PD’s Ultimate Guide to Pet Safety for Kids

Pet safety is a cornerstone for helping kids and pets become lifelong friends. Children lap up new information and make it their own in no time at all so animal safety can easily be instilled as second nature.

Importantly, any scary encounter with an animal can be imbued into a child’s mind for a long, long time. Wipe away that possibility by laying down some simple but essential lessons for your child with this guide to pet safety for kids.

1. Raising little pet owners through pet care and safety

Raising our kids to be responsible so they’re ready to be adults one day is a wonderful and often nail biting, brow furrowing task. What better way to teach them to be responsible (to a degree) than by helping (where possible and safe) care for pets.

Pet survey insights on teaching kids pet safety

PD recently did a survey of over 2,000 pet insurance customers. To look at child and pet safety, we asked “Is walking or feeding a pet part of your child’s/children’s chores?”. Of those with children, 98% responded “yes.”

We delved a little deeper to learn the many reasons for involving children in pet care.

Here’s what pet owners said:

• 23.3% – It teaches them responsibility
• 14.9% – It helps them bond with the pet
• 11.4% – They enjoy doing it
• 7.1% – It encourages more outdoor activity
• 5.4% – It gets them off the devices
• 1. 8% – I don’t have time to do it

Other pet and child safety motivation

Some respondents added that their kids feed the pets as a way to “keep food aggression down”, especially when it comes to big dogs.

“Our youngest feeds our dog so the dog knows he’s not the leader of the pack. Important because our dog weighs 78 kgs. 😊”

Many noted that helping care for pets teaches love, care, empathy and caring for other members of the family in general.

Many respondents had children too young to get involved yet (“My daughter is 18 months old; she can’t confidently do it herself but loves to try and help”). Some have grown up kids who’ve flown the coop (“When my kids were younger, this was a big part of their life. They’ve grown into caring responsible adults”)

2. Making routine health checks part of pet safety

Just like our children have annual health checks at their doctor or dentist, teach them how it’s good for pets to have the same by seeing the vet once a year.

It may be difficult for children to understand prevention is better than cure. It’s one of those great life lessons many of us learn through trial and error. But if your child learns that taking pets for annual vet check-ups is simply a normal way of life, then it simply becomes second nature.

There’s such a lonnnnng list of pet health worries that can be mitigated or well managed through early detection. Watch this vet vlog with Dr Cath with your child to teach them what vets do in a routine check-up:

3. Help kids learn what pets are saying

It’s often said that animals don’t speak, but more to the point, they tend not to speak Māori or English. They can however understand lots we do and say. And it’s important that we humans do the same. Teach your children to understand dog and cat body language from a young age. This way, pet safety will become as simple as learning their A B Cs.

Recognise warning signs

Teach them to recognise signs of fear, aggression or stress in animals. Understanding how animals communicate through body language and sound will enable your kids to interact with their own pets safely. Equally important, it will help them understand other animals’ boundaries too.

Here are some essential toolkits for helping kids interpret pets:

• Cat Body Language Decoded
• Dogs and Kids: Respecting Each Other’s Boundaries
• How To Speak Dog 
• Is My Dog Scared? Here’s How To Tell
• Understanding Cat Behaviour

4. Pet safety through body language

Just as valuable as teaching kids to understand pets’ body language is showing them the appropriate body language to use around pets. Because we don’t use the same verbal language as our pets, we need to depend on sign language – or body language – to explain our actions.

We might dash across the room, because we’ve explained to our kids that we need to switch off the stove or grab the coffee pot. The very same action without the reason explained can be startling to a pet. So teach your child or children not to approach animals too quickly or invade their territory (their food bowls, kennels, crates etc). Pet safety means never cornering or surprising them.

It’s so important to guide children through treating animals gently – even if they’re angry with the animal for some or other reason. This means no teasing, hurting or frightening them either. It may go without saying for an adult, but if your kid thinks it’s a game they may decide to give their dog a fright not realising this could spell a dangerous reaction.

5. Understanding pet stranger danger as part of safety

If your kiddo loves playing with their own dog or cat at home, they may believe all dogs and cats are equally friendly. Of course, as adults, we’ve learned that animals, like people need and deserve their personal space at times. This means no approaching, touching, or staring into the eyes of a stranger pet.

Emphasize the importance of respecting an animal’s personal space. If your little ones encounter a lone furball, remind them to resist the superhero urge to run up and carry, pat or chat to them.

Make sure your child knows that asking the human pet owner if it’s safe to say hello, and what hello might be for a particular animal (a scratch or pat on the head, or simply saying “Hi!”) are absolutely necessary.

Always ask permission before the greeting or petting someone else’s pet.

Kids and pets may naturally be drawn to one another, after all, both share a kind of innocent playfulness. This aside, when it comes to kids and pet safety, make sure your child would never, ever consider putting a hand through a gate or fence to pat a pet or try to compete in a staring contest.

Such a situation can end up with growls, scratches or worse, bites.

6. Teach proper greetings

Show your kids how to approach and greet animals in a friendly manner. Encourage them to let the animal come to them and to offer a hand for sniffing rather than reaching out abruptly.

This is helpful at home because even one’s own pets appreciate being spoken to kindly. It’s also especially important with pets they may encounter in the neighbourhood.

And if you’re introducing your dog to your new baby, here’s some animal safety tips for your dog too.

Whether you’re still in the process of choosing a pet, training one or simply enjoying the good times together, here are more pet resources:

• How to choose a great family pet
• Keeping a happy big pet family
• The importance of playtime for Kiwi dogs and cats
• How to train a cat to walk on a leash

7. Help kids understand what pet insurance does

Many pet owners have had to turn down the proper vet care their pet needs when the bills were too high. According to our survey, 12% of pet owners had to have pets euthanised because at the time they didn’t have pet insurance.

While we humans have the benefits of Government subisidised health care and some of us also have medical aid to buffer this system, pets have neither. Helping your children learn about pet insurance early on means they’ll know that we pay doctors’ bills for ourselves and that vet expenses costly too.

Having pet insurance helps close that gap between what you can afford and what type of treatment your pet might need along the way. We wouldn’t shirk these responsibilities for our kids and helping them learn how we do the same for pets by having pet plans can be a wonderful way to teach pet safety.

With PD Insurance, you’ll get one or more months of award winning pet insurance when you buy online. Click below (or let your child) to get a quote.