Can you explain to me why you won't adopt some dogs to families with young children?

We have a policy of not adopting small breed dogs or puppies to families with children under five or six years of age (depending on the dog/puppy).  We adopted this general rule because it is difficult for some young children to understand that a small dog or puppy can be easily injured if mishandled or dropped.

We are pretty careful about puppy placement because puppies bite and nibble at the children's toes and fingers or jump up on or chase the child, and then the puppies come back to us.

Of course, we realize that this is a generalization. Some younger children might be excellent with a small dog… and some older children should probably never have a pet.  But we find that most children over five or six can at the very least understand rules about handling a pet... and have the strength and coordination necessary to safely hold a small dog or squirmy puppy.  Since we can't know each individual child, we need to use a general rule.

We often recommend fostered adult dogs or puppies over three months old to folks with young children because they have been temperament tested, housetrained, and we know how they will act around children.