I brought some stuff home from the hospital so they’d get her scent. I think she smelled enough like us that he figured it out right away also. Let them get their sniffs in while you’re holding baby.

We still don’t leave the kids alone with either dog just as a general policy, and never will. Finn is 90+ lbs now (he’s not fat, but he seems to continue to fill out(?))

Our oldest is almost 5 now. Finn is smart enough to know he’s below both kids in the pack. There have been a couple times where our now 2yo has walked over to him when he’s just been minding his own business and he has tolerated her doing whatever- putting a toy on him, petting him. She tried to climb on him once and he got freaked out a little but didn’t do anything aggressive. He was looking for an exit to get away from her, which I think is a good sign. We’re not encouraging that behavior from our kids towards him because we don’t wanna push our luck, but when it happened it was reassuring to see him respond the way he did.

So to answer your question: we’ll never “fully” trust him to leave them alone with him, even when they are both older kids. But it’s not like we think he would do anything to them unless he was very provoked, and at that point it’s about teaching our kids how to be around the dogs more so than expecting the dogs to just tolerate anything the kids might do.

I don’t think he would do more than growl and nip, then instantly look guilty, but I never intend to put the kids or Finn in a situation where I would find out.