Teaching Children to Care for Cats and Dogs

Our pets are our loyal family members and as such, it’s only natural that we want our children to share a strong bond with them too. Find out how to teach children to care for dogs and cats with our guide.

Pets are members of our families, and the bond we share with them is one we also want to nurture in our children.

Here are some things you can do now to help strengthen this bond and give your child a sense of purpose by involving them in the care of a family pet.

Teach Them To Speak ‘Dog’ or ‘Cat’

It is important to teach children that animals ‘speak’ to us and tell us how they are feeling – but they use a different language – body language. By teaching children how to understand that language and so be able to understand how their pet is feeling, helps give them empathy, encourages them to see the animal as an individual with thoughts and feelings, and in many cases, keeps them safe.

Some children seem to have this empathy with animals almost instinctively from a very young age, while others take far longer to develop this skill – but this is what will build the relationship better than anything else as they will have a true bond, and not just look on their dog or cat as a toy or a plaything.

The number one thing that builds a bond between children and animals is that the animal feels safe around them. They know they are not going to be mishandled, grabbed, or put in uncomfortable situations – and by recognising how their animal is feeling is the very first step to ensuring this.

Let Children Play a Part in Pet Training and Games

Time at home creates an excellent opportunity to get older kids involved in training family pets.

Take your older children to your dog’s training classes with you so they learn how to teach their canine companion behaviours and tricks and how to reward them. If they enjoy it, they can start teaching their dog a trick or two at home.

According to Purina behaviourist Dr. Annie Valuska, “This can be a trick, like high-five or roll over, or something you’ve been meaning to work on.”

Training cats however isn’t usually that successful (!), but there are plenty of enrichment games, chase games or food hiding activities that children can get involved with.

Just as with human friends, playing together brings children and their non-human family members closer.

Empowering kids to lead pets in these games creates an excellent development opportunity for everyone. Once your pet and child figure it out on their own, you will see the ‘Eureka’ moment in action but better still, you will see that bond developing and strengthening.

Give Children a Role in Pet Exercise

On those occasions when families are spending their days at home, taking breaks for exercise is essential for everyone’s mental and physical health. This is a great opportunity to let older children take charge of some of the exercise for family pets.

With dogs, this can be as simple as choosing the route for a family walk or setting the time when it will take place.

No matter the age of the child, coming out on at least some of the dog’s regular walks – and joining in games and play – is a prefect way to bond.

With cats, getting children to choose activity toys (chase games, cat trees, enrichment toys etc) and having special ones that they keep playing with the cat helps give them some special time with the family feline.

Guide Children to Create “Chill Time” for Pets

While exercise and regular activity are important to our health, quiet time for napping and relaxing is also essential for pets as well as people. While pets love spending time with family, Dogs and cats are crepuscular – which means they are most active at dawn and dusk – the rest of the time, both cats and dogs do a surprising amount of napping!

This is a chance to help your children understand the importance of this quiet time, and to involve them in developing a routine that incorporates it. For cat families, an additional project for kids can be to create safe hiding spots for cats.

Another way for kids to create quiet, yet connected, time with pets is by reading to them - children still need to learn and pets have been shown to help them in some areas of learning.

It’s Never Too Early to Learn Responsible Pet Care

Giving kids more responsibility for pet care can further enrich the life of your family pet—and help teach your child empathy and responsibility and ensure that your child becomes a better pet owner in the process and very probably, a better human.

Want to teach your kids more about pet ownership? Take a look at Purina Pet School, a fun and interactive way for your children to learn about pets!