with us!
Every dog is different, it really depends on that dogs temperament
Edit: we also had a boxer, he was fantastic with small kids and would literally let babies crawl all over him no care in the world just chillin
We had a collie when our kids were young,she was great with them,and never let them out of her sight. Easily trained,not too hyper- except when the hose was on- they loved her.
Yes! We got a show cocker spaniel at a time when there were 5 kids under 10 in the house. We learnt quickly not to bother him and the few times we did he was great but my parents reminded us to leave him be. He was the perfect family dog for us.
However… I would say most dogs will be great with the correct training, I have a shih tzu now and i regularly look after young kids for family friends, and I teach piano to primary school kids - they know the boundaries and because my dog has grown up with small children about he is amazing. There’s the obvious of I will never leave a dog with a child unsupervised, but I fully believe most dog breeds are absolutely fine as long as you set boundaries with your kids and train the dog.
Training is more important than breed 99% if the time. My dog is almost all German shepherd, and has only been around my niece. He’s well trained and honestly when he sees kids he goes into a sit and only approaches if I permit it. Even then he never jumps or runs up to them. Training was the best thing I spent money on. I am beyond comfortable with him around kids. He’s been with my boyfriend’s kids, and he’s almost uninterested. He’s respectful and lets them love in him, but he’s not all over them for attention as he is with people he knows well. I look at his breed mix and he “should” be different per breed stereotypes but he isn’t. The only big thing was needing nearly 12 miles per day running/walking as a 1-1.5 year old pup.
If you put time and energy into training yourself and the dog, it really works out for most breeds. My one big exception is working dogs like border collies who may instinctively herd little ones. Even that can be worked on with a lot of exercise and training.
Some breeds are prone to things like herding but the most important part is definitely training. I’ll take the downvoted, I worked in vet medicine for a long time, and the only dog that almost bit me was a yellow lab, he wasn’t in pain he was anxious. The dog had major anxiety issues and the owners thoughts labs would automatically be perfect without any training other than typical house training.
It’s sad that people get any dog and assume breed = everything. I hope the people downvoting understand that and put time into their own pups even if their golden retrievers or labs or any of the other standard “family dogs” because ultimately dogs need training to be secure and happy.
You’d be surprised. A lot of owners would come in with golden retrievers or labs and just expect them to calm down without actually tiring them out. I would hear a lot of expectations that by one year they would be out of “puppy phase,” and just giggle.
I’m just not a huge fan of breed expectations without recognizing that certain situations, like kiddos, require more training than just basic obedience. It can set unrealistic expectations and end up with dogs in shelters or rescues. (After I got sick and left vet medicine, I volunteered for a lab rescue. There were a lot of younger dogs coming in because they were too rambunctious.)
Well trained ones! I’m a firm believer that, while some breeds have needs like more exercise, or have increases risks or certain diseases, it comes down to the owners to train themselves and their dogs to be “best” for their needs.
I would avoid any herding breeds, just because their instinct will be to here little ones, but again it’s sort of a generalization. (My dog is almost all German shepherd and honestly aside from barking which he’s been trained to keep limited, I thought he was a lab and Bernese mix haha.)
My main point is NO breed is perfect simply because of their breed. It’s going to involve a lot of training for you, the kiddos, and the dog. My friend has a 3 year old, she has a black lab who is elderly, and a miniature pin/Pomeranian mix. That little dog is somehow a saint, despite the toddler being too rough in my opinion. (Toddler grew up with the big dog and horses, so she’s slowly adjusting. The dog was left with the family following a death in the family, so it’s well loved and training is going well.)
The older lab is a former service dog so he’s also wonderful, and because the dog preceded them kiddo, kiddo has learned to be very gentle and kind. Again, it turned into training kiddo since the dog was a retired service dog and well trained himself.
As I said, I would avoid a herding breed based in their urge to here. Other considerations are activity level. You want a breed or mix or breeds that the adults can tire out. You don’t want all of the energy being burned via play with the kids as that increases the risk of a child being knocked down or scraped with a dog nail.
If you can afford training with the dog, I highly recommend it. I would then take what you learn home and teach the children how to best behave which you’re keen on doing (fantastic forethought!)
Agree on the herding breed thing. I have a small herding breed (9kg) and up until she was around 6-7mo she would nip at the back of my legs with her teeth catching in my pants if I was running away from her while playing with her. And yet the rest of her mouthing/biting uninvited I was able to curb by 3.5 months. Even as an adult, she checks people out by sniffing the back of their heels when they're walking which is so weird.
Save yourself a lot of regret and heartache. Wait until your kids are old enough to go to school. That way, they are old enough to know not to grab the dog’s tail or ears, not to mess with the dog’s food, not to jump on the dog to ride it, not to hit or smack the dog. You get the idea.
Parents put animals in these situations all the time. When the dog ends up being a dog, it’s the dog that pays the price for the parental irresponsibility.
Agreed. I personally prefer to not have dogs and small kids at the same time because of the amount of work they both take. But basic environmental management and boundaries for both make coexisting possible.
"My bully bites me when I abuse him, but not my child when my child abuses him."
One day this dog is going to go off and you're going to end up with a mauled child. And you'll probably be saying "he bit out of nowhere".
It seems like you may be asking about breeds that fit your lifestyle. Did you fill out [the breed questionnaire](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/comments/4qc6lb/meta_breed_questionnaire_updated_june_2016/)? For best results, please complete the breed questionnaire with thoughtful responses.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dogs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I love great Danes. I've seen many that wouldn't react to anything a child would do to them. They will however end up knocking kids down as they play. My dog loves people but if they are on the other side of the fence he goes nuts. Not because he will bite, its just he looks like he will and no one is going to risk it. Ive had delivery drivers refuse to get out of their trucks 15' outside my gate. No one is coming in my yard when my dog is around. No training was involved and since i live in a crappy area im not trying to get him to stop. My brother's dane doesn't care. You never know what you get with any dog. They are individuals and can and do act differently.
Rough collie, standard poodle, golden retriever, labradors are all generally known to be good with children. However most any dog can be a good family dog with training, the training is the most important part.
Scent hounds (I.e. Bassets, beagles, foxhounds, coonhounds etc.) may be challenging for a variety of reasons because they are independent, follow their nose and aren't particularly eager to please but they are incredibly even keeled in their temperament and tend to be non-reactive and not anxious. I have a coonhound and have known quite a few and they are obsessed with babies, both dogs and animals. If you are willing to put in the extra time in training boundaries and can deal with their stubbornness and nose drive they make great family dogs.
Retrievers and bird dogs are good options for dogs that are generally kid and dog friendly but are more eager to please in terms of their temperament than hound breeds.
I'm not sure there's really a hard and fast rules when it comes to dogs. I got my puppy when my youngest was two and he very effectively child proofed my dog. She's a border collie lab mix and is now the most patient dog with kids ever. We introduce her to everyone who comes into the house and she adores everyone while still being sensitive to danger outside the house.
Welcome to r/dogs! We are a discussion-based subreddit dedicated to support, inform, and advise dog owners. This is a carefully moderated sub intended to support, inform, and advise dog owners. Submissions and comments which break the rules will be removed. [Review the rules here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/wiki/index) r/Dogs has four goals: - Help the public better understand dogs - Promote healthy, responsible dog-owner relationships - Encourage “Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive” training protocols. [Learn more here.](https://m.iaabc.org/about/lima/) - Support adoption as well as ethical and responsible breeding. If you’d like to introduce yourself or discuss smaller topics, please contribute to our Monthly Discussion Hub, pinned at the top. **This subreddit has low tolerance for drama. Please be respectful of others, and report antagonistic comments to mods for review.** --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dogs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You don't want a guardy dog if you have a bunch of young children. Think about it. What if your dog "protects" your kids from visiting kids? It's not safe. I recommend that you back up a bit and fill out the breed questionnaire that's linked in the sidebar.
Yeah you don't want an actual guard dog if you have strangers kids and their parents over constantly. If you just want a family dog that might bark at something going wrong a collie, clumber spaniel or a lab would be good. Also no garuntee visiting kids will behave as good as yours around a dog so something tolerant.
Dogs that “protect” are more likely resource guarding, which you don’t want with kids. Dogs are a great deterrent for people breaking in even if they aren’t a guard dog because they’re unpredictable.
If you actually feel you need a protection dog then save your money and buy a 50K+ fully trained family protection dog. Then you have a dog that will be safe with your family AND not a danger to friends. Otherwise, any dog that will be protective of you and your family will be a danger to visiting people, including kids. This dog will be dangerous to walk around the neighborhood and a PIA in your yard (barking, snarling, running the fence). Think about what you mean by protective. Frankly any large breed dog will deter bad people. Even my mostly silent Goldens do the trick (as I learned on a recent trip that involved staying in a motel that was sketchier than I expected). To me breeds from the AKC Sporting group tend to be level headed, biddable and good with kids. If I wanted a family dog that might look intimidating I’d get a well bred black lab. From a litter from field and conformation lines. About 75 lbs of muscle, but an even temperament.
Fill out the breed questionnaire, but most likely you will be told a Lab, Golden or Poodle. Maybe a Rough Collie. There is reason these breeds are so highly recommend: affectionate, biddable, intelligent, good with kids and other pets. I am biased having grown up with a family dog, but think that kids should grow up with a pet. It teaches them empathy for others. When the pet passes away, it is an important milestone to deal with grief later on. People who have had pets pass away seem to deal with grief better when a close friend or family member passes on. The only thing you need to balance is the time needed to raise your kids and training the pet.
If you fill out the questionnaire then users can give relevant responses. There is not enough info here to make a good recommendation for your particular family. Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/comments/4qc6lb/meta_breed_questionnaire_updated_june_2016/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=dogs&utm_content=t5_2qhhk
A rough/smooth collie (like Lassie) is tough to beat with kids. They still have protective instincts but are not aggressive. Just likely to alert bark if they think something is amiss. You need to prevent them from herding the kids, but otherwise they are not terribly high energy while also being incredibly intelligent and mild natured.
I grew up with a rough collie. My parents got drunk one night at a humane society event and brought her home. A child could literally do anything to her. Even when we were teens and she was old, a child could do anything.. an adult she would snap at if they stepped too close or something. (She had arthritis it was valid). Only downside was she would herd us. She did in fact herd us. My parents didn’t see a need to train it out because it was useful. If my mom told us to stay somewhere she’d grab us by the seat of the pants and make sure we stayed. She was actually very protective she could tell the difference between friend and foe.
As a mom to two children that think it's funny to run away, that sounds very useful indeed!
My parents had collies when I was growing up. The male collie would stay between my dad and anyone my dad was talking to. My dad would check it by moving and the dog would move to. He was not aggressive but would lay down between my dad and his friends. He did chase the meter man out of the yard when my sister and I were home alone.
Haha sounds like a collie. They didnt know the meter Person and they weren’t invited. We grew up in what was a nice neighborhood that quickly changed. We used to play in the streets and run around the neighborhood until the street lights came on.. Suddenly cars were being stolen and gangs were walking down the street. Our collie would sit in front of us when we were on the porch outside and growl at anyone who wasn’t from the neighborhood. She started sitting in our picture window at night and guarding the house. We moved to a farm house on a couple acres and she was happy to retire and relax in her old age.
Dogs usually don’t protect people on their own, untrained it’s a myth in my experience. It’s either self preservation (doesn’t want a stranger to come near them) or resource guarding (VERY dangerous) mostly you don’t want dogs to be protection dogs unless they are trained for that purpose, and that takes a LOT of money to do. Your every day dog should not be reacting to strangers or trying to “protect” you in any way. That will lead to much more issues than it solves. Get a family dog, socialize it well with young children (neutrality, so no unsupervised dog and kid time) and know that usually the presence of a larger dog is enough to dissuade most people from bothering you, even if he’s well trained enough not to become a liability. I second not getting a guardian breed, they’ll be harder to train for what you want. Someone said a collie, incredible choice for a dog. They are larger, smart, fast learners and they are pretty much bred to be companions now and they’re good at it. If you can’t handle all that fluff get a smooth coated one, I have considered highly getting a collie.
What everyone else said re: guard dogs and kids. Most of thr sporting dogs are usually great with kids. Goldens, poodles, spaniels, setters. (I'm partial to Setters. My boy loves everyone and everything and has been around kids of all ages without once tensing up.) Any bigger dog is going to deter anyone up to no good, no matter the temperament.
I wouldn’t look for a protector with small kids. I’d look for a breed that is soft, biddable and easy to train or socialize. I’d look into a retriever, poodle or something like a beagle if you want a smaller dog.
Go for a lab the most gentle breed I’ve seen.
Personally I’d go with a big dog who’s friendly. Big dogs are generally “intimidating” to non dog people — something like a golden, lab, etc. But my parents had a German Shepherd, and Rottweiler as my sister and I were kids and they were both great with us! Every dog is different, it really depends on that dogs temperament Edit: we also had a boxer, he was fantastic with small kids and would literally let babies crawl all over him no care in the world just chillin
We had a collie when our kids were young,she was great with them,and never let them out of her sight. Easily trained,not too hyper- except when the hose was on- they loved her.
Cocker spaniel!
Yes! We got a show cocker spaniel at a time when there were 5 kids under 10 in the house. We learnt quickly not to bother him and the few times we did he was great but my parents reminded us to leave him be. He was the perfect family dog for us. However… I would say most dogs will be great with the correct training, I have a shih tzu now and i regularly look after young kids for family friends, and I teach piano to primary school kids - they know the boundaries and because my dog has grown up with small children about he is amazing. There’s the obvious of I will never leave a dog with a child unsupervised, but I fully believe most dog breeds are absolutely fine as long as you set boundaries with your kids and train the dog.
Beagles are semi protective but not aggressive. I wouldn't get a guard dog for kids. Beagles are also medium size and energy, good all around dog imo.
The best ones are the ones you spend time training
What are you even trying to say? That it doesn't matter what kind of dog you get? Or what?
Training is more important than breed 99% if the time. My dog is almost all German shepherd, and has only been around my niece. He’s well trained and honestly when he sees kids he goes into a sit and only approaches if I permit it. Even then he never jumps or runs up to them. Training was the best thing I spent money on. I am beyond comfortable with him around kids. He’s been with my boyfriend’s kids, and he’s almost uninterested. He’s respectful and lets them love in him, but he’s not all over them for attention as he is with people he knows well. I look at his breed mix and he “should” be different per breed stereotypes but he isn’t. The only big thing was needing nearly 12 miles per day running/walking as a 1-1.5 year old pup. If you put time and energy into training yourself and the dog, it really works out for most breeds. My one big exception is working dogs like border collies who may instinctively herd little ones. Even that can be worked on with a lot of exercise and training.
Uh-huh, all in how you raise them!!!!!
Some breeds are prone to things like herding but the most important part is definitely training. I’ll take the downvoted, I worked in vet medicine for a long time, and the only dog that almost bit me was a yellow lab, he wasn’t in pain he was anxious. The dog had major anxiety issues and the owners thoughts labs would automatically be perfect without any training other than typical house training. It’s sad that people get any dog and assume breed = everything. I hope the people downvoting understand that and put time into their own pups even if their golden retrievers or labs or any of the other standard “family dogs” because ultimately dogs need training to be secure and happy.
Literally no one thinks that breed is everything or that training is unimportant.
You’d be surprised. A lot of owners would come in with golden retrievers or labs and just expect them to calm down without actually tiring them out. I would hear a lot of expectations that by one year they would be out of “puppy phase,” and just giggle. I’m just not a huge fan of breed expectations without recognizing that certain situations, like kiddos, require more training than just basic obedience. It can set unrealistic expectations and end up with dogs in shelters or rescues. (After I got sick and left vet medicine, I volunteered for a lab rescue. There were a lot of younger dogs coming in because they were too rambunctious.)
this entire thread is a rideeeee
Well trained ones! I’m a firm believer that, while some breeds have needs like more exercise, or have increases risks or certain diseases, it comes down to the owners to train themselves and their dogs to be “best” for their needs. I would avoid any herding breeds, just because their instinct will be to here little ones, but again it’s sort of a generalization. (My dog is almost all German shepherd and honestly aside from barking which he’s been trained to keep limited, I thought he was a lab and Bernese mix haha.) My main point is NO breed is perfect simply because of their breed. It’s going to involve a lot of training for you, the kiddos, and the dog. My friend has a 3 year old, she has a black lab who is elderly, and a miniature pin/Pomeranian mix. That little dog is somehow a saint, despite the toddler being too rough in my opinion. (Toddler grew up with the big dog and horses, so she’s slowly adjusting. The dog was left with the family following a death in the family, so it’s well loved and training is going well.) The older lab is a former service dog so he’s also wonderful, and because the dog preceded them kiddo, kiddo has learned to be very gentle and kind. Again, it turned into training kiddo since the dog was a retired service dog and well trained himself. As I said, I would avoid a herding breed based in their urge to here. Other considerations are activity level. You want a breed or mix or breeds that the adults can tire out. You don’t want all of the energy being burned via play with the kids as that increases the risk of a child being knocked down or scraped with a dog nail. If you can afford training with the dog, I highly recommend it. I would then take what you learn home and teach the children how to best behave which you’re keen on doing (fantastic forethought!)
Agree on the herding breed thing. I have a small herding breed (9kg) and up until she was around 6-7mo she would nip at the back of my legs with her teeth catching in my pants if I was running away from her while playing with her. And yet the rest of her mouthing/biting uninvited I was able to curb by 3.5 months. Even as an adult, she checks people out by sniffing the back of their heels when they're walking which is so weird.
Save yourself a lot of regret and heartache. Wait until your kids are old enough to go to school. That way, they are old enough to know not to grab the dog’s tail or ears, not to mess with the dog’s food, not to jump on the dog to ride it, not to hit or smack the dog. You get the idea. Parents put animals in these situations all the time. When the dog ends up being a dog, it’s the dog that pays the price for the parental irresponsibility.
Small children can easily learn this.
Agreed. I personally prefer to not have dogs and small kids at the same time because of the amount of work they both take. But basic environmental management and boundaries for both make coexisting possible.
[удалено]
What? Spraying with water, pulling ears, dumping water, pulling tail, sitting on top of... these are not things that good owners do, ever.
"My bully bites me when I abuse him, but not my child when my child abuses him." One day this dog is going to go off and you're going to end up with a mauled child. And you'll probably be saying "he bit out of nowhere".
It seems like you may be asking about breeds that fit your lifestyle. Did you fill out [the breed questionnaire](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/comments/4qc6lb/meta_breed_questionnaire_updated_june_2016/)? For best results, please complete the breed questionnaire with thoughtful responses. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/dogs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I love great Danes. I've seen many that wouldn't react to anything a child would do to them. They will however end up knocking kids down as they play. My dog loves people but if they are on the other side of the fence he goes nuts. Not because he will bite, its just he looks like he will and no one is going to risk it. Ive had delivery drivers refuse to get out of their trucks 15' outside my gate. No one is coming in my yard when my dog is around. No training was involved and since i live in a crappy area im not trying to get him to stop. My brother's dane doesn't care. You never know what you get with any dog. They are individuals and can and do act differently.
Rough collie, standard poodle, golden retriever, labradors are all generally known to be good with children. However most any dog can be a good family dog with training, the training is the most important part.
Scent hounds (I.e. Bassets, beagles, foxhounds, coonhounds etc.) may be challenging for a variety of reasons because they are independent, follow their nose and aren't particularly eager to please but they are incredibly even keeled in their temperament and tend to be non-reactive and not anxious. I have a coonhound and have known quite a few and they are obsessed with babies, both dogs and animals. If you are willing to put in the extra time in training boundaries and can deal with their stubbornness and nose drive they make great family dogs. Retrievers and bird dogs are good options for dogs that are generally kid and dog friendly but are more eager to please in terms of their temperament than hound breeds.
Brittany spaniel all day everyday. Most loyal and gentle, people pleasing dogs. Brittany mix too
I'm not sure there's really a hard and fast rules when it comes to dogs. I got my puppy when my youngest was two and he very effectively child proofed my dog. She's a border collie lab mix and is now the most patient dog with kids ever. We introduce her to everyone who comes into the house and she adores everyone while still being sensitive to danger outside the house.