Children’s Roles in Pet Care

Provided by Purina

It's great that you want to share the responsibility of pet ownership with your children. However, it's important that you assign age-appropriate tasks. Here are a few examples of what you may expect:

Toddlers

A toddler can help parents with pet care simply by being involved. This includes "helping" a parent fill food and water dishes, grooming, going with parents to take the dog for a walk or to the veterinarian. Another good trick is to have the toddler give the dog a treat for good behavior, like when she gets in bed or crate before the family leaves the house. The toddler and pet will both enjoy this special job!

5-7 Year Olds

This age group is capable of doing some of the tasks above (feeding, watering, grooming) without parental help. Still, you can't expect that a child this age will remember to do these jobs without friendly reminders from Mom or Dad.

8-12 Year Olds

Parents still need to supervise children in this age group for some tasks such as walking the dog. Before a child is 10–12 old, it's not advised that they walk a dog without adult supervision. But the child can feed, water and play with the dog alone (depending on the dog's temperament and area for exercising).

Teenagers

Depending on your teen's maturity, you can sometimes allow him/her to take full responsibility for the dog, including feeding, cleaning up after, driving to the veterinarian and exercising the pet. Allowing the teen to take the dog to obedience classes can also be a good activity for both.