Introducing a new pet to your home with existing pets and children can be overwhelming for everyone involved!
It’s important to make this introduction as safe and calm as possible, but it can be tricky to know exactly how to do that. Especially if you’re introducing different types of animals like cats and dogs or rescue animals who may need extra attention.
This complete guide will help everyone quickly and easily get acclimated:
How to Introduce a New Pet to Children
It’s crucial when introducing pets and kids that they’re supervised! Even docile animals can become stressed and overwhelmed if the children don’t know how to approach an animal and treat them with respect.
Pets also need time to adjust to their new environments, and the excitement a child feels and displays during this change may stress the pet. Let the animal adjust and ask the child to leave it alone until it comes around on its own.
Both children and animals need rules to live by, so introducing these rules, first, will help you keep your home as stress-free as possible. It’s important to teach children to ask permission to interact with the pet.
How to Introduce Cats and Dogs
If you’re adopting pets, it’s great to ask the shelter which dogs have experience with cats or vice-versa.
You want to find a good match when rescuing animals, and looking for animals who have experience living with one another is a great way to do that.
You can manage age differences by giving each pet access to a “safe” place within the household.
Especially if you’re introducing new pets and old pets, one may be excited to meet the older one, which may lead to the older one becoming overwhelmed and acting out.
You want to keep each pet, and family member as stress-free as possible to form a bond quickly.
Blocking off separate areas in the house for each animal to calm down and have alone time is a great way to mitigate the introduction.
Remembering, a New Pet Is a Life-Long Commitments
Many pets land right back in shelters or find themselves being rehomed because the new family couldn’t successfully integrate the pet into their home.
This is why it’s so important to plan to acclimate everyone in the family to the newest member!
Remembering that animals need space and time to adjust just like people is really the most important step in this process. Give your new pet space to adjust to this huge life change, and you’ll be on your way to developing a long-lasting companionship.
We hope this guide will help you keep your home and family as stress-free as possible while integrating your new pet into your lives! For more information like this, please check out the rest of our site.