One of the most exciting gifts for a child is a pet. As we know, dogs are a lot of responsibility and choosing the right breed, the right dog for your family is crucial to the new family member becoming a successful family member.
Is your family ready for the responsibility?
When I was young, I wanted a pet rabbit for years before my parents bought one for me. Before I was allowed to have a rabbit, my parents bought me a book on caring for rabbits and I had to read it before we went to pick out my bunny. This was easy for me because I love to read and I was interested in the topic. It was great because I learned so much about rabbits and so much about what was involved in caring for my rabbit.
While surprises are fun, preparing your kids for the new pet is the better choice. There are lots of great books you can buy for your kids to read. This will help gauge their interest in caring for the pet.
The Complete Dog Book for Kids
How can you "test drive" and help a shelter at the same time?
Volunteering with a local shelter is a great way to introduce the kids to dogs, help the local shelter dogs, become familiar with the breeds, and introduce responsibilities. Shelters usually have a training class for the volunteers to attend and monitor the interaction with the animals.
Where should I find our dog?
Before you start searching the Web for the perfect dog, keep this in mind - your favorite breed of dog may not actually be the right fit for your family. It's best to keep an open mind. I have always loved beagles. I even think their howl is adorable. I would check out beagles on the web everywhere and finally decided I would get a beagle through a local beagle rescue. We completed the application and started the process. When it was time for the in-home visit, a beautiful young lady beagle I had my eye on showed up at our door. I was in heaven. My cat, Princess was not. It was shocking because her love of dogs is why we considered getting a dog to begin with. Princess got in the beagle's face and started screaming at the top of her lungs. After she made her feelings known, she turned around and walked away.
The adoption process worked - I learned that getting a beagle was a very bad idea for us (we have four cats). We began visiting our shelter until we met Shakespeare. My husband, Brad was convinced a lab puppy named Lilly was the perfect dog but a volunteer at the shelter helped us weight the pros and cons. Neither of us are close enough to home to walk a puppy during lunch.
In addition to helping a dog in need, shelters and rescue organizations are great for another reason - the care about making sure the animal is a good fit for you and your family. They see plenty of dogs that are given up because they were the wrong breed or age for the home. They don't have anything to gain or profit from. This is something to keep in mind if you are considering going to a breeder. There are some really great breeders out there but not all breeders are going to take the time to determine if the buyer is the best fit for their puppy.
Do you want a puppy?
Puppies and kittens are lovely and their lucky to be so cute. If they weren't so cute, it would be much harder to swallow some of their baby animal behavior. While I think Brad and I would have fallen in love with a puppy, we needed a little training on being parents and Shakespeare was the perfect dog to teach us a thing or two. He was about 4 years old when we adopted him and he was past his crazy puppy behavior. Shakespeare is also really great with cats. He's the perfect breed for us - non-shedding (did I mention we have 4 cats?!), sweet, affectionate, and patient. He also has lots of great energy and is wicked smart. We adopted him when he was jumping up and down - he picked us.
I'm definitely not anti-puppy - I think our next adoption will be a puppy but adult dogs are also pretty great.
Are you ready?
Are you prepared to take over some of those dog duties and walk the dog with your kids? While it is important for your kids to learn responsibilities for the pet, they'll need help and they might not be old enough to walk the dog by themselves. I've seen lots of young kids that have had their dogs get away from them when they are walking the dog. A few of the dogs have run out into the street. Sometimes the dog is just too big and strong for the young boy or girl to walk them or they struggle to walk the dog without hurting the dog e.g. not giving the dog enough leash to walk comfortably.
There's one last complication in getting a dog for Christmas - the deep feelings and love your family will have for the animal. This is the really good complication that comes with making an animal part of your family. My husband and I used to laugh about how we would never schedule our lives around walking a dog. Now we know what it means - it's great. I love rushing home to see Shakespeare and see his tail wag with excitement when we get home. It's definitely one of the best "complications" in my life.
