Parenting with Pets

by Hamer, Christine

• ISBN13: 9781887542586
• ISBN10: 1887542582
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-10-04
• Publisher: Book Pub Network

Summary

Parenting with Pets beautifully details the never ending learning opportunities family pets naturally bring into the lives of their children. Parents will appreciate the many examples of challenging life lessons and how our pets can be the most effective teachers with our guidance and interactive dialogue with our children. Parenting with Pets will show you how pets facilitate social interactions, and how children from pet-owning homes have better verbal and nonverbal communication skills than those from non--pet-owning families. Pets can also help teens through awkward adolescence. This book will show you how pets augment the lessons we teach. Although they cannot take a parent's place in raising children, pets can help to remind parents that many of the things we find stressful, such as business meetings, traffic jams, frustrating coworkers, aren't really that important. Animals have a profound effect on human physiology. They slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure, and temper

Table of Contents

Dedication	p. iii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Why This Matters	p. 1
Children and Pets	p. 5
Why Get a Pet and What to Expect	p. 6
A Legacy of Love	p. 11
The Role of a Pet in the Changing Child	p. 11
Home, Our Childhood Center	p. 12
The Developmental Years	p. 15
Preschool	p. 15
Early Elementary	p. 19
S.L.C. Utah Canine Library Reading Programs	p. 20
Handling Frustration	p. 23
Adolescence	p. 25
Young Adult	p. 31
Responsibility	p. 35
The New Pet	p. 38
Pets Teach Tolerance	p. 47
Before Training Your Animal	p. 50
Where Do Babies Come From?	p. 61
Pets and the Circle of Life	p. 61
Boys, Girls, and Sex	p. 63
Sexual Development	p. 64
Grief	p. 70
Healing	p. 81
The Communication Bridge	p. 85
Misbehavior = Miscommunication	p. 92
Opening Positive Communication	p. 95
An Open Heart: Pets in Our Life	p. 103
Love Unconditional	p. 111
Trust and Faith	p. 117
Will any Pet Do?	p. 123
Buying a New Pet	p. 129
Easy Starter Pets	p. 130
Pets That Need More Care	p. 136
Pets That Need the Most Care	p. 140
Final Note	p. 146
Suggestions for Maximum Success for Pet Ownership	p. 147
Other Considerations before You Buy a Pet	p. 148
Nature in the Lives of Children	p. 149
Tips for Sharing Nature with Your Children	p. 154
Suggestions to Naturalize Your Outdoor Play Space	p. 155
Some Final Thoughts	p. 159
References	p. 163
Helpful Resources	p. 173
Choosing a Pet	p. 173
Booklets	p. 173
Death and Grief	p. 173
Raising Children	p. 174
Service and Therapy Dogs	p. 175
Training Dogs / Dogs and Children	p. 175
Cat help and questions	p. 175
Bird help and questions	p. 175
Appendix	p. 178
Weekly Chore Chart for Daisy	p. 178
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.