Your Child's First Pet: A Parent's Guide to Ensuring Success

By Amy Brayfield

Every child wants a pet from the moment they first lay eyes on a furry little kitten or puppy, they probably want one for themselves and yet the process of getting and teaching your child how to raise that pet can be quite complex. However, the experience can be enormously useful in teaching them life skills that will one day help them better understand responsibility and proper care for others. This book provides a detailed walkthrough of how best to acclimate a child to raising a pet and ensuring the pet you get your child is one they can handle and that will thrive in their care. You will learn how to begin the process of selecting the right pet for your family and your child. You will be walked through the detailed process of understanding your child’s personality type and coming to terms with their maturity level and the pets that best match that maturity level. You will learn what specific needs the most common pets need, including food, water, outside care, and additional medical needs and costs. Dozens of hours of interviews have been conducted with top pet and child psychology experts to provide detailed information about what children need to understand most before getting their own pet. For anyone who has a child yearning for a pet that is wondering if they are ready, this book is designed for you.

Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president’s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.

This Atlantic Publishing eBook was professionally written, edited, fact checked, proofed and designed. You receive exactly the same content as the print version of this book. Over the years our books have won dozens of book awards for content, cover design and interior design including the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award for excellence in publishing. We are proud of the high quality of our books and hope you will enjoy this eBook version.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Group Inc.
• Release date: Nov 12, 2010
• ISBN: 9781601386908

Book preview

Your Child’s First Pet:

A Parent’s Guide to Ensuring Success

By Amy Brayfield

With Foreword By Debbie McKnight, M.S., C.P.D.T.

Your Child’s First Pet: A Parent’s Guide to Ensuring Success

Copyright © 2010 Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.

1405 SW 6th Avenue • Ocala, Florida 34471 • Phone [phone] • Fax [phone]

Web site: www.atlantic-pub.com • E-mail: [e-mail]

SAN Number: 268-1250

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be sent to Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., 1405 SW 6th Avenue, Ocala, Florida 34471.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brayfield, Amy.

Your child’s first pet : a parent’s guide to ensuring success / by Amy Brayfield.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60138-394-5 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-60138-394-0 (alk. paper)

1. Pets. I. Title.

SF411.5.B725 2010

636.088’7--dc22

2010007591

All trademarks, trade names, or logos mentioned or used are the property of their respective owners and are used only to directly describe the products being provided. Every effort has been made to properly capitalize, punctuate, identify, and attribute trademarks and trade names to their respective owners, including the use of ® and ™ wherever possible and practical. Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc. is not a partner, affiliate, or licensee with the holders of said trademarks.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bear’s memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

– Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.

Support local and no-kill animal shelters.

Plant a tree to honor someone you love.

Be a developer — put up some birdhouses.

Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.

Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.

Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.

Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.

Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.

If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.

Support your local farmers market.

Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Dedication

For Jason, Olwen, and Thor —

and of course, Little Foot.

Acknowledgements:

I owe several people thanks for their help in making this book happen.

Erin Everhart, my editor at Atlantic Publishing, walked me through the publishing process with tremendous talent and generosity — and an eye for adding serial commas.

Thanks to Jennifer, Andy, Mallory, and Allissa Peterson; Linda and Jeremy Richland; Maggie and Lily Hutchinson; Greg, Alison, Emily, and Charles Harris; Julie, Ron, and Lena Garfield; Karen and Daniel Whiting; Andrea, Benjamin, and Cleo Clifford; Jonathan Reed, D.V.M.; Sarah and Kimberly Reid; Kristin, Michael, Haley, and David Warren; Holly, Jake, and Caroline Arnold; and Louise, Derek, Sasha, and Meredith Callaghan — they were all kind enough to share their stories and answer my many questions.

Thanks, too, to Kelly Gavin, D.V.M, Cindy Ragoni, D.V.M, and Eric Robertson, D.V.M, who helped me to keep my facts straight. Appreciation also goes to Julia Windisch, Abigail Bergman, Laura Klein, Jerry Donaldson, and Emily Berger for helping me to better understand the different ways animals find families. I am also grateful to my lovely mothers-in-law, Barbara and Donna, and my father-in-law, Abe, for all the free baby-sitting while I wrote, and to my family, Jason, Olwen, and Thor for feeding the cat when I was too busy.

Table of Contents

Foreword: A Parent’s Guide to Ensuring Success

Introduction: The Family Pet

Chapter 1: Is Your Family Ready for a Pet?

Chapter 2: Choosing the Right Pet

Chapter 3: Dogs

Chapter 4: Cats

Chapter 5: Birds

Chapter 6: Fish

Chapter 7: Other Small pets

Chapter 8: You Decided on Your Pet — Now What?

Chapter 9: Pet Care 101

Chapter 10: Challenges

Chapter 11: Living With Your New Pet

Conclusion: … And They Lived Happily Ever After

Internet References

Bibliography

Biography

Foreword: A Parent’s Guide to Ensuring Success

Lassie, Benji, Old Yeller. They make kids and dogs look like they go together naturally— like peas and carrots. However, those dogs are trained professionals, and a pet the whole family can love does not usually happen without some hard work. If you are wondering what pet would be the best choice for your family, you have come to the right place.

As a dog trainer, I have many people asking for recommendations on what type of dog to get for their children. They generally want something easy going, sturdy, non-shedding, not too big, and well trained from day one. Since these fairy tale dogs are few and far between in the real world, parents need some guidance in choosing a new dog — or any new pet — and what to expect. In Your Child’s First Pet: A Parent’s Guide to Ensuring Success, Amy Brayfield does a great job of laying out exactly what to expect when getting a new pet for your child. People may be surprised by just how much time, money, and effort is required in caring for an animal. For those folks, Brayfield gives easy, less time-consuming options for parents to consider.

Any new pet is going to take time and commitment. Generally speaking, the pets that are the most engaging and involved in your family are the ones that take the most work. A dog is commonly called man’s best friend, but like any good friendship, time and effort are required. In exchange for that time and effort though, you get the best friend anyone could wish for. A fish will be lower maintenance, but also less enjoyment if your child is hoping for a pet he or she can play with and touch. A cat or bird will interact with your child in a different way than a puppy wagging its tail when you come home. Knowing your child and your own commitment level will ensure you both get the most enjoyment from your new pet.

Whatever pet you select will ultimately be your responsibility. In my training class, parents often bring their child because it is his/her dog. I welcome children in my classes and agree that they need to be involved in the care and training of their dog. However, if the parent is not 100 percent on board with getting and caring for the pet, then it is unfair to that animal to bring it into the household. Take Brayfield’s advice and make sure the whole family is ready before bringing a new pet home!

— Debbie McKnight

About Debbie McKnight

Debbie McKnight, M.S., C.P.D.T. is a professional pet dog trainer with more than eight years of experience. She was one of the first Certified Pet Dog Trainers in Texas and has her master’s degree in behavior analysis. She is a strong advocate of clicker

training and positive reinforcement. McKnight teaches group classes and private lessons specializing in manners for family pet dogs. She shares her home and her heart with a 9-year-old German Shepherd, Kyra.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Family Pet

Is your family ready for a new addition?

Perhaps your daughter has been wistfully eyeing the neighbor’s fluffy white cat, or your son has begun begging for his own hamster. Maybe you have been nostalgically remembering your own childhood dog and want your children to have the same great experiences that you had; or maybe you never had a pet as a child, and want your children to grow up with an animal friend. Whatever your motivation, you have started to wonder whether it is time to expand your family to include a new pet.

Pets are an integral part of childhood for many people; about 90 percent of children live in a home with an animal at some point during their childhoods, according to research by Gail F. Melson, professor emeritus of developmental studies at Purdue University in Indiana and author of Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children. Images of families with pets surround us: the all-American Tanners on the sitcom Full House played in the backyard with their golden retriever, Comet, while the cartoon Simpsons have Santa’s Little Helper, a dog as boisterous as the rest of the family; even the Munsters had Igor the bat. One of President Barack Obama’s first acts in office was to let his daughters choose their first family pet: a Portuguese water dog named Bo. Families and pets seem to belong together.

In fact, pets can benefit families in numerous ways. Though becoming a pet owner entails certain responsibilities, it also comes with certain benefits that can make your family healthier

and happier.

Pets Can Help Your Child Learn

Playing with your pet is fun, and studies show that interacting with pets also improves a child’s ability to reason and think complex thoughts. Toddlers who have pets demonstrate more advanced cognitive development and better motor skills than toddlers who grow up in pet-free homes, according to a 1989 study conducted by Laurel A. Redefer and Joan F. Goodman. In-depth studies into the exact benefits pets can have on children are rare — 1989 was the most recent year that concluded such evidence — but the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, reported in October 2009 it is breaking new ground on more conclusive studies that show a pet’s tangible benefit to children.

Pets can offer a nonthreatening place for children to practice skills, especially reading and physical development. Children are incredibly comfortable reading in front of their pets, according to researcher Mary Renck Jalongo, Ph.D., an education professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and author of the book The World of Children and Their Companion Animals. In the study, Jalongo asked children to read aloud in front of a peer, an adult, and a dog and measured their stress levels in front of each. The children’s stress levels were significantly lower when they read in front of the dog than when they read in front of an adult or peer.

These facts do not mean that adopting a cat will transform your child into a pint-sized Einstein, but a pet can have a lifelong impact on your child’s learning abilities.

Pets Can Help Your Child Cope with Challenges

Growing up can be full of challenges, and pets provide plenty of unconditional love and support to help children get through the tough times.

Seventy percent of children say that they confide in their pets when they are worried, scared, or have secrets because they feel like their pets are trustworthy and love them no matter what, according to a study by Alan Beck, Ph.D., at the Purdue University Center for the Animal-Human Bond. Another study, conducted at the University of Michigan in 1985, showed that 75 percent of children between ages 10 and 14 turned to their pets for comfort when they felt upset. When parents rated their children’s anxiety and withdrawal, kids who turned to pets for comfort fared better than children who did not draw on their pets for support or did not have pets.

Pets can also help children who are struggling to fit in socially. In one of Melson’s studies, children were asked to offer advice to other children who were having trouble making friends. The most frequently suggested answer: Get a pet. Not only did kids say a pet provided friendship and companionship, they also suggested that it gives children something to talk about and a point of connection with other kids.

When times get tough — because of social or learning challenges, switching schools, or more serious problems such as death in the family, parents’ divorce, or serious illness — a pet can help children cope better with the difficulties in front of them.

Pets Help Your Child Develop Nurturing Skills

A century ago, older children helped their parents care for their younger siblings; but today’s working parents, preschool agencies, and smaller families, as well as more-organized child care with nannies and after-school programs, give children fewer firsthand opportunities to learn nurturing skills. Having a pet can help children learn how to care for others. Being responsible for things like feeding, grooming, and caring for a pet helps children develop responsibility and empathy.

Children are more likely to have the opportunity to learn nurturing skills with pets than with younger siblings. One of Melson’s studies found that children older than 3 who had pets spent about 10.3 minutes each day engaged in caretaking activities for their pets — while children who had younger siblings spent an average of just 2.4 minutes each day caring for their brothers and sisters.

Nurturing skills play an important part in social and emotional development by helping children develop compassion, communication, curiosity, and cooperation. Pets are a gender-neutral way to introduce your child to the importance of caring for another living being: Unlike other nurturing activities, such as baby-sitting, which are considered girl activities, pet care is not perceived along gender lines.

Pets Can Make Your Children Healthier

Growing up with pets may help make your children resistant to allergies, asthma, and other common childhood health issues.

Children who were exposed to two or more dogs or cats as babies are half as likely to suffer from common indoor and outdoor allergies — including pet dander, dust mites, ragweed, or grass — than children who grew up in pet-free homes, according to research conducted at the Medical College of Georgia. In the study headed by Dennis Ownby, M.D., pediatrician and head of the college’s department of allergy and immunology, researchers tracked a group of children from birth to about age 7 to determine whether having a pet impacted their experience with allergies. Other studies have shown a similar decrease in asthma for children who live in homes with pets.

The benefits are not just for kids, either. Cat owners are nearly 30 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack, with the same outcome likely for dog owners, according to a 2008 study by the University of Minnesota’s Stroke Institute in Minneapolis. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Center and School of Nursing also found that dogs helped people with heart failure by improving heart and lung functions.

Pets Can Strengthen Your Family Bond

A pet brings together your family by giving you a set of activities to share. A pet needs grooming, feeding, and play time; working together on these activities gives your family regular, shared goals.

A pet can bring big benefits to your child and to your family, so choosing the right one is important. This book will help you decide whether your family is ready for a pet and help you sort through the options to choose the pet that is best for you, based on your child’s age and personality and your family’s lifestyle. It will give you information on some of the most popular pets, including dogs, cats, birds, fish, and more exotic animals, so that you have a clear idea of the responsibilities and costs associated with each type of pet. Finally, this book will help you prepare for that happy day when your family brings home its first pet, answer some of the questions new pet owners frequently face, and help you become healthy, happy pet owners.

Choosing a pet can be a wonderful way to grow your family. This book will give you the tools you need to choose wisely and have a lifetime of happy pet ownership.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Is Your Family Ready for a Pet?

What is it about a pet that makes it seem like the perfect finishing touch to a perfect family? There are many reasons to welcome a pet into your family, and the fun, companionship, and entertainment of pet ownership are all good ones. But it is important

Reviews for Your Child's First Pet

[iwatson_39 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Every child wants a pet; it may be a cat, a dog, a gerbil, a mouse, or a bird. It may even be a snake, a lizard, or a turtle. But, every child doesn't understand or even fathom what it takes to own a pet; in fact, many parents don't know either unless they've had a pet themselves.Aside from the dedication to taking care of a pet, children learn responsibility and nurturing skills. Regardless of what type of pet one has, care is of ultimate importance. Care takes time. Any Brayfield covers various types of pets; from the common to the uncommon: dogs, cats, birds, fish and other small pets such as Guinea Pigs, rats, hamsters, gerbils, lizards and other reptiles. She also covers areas such as: What your pet needs, finding the right animal, responsibilities and care, providing basic needs, etc. I really don't think she missed anything.Although I no longer have small children I did experience having pets when they were small. Like in most cases the children wanted the pets and within a short time lost interest in taking full responsibility for their care. This is something I didn't anticipate and learned that if the children wanted pets I also needed to want the pets. This is something that I stress to any parent when a child wants a pet.Acclimating the child and the pet takes time and often much longer than anticipated. Not every child nor every pet adjusts the same and Brayfield addresses these issues. I believe Brayfield covered every aspect parents need to know before saying yes to acquiring a pet for their child. I encourage parents to read this book before they purchase or adopt a pet for their child - it may be one of the most important decisions you make.