Whether you owned pets before having children or decided to become a pet owner after expanding your family, it won’t be long before your kids and dog become best friends. While it is great that your children and pets will want to play, laugh and get into plenty of trouble together, both need to understand and work well with the rules of your home. If you intend on having children and pets under the same roof to work for you instead of against you, encourage them to become partners and team players. This can be achieved by feeding your children healthy dinners and then handing the kids natural dog treats to give to the family pet. Giving your pets and kids tasks that they can complete together will also get them working as a cohesive team so that they can get back to having fun. Spend less time cleaning up after messy children and pets and have them cleaning up the yard without prompting with these thoughtful suggestions.
Using Positive Reward Systems
Your pets and children will be happy when they find out that they can go back outside and play after dinner because of the chores that they helped to complete earlier in the day. Rewards don’t have to consist of natural dog treats or fruit snacks, but there needs to be some kind of positive reinforcement going on regularly. Use praise to let your kids know that they are doing a great job leading your pets. Also use positive words and affirmations when you catch your dog behaving well and listening to your child.
Always Keep Treats On Hand
Although you can’t always use goodies and treats to get kids and pets to behave, they are still a good tool to use in reserve. You don’t ever want to threaten to go without a treat if you expect compliance. Instead, use treats as a surprise way of getting your kids and pets to be team players all the time. They won’t ever be able to anticipate when one is coming so when they do get rewarded with treats it will be exciting all around.
Reprimand Bad Behavior Instead of Using Discouraging Language
Your pets probably can’t understand the words that you say but they are very sensitive to the types of tone used. In fact, children are kind of similar. They will know what type of mood you are in when you call their name, and their response will depend on if they believe that they are going to get in trouble or not. When it comes time to correct bad behaviors in children and pets, make sure that you are at eye level and keep an even tone of voice. You want to convey the point that you are disappointed in their behavior, but you do not want to come across as angry or threatening.
Simply letting your kids and pets know that they are loved will help them to seek out receiving similar praise from you in the future. If you leave them to their own devices where they enjoy one another’s company they will get closer and closer. Soon, you will have children happily growing up with their faithful pets at their side.