Teach your child kindness towards animals

You might think that children and pets go together like .. well, strawberries and cream, Elmo and Big Bird ..... but that's not always the case. When children and pets interact with each other you might be led to the conclusion that whilst your kids aren't made of snips and snails, they have been created to pull puppy dogs' tails. And to tease slumbering cats, chase flocks of pigeons away from the scraps someone's scattered for them and flatten stranded beetles on the pavement.

Unfortunately young children and pets don't naturally get along together, toddlers often see animals, like other objects in the home, as toys to be played with for their own entertainment. The long ears, tails, fur, feathers or other interesting features make pulling, tugging, squeezing, squashing and chasing them even more enjoyable.

But because toddlers see this kind of behaviour as fun, that definitely doesn't mean that it's alright. After all you want your children and pets to get along together so you're going to have to teach your young child respect for animals. Not teaching them to be kind to their pets can have a negative effect on both the children and pets - many animals have no defence against clumsy toddlers or alternatively an animal who can protect may do so. Try the following to begin to teach your child understanding of and respect for animals:

Make friends with different animals

If your toddler meets different kinds of animals in different settings, they will begin to feel more comfortable around them. Make sure that the owner is present though, and happy for your child to interact with her animals - safety is of course of the utmost importance when children and pets are together. Never, ever leave your toddler alone with an animal, no matter how gentle you believe that creature to be.

Books

These are a wonderful resource for finding new animals to introduce to your child. Start with simple books with large, easy to distinguish pictures of familiar animals. Then progress to more exotic and unfamiliar species. Toddlers particularly enjoy books about baby animals or about children and pets like themselves and their pets, which will include animals they are familiar with. Please do visit www.scruffysbookshop.com for some great instantly downloadable books with endearing animal characters.

Teach your child the art of petting

When children and pets are together, the child's natural response is to smother the animal with their own unique style of love. It's up to you to show your child how to safely pet an animal. You can begin by using your toddler's collection of stuffed animals to practice on. "See, this is how you pet Bear, gently and slowly, just how he loves." Or for even more fun, get your child to imagine he or she is a baby animal that you can pet gently.

Explain that it hurts

Explain to your toddler that animals have feelings too, and that tail pulling, ear tugging, punching and squeezing will hurt the pet as much as it would hurt them. Be very firm with them and absolutely clear that such actions are completely out of order.

No teasing

When children and pets are together they often want to play. But what a child sees as a great game, may in fact be teasing the animal. Teasing animals is not only unkind but potentially dangerous. Actions such as waving a bone out of a dog's reach or pretending to eat from its bowl may bring about an aggressive response from the animal.

Of course children and pets do get along together, and once your child has learned respect and love for the animals in his or her life, you will have laid the foundations for them to enjoy lifetime of happiness and love with members of the animal kingdom.

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