How to Teach a Child to Care for a Pet

A pet can be an amazing addition to any family; especially one with children. They'll provide plenty of fun, companionship and learning experiences.

As a kid I always had pets and can't imagine my life without them and the memories that I have now. I remember one particularly snowy winter where my friends and I brought our dogs outside and had them lead those flimsy plastic sleds you buy at Wal Mart. We must have looked silly, but we pretended that we were in Alaska racing in the Iditarod.

Not only did we have fun laughing and playing for hours, but the dogs loved it too. Frankly, I think that kids who don't grow up with pets are really missing out!

My whole life probably would have been different. Who knows if I would have ever been influenced to take horseback riding lessons and work at barns or volunteer at the local aquarium.

Since I haven't actually had the opportunity to teach a child to care for a pet, I'll share my experiences as a child leaning to care for a pet.

This may sound odd and might not work for everyone, but there were never any actual chores in my house (thanks mom!) and I was always just asked to help out with random activities. If I remember correctly, there were never any set rules on who would feed the pets and when, but they always got fed at the same times anyway, so it worked for us.

I learned to take care of animals through a learn by doing approach. And I took care of animals at two houses. My house and my grandmother's, where I visited and still visit quite frequently.

My mom or grandma would ask me if I wanted to watch them give the cat a bath (dangerous, I know!) for example and I'd usually be so interested that I'd end up asking if I could help. Vet appointments were also something that I was always a part of. I might do any number of things from helping get the cat in their carrier to dispensing the treats at the right times!

At that stage in my life all the responsibility made me feel really important! Learning by doing, in my opinion, can be a great way to teach your kids to take care of the animals in your life. It's like being immersed in a new language, you learn without even knowing it.

So, always let the kids be part of caring for your furry friends. The more they're part of it, the more they'll learn and the more they'll want to help out.

If you'd like to take a more structured approach, give your child a few responsibilites at a time.Tell them what you'e going to do; I'll go back to the bath example, and tell them to set things up for you.

For the bath example you'd need towels, pet shampoo, maybe some treats and if you're bathing a cat, lots of peroxide and bandages! Have your kid set up the bath for the pet by telling them where they can find the products and where a convenient place to put them would be, like the bathroom counter.

Show them how much to fill the tub and how to coax kitty into the bathroom using the treats you got out earlier. Show the child that you should be gentle with the pet since you don't want to make this a traumatic experience for them. Have them hand you the shampoo and so on.

Just make sure that they're part of the experience and all will go well.

As for feeding, make sure that the child knows when and what the pet should or shouldn't be eating. You should educate them on the fact that chocolate is bad for both cats and dogs and that they should never share their candy.

Bones, since they can splinter, are another thing to make sure the kids in your family know are a no-no.

Also make sure that they're not feeding the pet too much or too litte. A measuring cup helps, and I guess that could be a great segue into learning fractions, huh?

Overall, helping a child to learn to care for a pet should be a fun, gratifying experience for everyone involved. It may not always be the same process, but will hopefully end with the same great results; happy healthy pets and kids.