Use a light hand so if you ever need to erase you can and won't see the marks before. Also start off with like small strokes and get a rough sketch of what you wanna draw. Then go back in and make harsher lines to make it more noticeable. If you also want to help make sure the animal isn't to small or to big for the paper put dots where you want like the ears to be and the feet and the tail to make it easier to draw and know where you need everything to be. Hope that helps!