[speeder]

I'm going to have to agree with the people saying that personality and fearfulness in dogs is largely innate and very hard if not impossible to change. They are animals, (some a lot more intelligent than others), and will behave as they see fit or out of instinct when afraid or when agitated. As correctly stated above, unsupervised children will usually act in a way that agitates a dog at the very least.

As much as I like the concept of rescuing dogs, I want to see both parents of any puppy that I am going to spend the next decade or two with. That is the only true indicator of temperament, especially since I will be a stranger, (albeit accepted/invited), into their home when puppies are nursing. This will really show how friendly or tentative they are, how fearful in general, etc...

In a pound setting, most all dogs are friendly to a perceived rescuer. Even the dogs that mauled a child to death 3 days ago always look nice on the news in the pound cage, wagging their tails and smiling. "Get me out of here and I'll be fine", they seem to be saying.

You might have a perfectly good dog and you just need to train the kids not to agitate her. Study the dog with children in some controlled situations and you will see if the dog is the problem. Good luck.