Introducing Your Toddler to a New Pet

For many the idea of a family includes one or two pets. Having a pet in your family teaches your toddler many important life lessons like how to nurture relationships and respecting animals. Bonding your toddler and pet can be a very stressful situation for you as you don’t want either member of your family to be harmed. It is a very exciting time having a new child in the home but always remember not to ignore your pet as they may get jealous of the child and this can create tension. Introducing your toddler to your pet or vice versa can be a painless exercise if you keep in mind a couple of ideas to help ease the process.

Supervision Is Key Until your toddler and pet are one hundred percent comfortable with each other, it is not advisable to leave them unsupervised. (Even then, you’ll likely want to wait until they’re both a bit older.) You need to be there to watch the interaction between your child and pet; you also want to be there to correct the behaviour of both your child and your pet. Remember that you must remain calm at all times as your pet can sense your stress. Your toddler won’t recognise when your pet is in distressed, so you need to be there to keep your child safe if your pet begins to become aggressive. A scratch from a cat or a bite from a dog may leave the child never trusting any future pets and fearing all animals which is not something you want. You also need to teach your child that they can’t be rough with the animal, which means no hitting or pulling ears or tails. You do, however, want to make sure your child feels confident to be around your pet without you, so keep them separate albeit close. For a dog, you can use a security gate to separate your toddler and dog, so they are near to each other, but not in any danger. This will also allow your animal to become accustomed to the sound of your toddler without them being within reach. Given that your cat will likely climb towards upper levels to escape to where your toddler won’t be able to reach them, they will probably be happy watching and getting use to the toddler.

Prepare Your Pet Introducing your pet to your toddler, and your toddler to your pet, is the first step to harmony in your home. Animals rely on smell; it is a good idea to first place an item of clothing or blanket that smells like your toddler in the area that your pet sleeps so that they get use to your toddler’s scent. After that, they shouldn’t associate your toddler with something threatening. While your pet is getting used to your toddler’s scent, you can also record the noises your toddler makes which you can then play around your pet so that the sudden noise of your child doesn’t startle your pet or create a fearful situation for them, where they might attack. You can also play games with your pet that will keep them use to the sudden movements that your toddler will reproduce. With your dog, you can run around with them and change direction quickly. With cats, make use of a bright colour object which you can make them chase. Exercising your pet before you introduce them to your toddler is also a brilliant idea; they won’t have all that excess energy and will likely be more docile in the first meeting.

Introduce Your Toddler to Your Pet It is important to keep in mind that introducing your pet to your toddler and your toddler to your pet is not going to happen overnight. You must exercise patience and make the introduction slowly and day by day until both pet and toddler are comfortable around each other. You will need to encourage patience in your toddler, let the animal come to them and not the other way round. Your pet must become accustomed to your baby before he’ll be happy when rushed upon by your toddler. Make use of treats. Let your toddler feed your pet treats one at a time until your pet is near or even eating out of the toddler’s hand. This will re-enforce a positive association with your pet. Once your animal is happy taking treats from your toddler and is sitting near, allow your toddler to start gently stroking the pet. Of course, the best place to start with this is by letting your pet smell your toddler’s hand first. Once your pet is happy with your child stroking them, then you can advance to a gentle hug or hold. You can then also encourage more responsibility by allowing your toddler to become involved in feeding the pet or putting out water.

Signals That Your Pet Is Distressed There are signs you can look out for in your pets to make sure that the situation of meeting your toddler is not stressing them out too much. In dogs, look out for nipping, pawing or growling. Your dog will also communicate through the movement of their ears. If their ears are pinned back it means that they are unhappy – so does a lowered tail. Cats will generally revert to avoidance if they are feeling stressed. They will have a tendency to hide, but they may also begin to mark their territory by spraying areas of your house. They may also neglect their litter box and make use of other places to relieve themselves. Both cats and dogs may show a withdrawal in the behaviour towards you and may also neglect their food. Introducing your pet to your toddler and your toddler to your pet will take calm and patience, the forging of a friendship may not always happen overnight. Just remember to remain vigilant and correct the bad behaviour of both your pet and toddler. They will eventually develop a mutual respect for each other and begin to forge a friendship that will be so beneficial to both your pet and child. Remember to be firm in your discipline and to reward the correct behaviour. For more information please visit: http://www.lindam.com/child-safety-news/