Using Books To Help Your Child Learn Animal Behavior

RedRover is an organization with a mission to help animals and people when they’re in crisis. They also work to strengthen the relationships between people and pets, as a way to prevent neglect, cruelty and abuse – and to help make the world a more compassionate place in the future.

RedRover works with teachers and humane educators with their program called “RedRover Readers.”  This program uses books illustrated picture books to help kids understand animal behavior, helping them take their perspective. This starts to build the steps for empathy – for both people and for animals. President and CEO, Nicole Forsyth walks us through the program and gives us some tips for reading out loud to your own children.

You can find a list of these books at: red rover.org\books

Ask Questions While You Read

By asking questions in a specific way, you can have great conversations with your kids about emotions. It helps to do this early on when they’re still young. Once they get into their tweens they don’t want to talk about emotions. So the earlier you get into the habit of discussing this, the easier it is.

One of the books in the program “Buddy Unchained.” It’s about a dog who is left on a chain for a long amount of time. What we try to do in these books, as we show our kids the illustrations, is to stop reading and ask questions. “How do you think Buddy feels in this picture?” Wait to hear how your child responds. It’s really important when you’re asking them these open-ended questions, not have any kind of judgment on their response. It’s all about emotions, and where they’re coming from. We can quickly shut someone down from sharing if we immediately go to judgment.

Try to have open-ended conversations about the characters in books. Looking at a picture, we would say, “How do you think Buddy feels in the picture?” Having your child describe those animal behaviors that they can visibly see, helps them understand how an animal must be feeling. Kids are amazing at pulling out those descriptive words. So as we read, we continue to ask questions.

Help Kids Learn Empathy For Animals

It’s a way for them to learn animal behavior as well as practicing the steps for empathy. All empathy is, is sharing emotional state. So it’s not that you feel exactly what another person feels. It’s more like you share a little bit. And it’s not a negative emotion. A lot of people confuse empathy with sympathy, but empathy is really just sharing a sense of connection.

We try to help kids understand the perspectives of characters through books, so they can practice the steps for empathy. You can’t feel empathy unless you understand what the animal may be feeling. That’s why it’s really important to look at the animal behavior, and have them learn:

• What does a dog looks like when they’re playful?
• What does that dog look like when they’re sad?
• More importantly, what does a dog look like when they’re feeling aggressive or fearful?

Most dog bites happen with kids, because kids haven’t learned some of these boundaries – and how to read animal behavior yet, for the signs of when a dog might be fearful. Fear biting is the most common type of biting. These are the kind of things we want to teach our kids – not to approach a dog that’s chained up, in a car with open window, or behind a fence.

The RedRover Reader program for classrooms goes step-by-step into all the different animal behaviors and asks kids questions on how they should care for their pets. All kids in the classroom learn from each other to practice empathy, to understand animals better. They can decide for themselves how animals should be treated, to have stronger relationships with their pets in their home and their life.

You can help RedRover’s Programs: Click to Donate 

About Nicole Forsyth: Nicole, a mom and pet parent, is the president and CEO of RedRover, a national animal welfare organization based in California. RedRover brings animals from crisis to care – and strengthens the relationships between people and pets. Nicole has combined experience in nonprofit management, scientific research, education and hands-on animal care, Committed to applying research and data to her work, she holds a Master of Science degree in Animal Biology/Welfare from the University of California, Davis. She also holds a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of Maine and a Bachelor’s degree in English and Education from the University of Colorado.