I just hope Shel manages to find a nice docile doggy to grow up with little Ellie!!!!
That's the whole point isn't it? I think you've answered your own question there Grannie 
. A "nice" dog can be from any breed or mongrel and you can get a bad one in any breed - I've even known of nasty Labradors 
and if they aren't the softest, soppiest dogs ever going.....
Lorna.
Surely the key issue in most of this debate must be education, dogs and kids need boundaries set. My wife and I have rescued 5 Boxers and a mongrel over the last 16 years or so, all fantastic pets, companions etc, they very quickly became family members and the kids loved them.
One of them who we lost earlier this year had a lasting dislike of small children. He was given to me by a family friend who had taken him away from his daughter because she would not look after him properly, and instead of educating her daughter how to treat an animal allowed her to pull, poke, prod and generally annoy the dog, doggy responses: growl snap bark - natural warnings (he never bit), but enough to ensure he lived outside in a pen most of the time. Who was to blame?
We got him aged 1 lost him at 8 and in that time ensured he never got put in a situation that involved small children without adult supervision.
Someone offered me a white Boxer a couple of weeks ago for similar reasons, sadly I had to say no and he ended up at the RSPCA.
Anyway back to the point: if the child and dog are trained and educated together, and the dog knows its place in the family order (don't forget they are pack animals), I suspect it is largely irrelevant what breed is chosen.
