It’s a dog’s life.  Think about it.   You’re not at work, you can’t all go out for dinner, there are no strangers coming to your home, and the recommended exercise regime is to go for a walk around your local area.  Life under COVID restrictions may be hard for you, but for your dog, it’s paradise!   

Dogs thrive on interactions with their social group, and for now that contact  is being provided almost exclusively by you.   Even if you can’t go out with friends, your dog can still benefit from a romp around the park with you, ball games or chase toys, and sniffer-games where you may hide treats or have them follow your scent to keep their mind (and nose) stimulated.  They can interact with other dogs if they are safe to be off leash, while you still maintain human social distancing.  This is even more important for puppies who risk growing up without the crucial social interactions which define their early experiences.  Get them out and about, to experience some of the world outside your home, the sights, smells and sounds of the park, birdlife, traffic and street activity their greater environment, even if they cannot directly interact with the pets and people in it right now.  Continue their behaviour training, even if it is alone or online.  Learning to “sit”, to settle or “stay” independently, not to jump up on people, and to come to your call is as important as ever, for your pup.

Now is also time to prepare for how the future environment will feel for your dog, after COVID.  Their perfect social construct disappears, as the kids go back to school, and the adults start to return to work or go out socially again.  What was a pet’s paradise becomes “home alone”.  Reduce the temptation to spend every moment at home with your dog.   Ensure they can settle independently now, maybe with a toy or a treat in the backyard, and make sure they spend some time without you, even though we love to have them around.  Doing this now will help reduce anxiety and destructive boredom behaviours when life goes to “normal”, whenever and whatever that may be.

For June 2020 Gisborne Gazette