Kids as responsible pet owners

With my daughters only being six (as of this weekend!) and almost three, I don’t expect too much out of them as far as pet care goes. After all, I can’t hand them the leash and send them off down our very busy city street to take the dog for a walk.

However, they’re proving to be pretty good as it is. They both desperately want to feed her at meal times. My youngest usually gets the breakfast feed since her sister is at school, then the oldest gets her turn at supper to make it fair. I do the in-between feeding at lunch time since one is at school and the other is napping. They like to measure the food out just so, and they love how excited the puppy gets when they take her dish over to her eating corner.

My oldest is also extremely vigilant with the amount of water in the water dish – it never gets empty with her on duty because when she sees it’s getting close to that point, she runs off to fill it back up.

They’re both very interested in giving out treats in exchange for practicing her commands (sit, paw) so they’re essentially training her too. Meanwhile, my oldest walks the dog with me at the park – not on the street because we haven’t quite gotten the “heal!” command down and I don’t want her responsible for trying to hang on to a dog who is pulling.

As for taking care of a dog, they’re pretty good too. My oldest has an annoying tendency to pick the puppy up on a too-frequent basis, and I have to remind her that she’s a real dog, not a doll, and that she doesn’t need to be carried since she has four perfectly functional legs. The little one is a bit rougher than she needs to be but she’s getting pretty good at listening when I tell her to be gentle and take it easy.

Animals are pretty important to me and I was always raised to be kind to pets and take good care of them, so it makes me happy to be able to see that I’m passing that on to my kids as well.

If you have pets, I’d love to hear how much your kids share in the responsibility!

(photo: mine)