Is It Okay For Us To Play? actually started it’s journey to creation in 2010 when I wrote the very first draft of the text for it.

I have always been a creative person – drawing, writing poetry, photography… they’ve always been my way of processing emotions, media and events.

As it happened I was studying my Extended National Diploma in Animal Management where my area of special interest was Behaviour and Welfare. As a result I was reading a lot of media articles involving anything to do with animals.

For some reason cases were popping up all over the media from the UK, Canada, Australia and USA especially. All shared one thing in common, small children and toddlers were being injured (or worse) by dogs. Not just any dogs either, it was the family dog. A beloved and trusted member of the family had apparently turned on the youngest and most vulnerable family member “for no reason” or “out of the blue”.

Frequently the family would provide photos from before the incident. Almost always showing the “strong bond” between the child and dog. However to a student of animal behaviour these photos were alarming.

In many photos there were clear indications that the dog was uncomfortable. This is not to blame the parents/guardians in the slightest as if they didn’t ever learn how to read dog body language then how could they know?

Every year more and more families are getting dogs without having grown up with one or their only experience being Social Media accounts where dogs are frequently treated like accessories. 

I wanted to try prevent further devastating cases and originally wrote a poem which grew into the book as we see it now. It took me almost 15 years to find the art style I was happy with and relearn the skills I needed to produce it.

Is It Okay For Us To Play? was written with the hope of helping parents teach their very young children how to appropriately interact with the family pet and gently learn boundaries.