Animals and toddlers

Posted by: Sharmila Rajah, 18-Apr-2009

The other day Ayanna woke up with a sad face. After much questioning, Ayanna revealed that ‘she missed dog’. It all made sense – the day before, Ayanna had met Clifford, an Alsatian at a friend’s place. She took to him immediately. Ayanna loves dogs.

 

Dogs– Ayanna is quite fearless of them. Sometimes it worries me especially when it concerns animals she’s never met. So we tend to practice a little caution:

 

-         When she runs up to a strange dog, we stop her before she gets too close, without alarming her though.

 

-         We explain that she can pet a dog only if Mummy or Daddy is with her and if we say its okay. And if we don’t know the dog, the dog may be scared of us and so we can’t go too close.

 

We’re in midst of educating Ayanna on certain rules about dogs and other animals.

 

For starters -

 

-         Let sleeping/ eating dogs lie.

-         Never poke an animal’s eyes, pull his tail or tug at its ears.

-         Don’t tease an animal

-         Never put your face near a dog’s face.

 

Unfortunately where we live, we are not allowed to have pets. Ayanna would most certainly love to have a pet dog. Nevertheless, we teach Ayanna the importance to be kind to animals. We do so-

 

-         With exposure to them whenever possible. Books are another wonderful source for introducing new and different animals. Doing so helps Ayanna feel more comfortable around animals.

 

-         By showing the safe way to pet an animal. Demonstrating on her stuffed animals usually helps.

 

-         By explaining that animals hurt just like us so we must be careful not to hurt them.

 

How do you teach your toddler about being kind towards animals?