As I mentioned in my last post, my little nephew and niece, age 4 and 6, are coming home to live with my husband and I very shortly, and bringing their dog and guinea pigs to add to our household of one dog and one cat.

I would like the children to participate in taking care of the animals, especially their dog, but eventually both dogs. So my question is, what sort of chores are the children ready for at the age of 4 and 6? The dogs are large so I assume walking them on a leash would be pretty much out of the question. But are they ready for feeding, grooming, etc? I would like them to have some responsibility, even if it's small. Thanks.

I would think the 6 year old and maybe the 4 year old too should be able to brush the dogs. Let them stick to a soft bristle brush or the style with the large rubber cone teeth. I am not sure they would be gentle enough with the wire slicker brush. Labs shed a lot. The more hair the kids can recover with a brush, the less for you to clean up.

Feeding will depend on how well trained the dogs are. If they will sit quietly while the child measures out the food and puts it down. OK. They will also need to accept the child refereeing sticking to their own food dish. Many Labs are very food motivated, and could be too much for a 6 year old. You should ask them what they were doing at home and continue it.

Walking may or may not work. Certainly not by themselves along a street. Try it in a park with adult supervision. The dogs need to learn the children outrank them and to respect their commands.

What works or not for some other child and some other dog, may or may not work in your suddenly enlarged family.

Thanks again labman! I think I will definitely start them with the brushing, supervised, of course. Murphy is well trained for meal times... he will sit by his full dish until I tell him it's okay to eat. Whether he listens to the children on this point though remains to be seen. And I'm not sure about Cuddles. I hope it's not too late for obedience classes if he's not as well trained as Murphy.

Hi,
It's never too late for classes... sometimes, but not always, older dogs just take a little longer training, and with a little more persistence.

Thanks Fred, that makes me feel a bit better. Cuddles is 18 months old, so he's not terribly old. I just don't look forward to all the work entailed if he needs to be retrained. I'm kind of spoiled with Murphy being so well behaved.

Bush, feed, yell and run and let the dogs chase them. Thow the ball at them or for them at times, Blaming the dogs for broken things top my list.

And walking will depend on how trained the dogs ( with supervision of course)
And the walking can become a family outing, ( or adventure, it is never just a walk, but a moon walk, a space adventure, a walk in the African jungle.

Most of my experience in obedience training is starting young. However, I took my daughter to 4-H dog obedience for 5 years. I saw many kids do a fine job with dogs 18 months and much older.

4-H is a youth program that is part of the US Department of Agriculture. Kids can learn many skills outside agriculture including dog obedience. Great program. It has been 10 years since then, but I still sometimes visit just to enjoy watching the great kids and their well behaved dogs.

LOL Fr Chuck I remember playing the yelling and chasing thing with dogs when I was little. I used to run around in the backyard and jump on top of the doghouse just before the dog got to me! I do wonder though if that's safe play... like could the dog maybe get overly excited and possibly hurt the child? The dog I played with as a kid was a lot smaller than a lab.

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Most of my experience in obedience training is starting young. However, I took my daughter to 4-H dog obedience for 5 years. I saw many kids do a fine job with dogs 18 months and much older.

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That's good to know, labman! Actually we have 4-H here too (Canadian version I guess), and I was in it when I was younger, although I worked with cows mostly, or calves rather. And horses. I didn't realize dogs were part of it too. That might be something to get the kids involved in when they are a bit older.

Well as a bit of an update, we arrived home on the plane late last night, and went to pick up Murphy at the kennel earlier this morning. I did what you said regarding introducing the 2 dogs, labman. They seem to absolutely love each other, which is a big relief. It was kind of overwhelming though because they were running around the house together playfighting, and the kids were running around too, so I banished the dogs to the backyard. It's warm outside today so it won't hurt them. Murphy has been too excited about Cuddles to react much to the children. I think he may just think they are visitors, as we have a fair bit of company and he's been around children before. The cat has perched himself on the highest point in the living room and has been watching everything with great interest. My husband actually took the kids out tobagganing for the afternoon, to give me a chance to rest a bit. I'll let the dogs in again soon, and see how they are with feeding. I hope they don't continue to be so excited about each other in the house, because I will need to correct that behaviour.

Anyway, that's it for now and thanks so much for your help, as always!