Kids Activity Page - Winter 2016

Kids Activity Page

Winter 2016

Welcome to our Winter Page

This page is for all you kids who are interested in learning about dogs, how to help look after your own pet dog, and how to be safe around dogs.

Have fun and enjoy the activities. There is a lot to learn. Please keep coming back. We will put something new on this page regularly.

Parents: There is a lot of information on child safety around dogs in the links at the bottom of this page.

Note: Because this page uses scripts you may get the following message "Internet Explorer restricted this web page from running scripts or ActiveX controls." You may have to allow blocked content if you can't see the jumping sheep or the answers to the puzzles, for example.

Unfortunately the jumping sheep can't be seen on iPads because the animation is powered by Flash. We are very sorry about that, but we decided to leave the sheep on the page because they are fun for the people who are able to see them!

Archives

2016

Fall 2016 Activity Page

Summer 2016 Activity Page

An Easy Trick to Teach Your Dog

"Tricks are fun! Tricks, like games, keep your dog alert and energetic. They give your dog a chance to play. Tricks give you and your dog time to be together.

Tricks help your dog to 'learn how to learn'. If they can learn tricks, then they can learn obedience and good behaviour. Go ahead...have some fun and teach your dog some tricks!"

From the people at Love your dog website who have very generously allowed us to reproduce some of their articles. Please visit them, there is lots to enjoy there.

How to teach: SHAKE HANDS

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THIS TRICK

Fill in the Blanks

Let's see how many dog breeds you can find CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PUZZLE

Colouring Pages Contest

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THIS MONTH'S CONTEST

Jumping Sheep!!

Move your cursor over the sheep and watch them jump!
(from sheepgame.co.uk)

image: small brown dog image:
small brown dog

An Easy Trick to Teach Your Dog

How to teach "Shake Hands" : courtesy of the Love Your Dog website - http://www.loveyourdog.com

Start by having your dog sit.
Say, "Shake hands," and take his paw with your hand.
Hold his paw and say, "Good dog!"
Let go of his paw.
Do this a few times every day.

TIP:
After a while, say, "Shake hands," but don't take his paw. See if he raises his paw by himself. If not, keep showing him what to do by saying,"Shake hands," and taking his paw with your hand.

Your dog is not slow; he is just learning!

Puzzle

Fill in the blanks to discover a special breed of dog:

When you have found as many as you can, here are the answers:

(no peeking until you have finished the puzzle!)

Good luck!

puzzle produced by Dagmar VanBeselaere

Colouring Pages Contest

We would love to hear from you

Click here and print out the picture that opens. Colour the picture carefully with pencils or crayons.

Then tell us why your pet is special, and what rules you have in your house to make your pet safe.

Send it to us at [email protected] with your email address. We will choose a winner each month and post it in our newsletter for everybody to see.

All pets should visit a veterinarian regularly. Dogs are living creatures and they need regular check-ups to ensure that they are healthy. Regular dental cleaning, grooming and nail clipping are also important.

(from the Fido, Friend or Foe activity book)

Healthy pets are happy pets.
Your pet is very happy that you look after him so well.

What if You Can't Have a Dog?

Not everyone can add a dog to their family.

Perhaps your house is too small (you live in an apartment or condo), or your landlord doesn't allow you to keep a dog. Perhaps your family just doesn't have the time to exercise a dog, groom her, or take her to the vet when she is sick. Or maybe someone in your family has allergies to dogs.

Have you considered one of the cuddly and loving creatures below instead? Or even something not quite as cuddly, like a tortoise or a fish?

How about a rabbit or a guinea pig? They make wonderful, affectionate and fairly long-lived pets. Or a mouse or rat? They are intelligent and can be taught to do tricks quite easily. How about a hamster or gerbil? A chinchilla? Or, if the allergic person cannot tolerate any animal hair, there are pet birds. Or fish. Did you know that with patience you can actually train a goldfish to do simple tricks such as swimming through a hoop for rewards? Amazing!

Be sure to check out your local humane society or animal rescue when looking for a new pet. They often have many different types of animals, both large and small.

This time we will talk about some cute, pretty little furballs: Hamsters!

Hamsters are rodents in the same family as rabbits, mice, chipmunks and squirrels. They have amazingly large cheek pouches, like chipmunks, for gathering food and nesting materials. Some hamsters have short hair, others long hair, in many different colours and patterns. And there are different varieties, but the ones usually seen are Golden or Teddy Bear hamsters, and dwarf hamsters.

Hamsters live about 2 years.

They are friendly and intelligent, and enjoy being handled once they know and trust you, which makes them lovely pets. They normally exercise in the evening and at night, so they can be rather noisy if kept in a bedroom! They are very active little animals and are fun to watch as they play on ladders and exercise wheels or balls. They will spend hours climbing around their cages and really enjoy running in an exercise ball (don’t let him exhaust himself, or fall off the table or down the stairs!). You can teach hamsters tricks, using treats. They will sit up or stand on their back legs, hang from your fingers using their “hands” and do twirls for you.

Hamsters are best living alone. In fact, two male or two female hamsters living together will likely fight. Dwarf hamsters sometimes live peacefully with other hamsters if they have grown up together.

Hamsters are clean little animals who don’t like having their nests and food hoards disturbed. If they aren’t happy, they may try to escape from their cages. They can squeeze through very small spaces, and may be very hard to find once free.

The cage doesn’t need to be very large, but the hamster does need some daily exercise outside the cage, in a safe area where he can’t get into trouble. Cages can be made of metal, glass, plastic or wood. Soft wood may not be a good idea for a cage, however, because hamsters do chew on wood. A lot.

Remember:
Hamsters attract cats and dogs; cats and dogs kill hamsters;
cages with tight-fitting lids keep hamsters safe!

Here are some useful hamster links for you:

http://cfhs.ca/athome/hamsters/

http://www.ottawahumane.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/hamsters.pdf

a link to the OHS for adopting small animals: http://www.ottawahumane.ca/?s=hamsters

https://www.aspca.org/sites/default/files/upload/images/hamster_edu.pdf

For Parents Too

The Blue Dog
http://www.thebluedog.org/en/

The Safe Kids/ Safe Dogs Project
http://www.safekidssafedogs.com/

http://www.getdogsmart.com

"Get dog smart with Diggity the Dog! Diggity the Dog’s story encompasses the number one cure for the dog bite epidemic. The story takes children on a fun walk through the neighborhood. Along the way, children encounter a whole lot of dogs in different situations. Diggity tells the "do's" and "don'ts" - right from the doggie's mouth."

http://www.liamjperkfoundation.org/talk.html

Little Liam was fatally bitten by his family's own beloved dog. This site is full of information for parents and caregivers - such as dog body language; dog stress signals; signs of anxiety; why dogs bite; Be a Tree, and more. Well illustrated.

https://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/free-downloads-posters-handouts-and-more/

Dr. Sophia Yin's website: dog body language of fear and anxiety; how to greet, and not to greet a dog; also training tips and much more.

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities.html

"Science Kids is the home of science & technology on the Internet for children around the world.”
This wonderful website helps kids learn about the amazing world of science by enjoying the “fun science experiments, cool facts, online games, free activities, ideas, lesson plans, photos, quizzes, videos & science fair projects."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/woof/index.html

Woof! It's a dog's life. Tips and training help from "Uncle Matty"

Acknowledgements

Be A Tree program

The information on our Education - Dog Bite Prevention page was compiled by Doggone Safe - visit their website for more information on the Be A Tree program.

The Love your dog website has very generously allowed us to reproduce some of their articles. Please visit them, there is lots to enjoy there.

The American Kennel Club (AKC) also has much information and many games to play.

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