Fun activities for kids and animals?

[ReadingMama]

My son is a nature guy who loves animals and I'd like to get him involved in something fun. Some ideas I've had are volunteering on a farm or at an animal shelter, and showing an animal. What exactly is agility and can kids do it with their pets? Any other ideas appropriate for a 7 year old?

[StormySar]

If you have a local zoo, check it out and consider a membership. We have one that works in over 180 zoo's (if we were to travel). But there are *tons* of kids programs.

If you have a dog, have your child tae a course in dog obedience, so he knows how to handle a dog then agility is something he can get into (its essentialyl an obsticle course for dogs to run through, but the handler must run around it with them and give clear commands as far as where to go, what to do, etc.)

Riding lessons are another option. Look into your local metropark if you have one, they may have kid-centered things going on with animals.

Oh, look into 4-H! A wealth of opportunities await you there.

[BensMom]

I think obedience and agility would be fun for your DS. What kind of dog do you have?

[boricuaqueen327]

4H is really big here in my town. We just had our county fair and there were lots of kids around your sons age showing goats, rabbits, lambs, calves, and more! you may also look into agility and training clubs your 4h may have, here we have one group of kids that does raise smaller animals (guinea pigs, rats, hamsters, etc) and one group that does agility and obedience with their dogs. you might also look into boy scouts or something similar, i'm sure they would have lots of outdoors/nature badges he could get doing things he enjoys and wants to learn about.

[ReadingMama]

Well, we have a zoo membership and my son is a cub scout, so we've got those covered! Here's our dog Raven. She's lab and border collie from what we can tell. She's 5. Is there an age limit for starting agility?

[BensMom]

No, 5 would be a great age for agility. Just start her out easy, with lower jumps and she should do well. We havent started a beginner class yet, we are just working on homemade jumps in the yard. I hope to start a class soon. Any dogs can do agility, but with her being part bc, she should be a natural.

[k9rider]

there are a couple of junior handlers running their dogs at one of my agility classes. one is around 12yrs and the other around 8yrs. they are so cute to watch!