How to approach pets — and their guardians — the right way 

In the last column, I talked about respecting an animal’s boundaries when it comes to touch and learning to spot the differences between tolerance and enjoyment. We looked at ways animals almost always say no long before they escalate to scratching or biting and what that communication looks like. So what happens when we start paying attention to that communication?

First, let’s start with a dog we don’t know. Thankfully, most kids are taught by their parents to ask a dog’s guardian first whether they can pet a dog.