Dr. Cliff Redford

So you cannot do that anymore, at least for the next 30 days.

So if he comes and says, pet me, dad, and you didn't plan it, even if you want to basically say, sorry, dude, I love you.

How about you sit, look him in the eye and then pet him.

You have to be the one to give that command.

Adam, was this helpful?

But he's getting a treat when you do it.

So he's saying, I'm going to come over here.

Dad's going to tell me to sit that I'm going to get a treat.

This was a tough journal article study to read because, yeah, it's... And I'll say there is a little bit of a surprise ending that we'll get to at the end.

But yeah, normally we've talked about having...

pets in a household while your child is growing up, you know, the first five years, let's say.

It really improves their emotional regulation, you know, like they understand how to control their anxiety and their joy and how all these different feelings affect them.

It gives them a sense of responsibility, lessons in empathy, moral standards.

It can be a catalyst for other relationships.

So maybe you don't have anything in common with your brother who's 10 years older than you, but you can have the pet.

That pet can be the middle person or the middle animal, the middle relationship between.

So it can bring people together, improve social behavior and even builds relationships.

a children's ability to communicate because they can learn how to communicate non-verbally as well as verbally, right?

And that's important.

And it's a comfort object.