Olena Obukhivska, Prospekt shopping mall's PR manager, told Weekend how a dog in a house changes life for the better. 
Parents should think about it, says Olena: if a child dreams and is ready to bear responsibility, perhaps the time has come to entrust him the care for a little friend?

When a child dreams of a dog, it can never be replaced by less demanding pets — neither by a cat nor a hamster. It has been verified by a personal practice.

As a child I had a Bolognese called Lialia, a Pekinese called Topik, a shepherd called Bob, and many other «whiskered» friends at my grandmother's house. I remember the happiest time, when they looked right in the eyes and faithfully walked by my side. And when my dad took me home, they fanatically ran after the leaving car. Like in the movies. There were no mobile phones and YouTube channels then; we spent our leisure only offline. The archaic was supplemented with paper books and cartoons on TV at 20:00.

Today, children are increasingly communicating with friends in chat rooms and public pages. And it is extremely difficult for parents, who are working during the day, to resist this habit. I tried several ways for my daughter — thematic circles, extra-curricular development, reading, caring for a cat and a hamster. However, the gadgets were still winning.

This summer another pet appeared in our apartment — the spitz Bonaparte or just Bonik. My ten-year-old daughter Iulia found him on the Internet and wrote to the breeder. And then she asked for permission to have a dog, seriously and sincerely promising to take care of a small spitz, which she chose to match her hair color. The same blond-red and fluffy. And I gave up, remembering how much joy I received as a child, when my whiskered four-legged friends stretched their paws to me. Our dad didn't mind either.

With Bonik’s appearance, life has changed: my daughter learned the time management, responsibility and care.

First, Iulia began to spend more time outdoors, because she has to walk with the dog. She pays much less attention to gadgets. If your child is digitally dependent or prone to introversion, then the dog is a great opportunity to overcome the first and second.

Second, the love for a dog causes more expression, stimulates communication and socialization with other dog owners. We have a lot of jolly and funny stories about Bonik, which are worth sharing — how he eats from a cat's plate, how he hugs a soft penguin toy and replaces an alarm clock in the morning. After all, a dog is a living source of stories, in which a child will become a participant and will share it with you.

Third, Bonik is lively, loving, active, requiring care and attention dog. He should be taken care of and the house should be regularly cleaned. Now, our family has a responsible distribution of duties, each of us is responsible for his own section. And Bonik gets all the best. We stepped over the topic «an only child in the family is an egoist». If you want your child helping around the house — get a dog.

Fourth, we began communicating even more with our daughter: while walking, planning our purchases, defining our home needs. We advise, we study, we look for compromises. After all, Iulia also needs ensuring a happy childhood for her small spitz, go to school, do her homework, learn languages. She understands that Bonik was entrusted to her and she was believed that she would be able to do this — she was definitely set to cope with this.

Fifth, it is a whole complex of lessons on logic and education. For example, the development of skills in finding the right information on the Internet, communicating with professional consultants in the MasterZoo store about useful lifehacks, making non-standard decisions and other mental-analytical competencies, when a child is focused on self-development.

Is it difficult with a dog? Yes, it is difficult. However, look how many good things a little spitz can do in the process of your child raising. And you can buy everything you need in the MasterZoo store to make the care for your dog convenient — balanced food, air purifiers, waterproof flavored diapers and other hygiene products for the whole apartment.