Teaching Your Kids Proper Pet Care

You’ve probably heard it all before from the kids. The incessant nagging about getting a puppy can become overwhelming and you finally decide to do the research about how a dog can be a benefit to children. They make their promises to take care of the dog and do all the walks and at the start, that’s exactly what happens. Then, soon enough, that gradually drifts, and you are the one looking after the dog every day and doing everything for it.

It can be a real challenge to get the kids to follow through with their promises of looking after the family pet, but there are ways to teach your children that taking responsibility for their pet isn’t all that hard. Get the kids together around the kitchen table and hold a meeting about taking responsibility for their pet. This can lead to a much better experience for the entire family.

You could start by making a chore list of all responsibilities relating to your new dog. Getting your older kids to read a great dog trainer blog in a language that they can understand could be a good jumping off point. You can make a chore wheel like this to help you all decide who does what in relation to pet care. A family pet is just that, a family pet. It means that you all have a hand in the wellbeing of the animal in your home and you should all be equal in how to treat the dog. Discussing how each chore: feeding/bathing/walking etc, is important can help them to truly understand why you need their help. A dog is a big job – they need to know that.

Making an active effort to praise your kids when they stick to their jobs and care for their pet is important. Children need encouragement and when they perform their chores without you telling them what to do, praising them can help to enforce that continued effort. As time goes on, you can slow it down on the praise because they’ll be in the swing of things and used to caring for their new pet. Until then, positive reinforcement is the way to ensure that your children are motivated to care for the animal that they begged you for in the first place. With this in mind, always keep your pet care responsibilities positive. If you associate your family dog with a punishment or anything negative, your children will end up unwilling to help you care for it.

Pets are a fantastic way to teach your children responsibility. If a dog is too big a beginning, you could try the children out on a fish or rabbit, both of which take a lot less effort to care for. Your home is going to be impacted by the presence of a new pet, so it’s best to establish early when you need help. Find a good balance between them helping with chores and having fun with a new pet.