I got her as a puppy (saw her the day she was born even) and she was always "MY" dog (meaning I was HERS). My wife was the first girlfriend I'd had that she accepted rather than resented. This was one seriously possessive dog.
She was always as gentle as could be with the kids. When the first was just old enough to crawl, she of course had to investigate the dog food bowl. We panicked when the dog headed over too. Then we watched as the dog carefully ate the food from around her little fingers as our daughter continued to play with the food. We laugh about it now, but we were seriously scared at first.
As she approached 16, her eyesight and hearing were basically shot, but the nose never quit working. She could pull scraps of food out of the narrowest places (like under the fridge). After we put her down, we were shocked at JUST HOW MUCH food the kids threw on the floor!!! The dog had been mopping up after them all that time and geeze was that a lot of mopping.
More recently, with our sheltie (who is equally possessive of my wife), we got a pair of kittens (brother and sister) and had similar worries about the dog. She immediately adopted them as her puppies and they can pretty much do anything to her and she'll take it (or go hide). She also disciplines them when they're being naughty, but that's turned into a small problem. The kittens intentionally do something naughty just to get her attention and then jump down to head bonk her or play with her leg and tail feathers.
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