Having a dog or any other pet can have huge benefits for children – Dogs have been shown to improve the immune system, reduced risk of suffering from asthma and eczema as well as a whole host of emotional benefits for all children, and increasingly so for those with Autism or ADHD.
Dogs and other pets also have great benefit for all children in helping them to learn to care for others, building empathy and trust. These are great skills for all children to learn, but can be extremely valuable for adopted children, which may have not experienced the best examples of care themselves. It can help them to learn what good care is, and if children are new to your home it can help them to build trust as they may in some cases attach to a pet and build trust before they learn to trust adults.
However, for all the benefits there are things you need to consider, such as ensuring the adoptive child would be safe with the pet in the household whilst also making sure that the pet is safe as a result of a new addition to the family. If you have a pet we will always carry out a pet assessment during stage one of the adoption process, in order to consider any compatibility issues.
Some children do not have the skills at the time of adoption to be kind to other due to their early life trauma – as a result, supervision is always needed to ensure the safety of children and pets.
Because of this, occasionally an adopted child and a much loved family pet maybe incompatible. If this does occur we would need to be assured that you could make the necessary arrangements to re-home your pet and this will be discussed with you during any assessment.
The RSPCA has shared advice on introducing a child to a family pet. Find out more.
If you would like to know more about how to adopt a child with Adopters for Adoption or would like to learn more about adoption, then please get in touch with our friendly team who will be happy to help.
