5 Excellent Books To Give A Child Who Is About To Get Their First Dog

An all-in-one starter guide to start us off, Easy Peasy Awesome Pawsome: Dog Training for Kids is a fun and colorful bible of dog care. The book details pretty much everything from how to walk your dog and getting them used to the leash to teaching your dog tricks (like making their own bed). Author Steve Mann puts a big focus on the health and safety of your dog, you, and your children. Mann suggests that the best way to build a relationship between your dog and yourself (whether you’re reading as a child or an adult) is to keep your body and mind active. Eating, sleeping, and playing well is key to raising a happy dog, and it’s something you have to do together. The enthusiastic reference book also suggests fun activities you can do with your dog, so there’ll never be a dull day in the family home or on outings.

This board book provides a lesson in respect and safety around what was once a wild animal. As someone who was scratched by a cat when I was 7, I wish I’d read a book like this as a child. All the cat saw was a loud, fast human run at it suddenly with outstretched arms; if I were an animal, I’d protect myself, too. Looking back, I’m almost glad I learned that tough lesson with a small cat’s claws rather than a large dog’s jaws. Kids don’t innately understand how rough they can be, their fine/gross motor skills aren’t perfected yet, and what they think is a gentle caress may actually be a hard slap for a tiny puppy. Tails Are Not for Pulling teaches kids early that a pet is a living, feeling creature who needs a gentle touch. It also details how to pick up on what the pet is “saying,” through body language and how they bark, howl, whine, or purr (yes, surprisingly dogs can sometimes purr).

Children and adults alike need to learn to respect other people’s dogs as well as their own. This goes double for service and therapy dogs. Even if your kid doesn’t need one themselves, Hello Goodbye Dog details the importance of working dogs. The plot involves a young girl in a wheelchair who meets her new fluffy best friend. At first, the world tries to separate the two, but as time goes by her family learns that the pup can be trained to help her more than any human could. This is a particularly great book for disabled kids who are getting their first service animal; however, able-bodied kids can really learn a thing or three from it, too. The book teaches us that animals, particularly dogs, can be vital in the development of our happiness, as well as the difficulty of separation anxiety. But more specifically, it teaches kids about the importance of service animals. Working animals who can sniff out seizures, help blind people cross the road, and fetch human help when needed are not just fluffy toys to distract when seen on the street. They’re heroes.

The Dog Training Log Book for Kids is an activity book for noting down all your training needs. The book is a fun and simplified place to write down all of your dog’s needs, from what they eat (and can’t eat) to what their favorite toys are. You and your child can spend time decorating the book with photos of your dog, as well as note training goals, behavior difficulties, allergies, vet details, and way more. Your kids can look up the book every time they need help understanding something, and it will give them a sense of responsibility. For example, when it’s lunch (or shopping) time for your dog, ask your kid to look up the food list you’ve made together so you can pick which foods to give them. Ask your child to write down which tricks they’d like to teach the pup, and keep track of any upcoming grooming appointments. It not only keeps children involved in their dog’s life but also helps with kids’ scheduling and list-making skills. You and your children will feel way less overwhelmed as pet parents if you have one place to store all the important details.

With the joy of pet ownership also comes the sad. Sometimes your dog will get ill, and eventually they will die. Whether your kid will be older by then depends on fate, but it’s always better to cushion the blow years before it happens. Books like Saying Goodbye to Lulu help with those inevitabilities in a gentle way. As the title suggests, Lulu is the loving dog best friend of our main character. As the girl and her pooch grow up together and Lulu passes over the rainbow bridge, the girl must come to terms with her grief. She learns that it’s OK to cry and feel all the feelings Lulu’s passing has brought her, but she also learns to keep the memory of Lulu alive and happy, and that’s what her best friend would have wanted. The book teaches children that though we may only have a short time with our pets on this Earth, the memories will last forever, and we can take some of that love we had for our late pets and share it with new pets, too.