School holidays can be stressful for parents who are expected to fill the weeks with endless fun. This can be exhausting, not to mention expensive! We’ve created a list of fun activities your children can enjoy with your pets; either furry family members or temporary house guests.
Teach a trick
This can be a very rewarding task for older children and requires patience and consistency – two skills that children often need to work on! Load your child up with dog treats and help them to choose one awesome trick they’d like to teach Fido then sit back and watch the magic happen! Your child will enjoy an incredible sense of achievement once your pooch performs the trick and they can tell anyone and everyone “I taught him that!!”
Build & overcome obstacles
Everyone has junk lying around that can be fashioned into a doggy obstacle course. A few bricks and a stick transforms into an adjustable jump, a plank and rock a see-saw. This one can get as complex as your child’s imagination will allow! After planning and set up, your child and pooch will have hours of fun tackling the new home made course!
Host a mini dog show
Does your child have lots of friends with dogs? Why not get them all over and put on your own dog show? Each dog has to show their very best party trick and complete a series of tasks – sit, stay, come etc. Create your own judging panel and hand out prizes to one and all – best in show, the pup who tried the best, the funniest pooch etc.
Story Time
Dogs can make the perfect reading partner for younger children who are learning to read and feeling self conscious. Everyone wins – your dog will be happy to lie beside their human and receive attention and your child will be happy to read to a new, novel listener (pardon the pun…). Research suggests children are more confident reading to dogs as they are completely non-judgemental too.
If you’re going away this holiday and need someone to look after your pet, book a Mad Paws sitter now!
