Pet Training

Language Arts/Science Activity

There are lots of pet owners who would probably like their pets to behave a little better. Learn how to train a pet and create a pet training guide that anyone can use.

WHAT YOU NEED

• Information about pet training
• Paper
• Pencils
• Colored markers or crayons
• A stapler

WHAT TO DO

1. Have children work in small groups to find information about animal training. Here are some suggestions to help children locate information:
   • Get books or magazines about animal training from the library.
   • Visit a veterinarian or a pet store owner. They may have free brochures that children can take home with them.
   • Call or go to a dog obedience school and interview a trainer if there is school near where you live.
   • Help your students search the Internet for pet training information.

2. Help children organize the information they gathered from the different sources into sections or chapters for the training guide. Then have children write a draft of the guide information.

3. Have children exchange their drafts with one another to find out if their guides make sense and to proofread them. Then have them make a final copy, making any necessary changes. Suggest that they begin each chapter on a new page.

4. Encourage children to draw pictures to go with the information.

5. Put it all together. Guide children in inserting pictures in the appropriate places and fastening all the pages together.

6. Make copies of the books for children to take home and share with their families. If a child has a trainable pet, such as a dog, encourage them to try to teach the pet a simple command.

TEACHING OPTIONS
Have interested children find out how other animals are trained to act in movies or on television shows.