Kids who grow up around dogs tend to love them, but kids whose parents flinch every time the dog gets within two feet tend to develop a very different relationship with them.

When a dog owner watched his siblings’ anxiety around his gentle, well-trained poodle slowly pass down to their kids, family gatherings went from easy to exhausting.

Keep reading for the full story.

Am I Overreacting – my siblings are annoying about my dog and their kids

My wife and I have a two-year-old, 70-pound standard poodle. He gets along great with people and other dogs.

He also gets along great with children, although he can be a little too licky and interested in infants and babies — he is constantly trying to smell them and lick their faces. We always pull him away when he does that.

The owner further explains his behavior with kids.

He does absolutely great with children who love dogs. We have had people over at our house with kids ranging in age from four months to 8 years old.

When kids like him, he is totally fine and will play with them if they want — but otherwise he’ll sniff them a bit and then leave them alone.

He doesn’t do as well with children who don’t love dogs, because he is generally interested and doesn’t leave them alone immediately.

He always sniffs and greets new guests at our place and often will bring toys up to people to play with him.

His behavior may be described as annoying, but never aggressive.

He does do well with adults who don’t like dogs — unless our friends are just being nice. While he may annoy them initially, he leaves them alone after a few minutes.

He never jumps on anyone and has never growled or shown aggressive behavior to anyone — kids or otherwise.

Then there’s the matter of the barking.

However, he does sometimes bark when he’s communicating with us — if he wants to go out, wants his dinner, or wants attention — and this does sometimes startle our friends who are scared of dogs.

My siblings who live near us have three kids — a 2½-year-old, a one-year-old, and an infant.

Ever since their kids were infants, they would freak out if our dog got too close to them — like a foot or two away.

Now, even with the one-year-old, they worry a bit if he crawls in the dog’s direction and try to redirect him.

But now one of the kids has developed a fear of dogs.

At this point — maybe because of his parents’ behavior — our 2½-year-old nephew is terrified of dogs. All dogs, not just ours.

I was outside with him the other day and a ten-pound dog on a leash walked near us, and my nephew started whining and needed to be picked up.

So then came the incident.

This brings us to last week, when my 2½-year-old nephew was at my house for a birthday party.

We had my dog on a leash attached to the couch so he couldn’t roam around and be near my nephew — and he still freaked out if the dog looked at him or sat up.

My nephew was whiny and clingy the whole night and wouldn’t walk around the apartment even with our dog tethered.

The pet owner thinks this siblings could have done a better job preventing this.

It sort of seems like learned behavior, and I’m frustrated my siblings haven’t done a better job socializing their kids with our dog — especially because we live close by and see each other once a week.

It’s been harder and harder to have my siblings and their kids over.

I don’t have children, so it’s totally possible I don’t get it and the fear that comes with having kids near animals.

Am I overreacting by being upset at how they treat our dog, and subsequently meaning they can’t come over as much?

This is a difficult dilemma.

Redditors chime in with their subject.

This user describes a similar situation.

It’s a parent’s job to do everything they can to set their children up for success.

Maybe it’s time to stop the visits altogether.

It’s time to have a real conversation about this.

The poodle is fine — it’s the anxiety that needs training.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.