Choice equals Respect and Safety

I wrote the following post originally for a HAWS Tattle Tales article.  I would argue that teaching children animal safety should absolutely include this concept. Allowing pets to make choices is a topic I'd like to explore in the future, since I believe that this is the foundation for respect and fundamental to humane education. 

A study with nursing home residents showed that those individuals who were encouraged to make personal choices for themselves were happier and healthier than residents who had all decisions made by staff.  (Langer & Rodin, 1976). 

Lack of control in the workplace is considered to be a huge stressor for an employee.  A study showed that employees in high stress jobs with a lack of control were more stressed than employees in high stress jobs and more control.  (Karasek, 1979) 

Allowing an individual at least some autonomy gives them control over their lives, helps develop confidence, reduces stress, promotes a happy life, and can be an important part of developing a relationship. 

Everything I’ve written so far is in reference to human beings, but is equally applicable to animals.  Indeed zoos make every opportunity to allow their animals to have as many choices as possible.  Just because an animal is on display doesn’t mean you’ll get to see him if he’s decided he wants to hide from you.  A large part of enrichment for zoo animals incorporates the opportunity to make choices and have some control over their environment.      

I would argue that we also need to provide our pets with choices.  So much of our pets lives are dictated by us; we tell them where to eliminate, where they should sleep, control when they eat, dictate what they can and cannot play with, and decide when we are going to provide them with exercise.  While we can’t give our pets full autonomy, we can try and give them the ability to make choices as often as possible.   

Humane Education is all about respecting and displaying compassion for all living things.  What better way to instill these concepts than to teach children about allowing animals to have choices.   Just because you want to pet the kitty doesn’t mean that the kitty wants you to pet her.  Allowing a cat to leave the room and hide is a great way to show respect and acknowledge her rights as an individual to decline an interaction that makes only one of the two of you happy.  

Giving our pets choices about whether they want to be touched or approached by us or others not only gives them autonomy and respect, but is also a safety issue.  Animals that are stressed, anxious or frightened are more likely to feel the need to defend themselves; we know that most bites are caused by animals who are frightened.  

Our jobs as pet owners are not only to care for them, but to protect them and help them thrive in our world.   And what better way is there than finding ways to give our pets some choices about their lives. 

Kindness Tickets

Part of humane education is teaching children respect and empathy for all living things, including people.  While we encourage kids to be respectful of each other, our curriculum has been focused on teaching children about animals.

This year HAWS started a new program at our camps called Kindness Tickets.  The first day of camp each camper is given 10 tickets and they are asked to write their names on the tickets.  They are encouraged to give the tickets to each other for any acts of kindness they might observe their fellow campers performing.  Counselors are also encouraged to hand out tickets. 

Several times throughout the week Kindness Tickets are counted and campers with the most tickets are rewarded.  Their own tickets don't count towards the total, nor can they count more than two tickets collected from the same person.  This prevents kids from swapping tickets in an effort to win.  Once they've been awarded a prize the winner's tickets are disposed of and they start without any, although they can win a second time. 

Initially our rewards were items from a prize box, but the enthusiasm for the program was lukewarm.   Then the dog trainer in me thought about what would really motivate the kids.  The answer is time with animals -- which is why the kids attend camp at an animal shelter to begin with.  Kindness ticket winners get 15 minutes with the animal of their choice with the option to ask a friend to share their animal interaction. 

Campers have told me that they really like the program.  One girl told me that at the beginning of the week she made an effort to be nice because she wanted to earn enough tickets to win, but by the end of the week she was being nice because it seemed like the right thing to do.    Maybe coming to Kids 'N Critters Day Camp will help kids learn to be kind not only to animals, but to each other. 

A Really Wonderful Book

I've been giving a lot of thought to the "Smooch your Pooch" book and the blog post I did about it last month.

There are a lot of really great books for children that do a wonderful job helping children develop respect and empathy for pets, and learn how to appropriately interact with them.

Once of my favorites is a book called "Libby and the Cat" by Yetti Frenkel. The front cover illustration shows a little girl about to step on the tail of her cat. While this would make the book appear to be a poor choice as an appropriate pet friendly story for children, trust me when I say the book is wonderful. I love it so much that I gave it as a gift to my young nephew, and often read it on my visits to pre-school classrooms.

The story is about 3 year old Libby Bess who teases the family cat. She steps on his tail, dresses him up in hats, pushes him in a stroller, and sneaks up on him and scares him -- among other things.

One day she realizes that she doesn't like it when people force her to do things she doesn't want to do, and realizes that the cat probably doesn't either. At that point she starts to do things for the cat that she thinks he most likely enjoys -- likely playing with him with a catnip mouse string toy.

What's so wonderful about this book is that I think kids really can relate to this. Teasing other kids and animals can give children a sense of power that they might not be able to get any other way -- it can make them feel good. But realizing that others have feelings and our behavior can impact the emotions of others should be part of growing up to be an emotionally healthy person -- it should be the goal of any parent for their child. And this book can be a tool to help children with this important part of their development.

Art Camp

Over the years HAWS has increasingly incorporated specialty camps into our schedule. One of the first specialty camps we started with is Art Camp.

For a week kids between the ages of 10 and 14 years attend our Art Camp. In the morning they do the things that our other camps do -- walk dogs, play with cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and other animals, do some volunteer work, and play some games. In the afternoon they create artwork.

Kristin Gjerdset, an associate professor of art at Wisconsin Lutheran College, spends several hours each day that week with the kids helping them capture animals in their artwork. Art is about really looking at things and intrepreting what you see. HAWS hopes that Art Camp helps kids see animals in a new way -- as creations that deserve to be respected and protected as creatures of beauty.

I'd say we achivieved that this year. Additionally -- we have a lot of very talented young artists in our community. Take a look at some of the pieces and I think you'll agree.

They're Heeeere!

Summer doesn't start on June 21 as the calendar tells us. It doesn't start after Memorial Day. It doesn't start when the public pools first open. Here at HAWS we know summer has started when our first session of Kid's N Critters Day Camp begins.

The relative quiet of HAWS Activity Room outside my office was shattered on Monday when 28 kids between the ages of 7 and 9 descended to have fun and learn about animals. This week consisted of two 2-day camps -- we had 7-9 year olds on Monday and Tuesday, and 10-12 year olds on Wednesday and Thursday.

Our camps run from the middle of June through the middle of August. Five of the sessions are 2-days, and 6 are full weeks. Our goal is to introduce the kids to animals they may not be familiar with, teach them appropriate behavior around animals, get them thinking about what being responsible for a pet entails, educate them about issues common in animal sheltering and rescue, and create empathy and respect for all living things.

The kids who came on Monday and Tuesday had a wonderful time -- as you can see by the photos. They met the 4 week old puppies one of our employees is fostering until they are old enough to go up for adoption. Great socialization for the puppies, and a good lession for the kids about being quiet and calm so that the puppies wouldn't become afraid of them.

They learned about bottle feeding orphaned kittens, held a snake, and met a rabbit named Hop-A-Long and a guinea pig named Ella.

Dog Safety

It's National Dog Bite Prevention Week, and so I thought I'd post an article that I wrote some time ago about keeping kids and dog's safe.

“I have the greatest dog in the world; my 2 year old son can lie on top of her, pull her tail or grab her lips and she’s just fine!”

As a dog trainer and Humane Educator, I shudder when I hear stories like this. While a dog like that is amazing and good for a family of small children, I find a number of problems with these stories.

First of all – most likely the dog isn’t fine with it all of the time. She may be giving off subtle communication missed by Mom such as lip licking, whale eye (where the whites of the dog’s eye show), yawning, or even freezing. These are examples of signals given off when dogs are uncomfortable or stressed. Someday she may stop giving off these subtle signals and simply bite the child out of self-defense.

Just because the dog puts up with it doesn’t mean that she should have to. This mother would most likely not allow the child to behave this way with another human. (Substitute the word “grandma” for “dog” in the first sentence of this article!) So why should the dog have to put up with harassment?

What is this child learning about interacting with dogs? Children assume that because they can behave in a particular way with one dog, it means they can behave the same with another. And this child will eventually meet a different dog who may be less tolerant of his actions.

I give dog safety programs to children of all ages, but it is not enough. Children need to hear the message many times before they really start to change their behavior. Parents are in the best position to educate their children about interacting with dogs.

A lot of what I teach children in my presentation is respect. If you don’t like something, then most likely your dog won’t either. Below is a summary of some of the things I discuss when educating children:

While people hug out of friendship, a dog walking up to another dog and throwing his paw over the back of the second dog is far from friendly. That is a status seeking gesture which can result in a dog fight!

Our dogs put up with our hugs because we have a relationship with them. And although I hug my dogs regularly, it would be rude on my part to do that to a dog that wasn’t mine, and it would also be dangerous. If the dog didn’t like it I could get bit in the face.

Unfortunately this is a very difficult message to teach children. Many times I’ll no sooner tell the children not to hug my dog, when they come up and do exactly that. Hugging is a natural behavior for humans, and especially for children. This is something that a parent will repeatedly need to remind their children not to do with dogs.


Some dogs will guard their food bowls, chew toys, or even random items from humans by growling, snapping or even biting. Children should leave dogs alone when they are eating or chewing, and call an adult if the dog has something in his mouth he shouldn’t.

Sometimes dogs don’t want interaction with children. Children should allow the dog to initiate interactions. If the dog doesn’t come out, children should respect him and not chase after him.

Many times kids think that only large, scary looking dogs will bite. But ANY dog will bite – even small and cute dogs, if he is afraid or is guarding something.

Dogs are predators, and children who are running and screaming can cause a dog to kick into predator mode. Some dogs can become over-excited and rambunctious and some can become dangerous. If in doubt, put the dog away from the kids when they are running and screaming.

And here are some things that parents should know about their responsibilities when it comes to dogs and children:
Small children need to be constantly supervised. If you aren’t in the room, then the dog and child should not be together – no matter how wonderful your dog is.

Just because the dog is safe around your kids doesn’t mean he’s safe with all kids. Dogs come to learn the behavior of kids living in their home and know what to expect. Visiting children may behave in a different way, or the dog may be less tolerant of behavior by strangers. Make sure visiting children and your dog are always supervised. If you can’t supervise, put the dog someplace away from the children.

There’s a reason reality TV shows with professional dog trainers have disclaimers. These methods may not be safe for someone without a training background. If you are having problems with child-canine interactions, don’t attempt to solve this yourself. You’ll have a better and safer outcome if you seek out a professional who can come up with a training program specifically tailored for you and your family.


For more information about children and dog interactions, I highly recommend the book “Living with Kids and Dogs…Without Losing Your Mind” by Colleen Pelar, CPDT.

Final note…Having your kids grow up with a family dog is priceless. There is so much to learn about love, responsibility, and respect when living with the canine variety. The way you interact and treat your dog is absorbed like a sponge by your children, just like anything else you do in front of them. Observing signs of canine frustration and learning when fido needs a break from the action will undoubtedly help ensure everyone stays BFF. (If you don’t know what that means…ask your kids.)