subject: A Child's Role in Pet Care [print this page] A Child's Role in Pet Care
A child's role in pet care can be rewarding and challenging. It is exciting that you have a pet cat or dog and want to share the opportunity of pet ownership with your children. What is important here to know that each child has a different maturity level and experience so you can assign age-appropriate tasks fitting their age group. Here are some tasks that as a parent you can assign your child as they get older.
Toddlers
A toddler can help parents with pet care simply by being involved "helping" a parent fill food and water dishes, grooming, going with parents to take the dog for a walk or to the veterinarian. Another good trick is to have the toddler give the dog a treat for good behavior, i.e. gets in bed or crate before family leaves the house. The toddler and the pet both get to enjoy this special job!
The 5-7 Year Old
This age group is capable of doing some of the tasks above (feeding, watering, grooming) without parental assistance. Still you can't expect that a child this age will remember to do these jobs or chores without friendly reminders from Mom or Dad. You can provide some incentives for this age group to help them remember their responsibility.
The 8-12 Year Old
Parents will still need to supervise their children in this age group for some tasks, like walking the dog. Before a child is 10-12 years of age it's not recommended that they walk a dog without adult supervision. But the child in this age group can feed, water and play with the dog alone (depending on the dog's temperament and area for exercising). In this age group, some are mature enough for you to allow them to train the pet on certain behaviors that need changing.
Teenagers
Depending on your teen's maturity, you can sometimes allow him/her to take full responsibility for the dog, including feeding, cleaning up after, driving to the veterinarian and exercising and playing with the pet. Allowing the teen to take the dog to obedience classes can also be a good activity for both. Another responsibility is to allow your teen to train the pet to change a bad behavior. What an excellent way for the teen and the pet to bond.
Conclusion
When you know what tasks you can assign your child when you have a pet in the home should be helpful to both you and your child. It's important that you talk with your children before assigning them a responsibility so that they understand what is being asked of them to do. Taking this extra time will help you, your child, and your pet. Another important issue, if you should have more than one child, each will mature at different stages. So, be sure to assign to each a task based upon his/her maturity. This will require some judgment on your part.
The bottom line is that you have a family knowing what their role is in the caring of the family's pet.
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