Thursday, May 14, 2015

A Kids' Guide to Interacting with Dogs

I am the library director at a very small public library.  This year's Summer Reading program theme is "Every Hero has a Story."  We go for four weeks, and each week will be a different type of hero - superheroes, community heroes, animal heroes, and how to be a hero yourself.  I love trying to integrate my two passions - reading and animal rescue - and I'm excited to have the opportunity to do so for this program. 

For the "Animal Hero" week, I am trying to track someone down who has a certified therapy dog who could come in for a visit.  I know the kids would love taking turns petting the dog and asking all sorts of questions about its training.  I am a bit nervous, though, about the kids interacting with the dog.  We generally only have about 10 kids who attend regularly, ranging in age from preschool to 5th grade, but there's a good chance we could have more this year.  I am worried about grabby hands, loud and excited yelling, and a nervous dog. 

I plan to use these amazing infographics to go over the dos and don'ts of interacting with animals.  I found them through Winding Ridge Lane, but they are the work of the late, great Sophia Yin. 


 

I'm sure you've seen these before, but aren't they amazing?  Any other suggestions for bringing a dog around children? 
 
I'm also excited for the "Being a Hero" week, which will focus mostly on positive personality traits and doing various "good deeds".  For one of the crafts, we will be making cat toys, which will then be donated to a local animal shelter.  If you have any other ideas, I am more than open to them!  I'm always looking for ways to get kids interested in both reading and volunteering!


3 comments:

  1. Fantastic infographics, and a good idea to post them where parents and kids can see them. And what a great idea to introduce kids to making cat toys to get them interested in the welfare of pets!! Kids who like toys thinking about pets who also like toys ... maybe pets have feelings too ...

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  2. Hopefully the therapy dog will be bomb proof. I think the info graphics will help. I had seen them and sent them to my brother so he could use them to teach his son how to treat dogs. Thanks for joining the Barks and Bytes hop!

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  3. I LOVE, LOVE this! Great infographics, and the idea to bring dogs into your Hero's program is terrific. My Husky and I are a Therapy Dog team, we visit libraries for reading programs where kids read out loud to dogs. It's so fabulous! One additional point I'd make is never to pet a dog near it's face - little kids always end up getting much too close to the dog's eyes. I usually try saying "she likes to be pet here" as I stroke the side of her neck or her back. It's a good idea to instruct kids exactly where to pet a dog. I have several posts about our work with the kids, swing by & see us. If you like we can chat further about what it's like having a Therapy Dog in library reading programs; we work w/ several libraries. I could share w/ you what works well & what doesn't. I am so sharing this terrific post! Thanks!
    Love & Biscuits,
    Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them

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