Hi. Here’s my rant to dog owners during the pandemic/for when it’s over:
After being in a pandemic for almost a year now, we’ve had so much time off from normal life which has led to most of usdying/cuttingour hair, picking up a new hobby, or just going generally insane. Yes, I’m talking about myself. But on top of the usual quarantine activities, I’m willing to bet that a lot of people have thought about (or actually followed through) with adopting a new pet in some capacity, whether it be a fish or a dog. While we’re stuck at home and have all of this newfound leisure time, it seems like the best time to add a new member to the family (I’m guilty of this… we now have a 9 month old puppy). But after seeing all of these animals adapt to this new home life and constantly being around their families and getting attention at all hours of the day, I can definitely see it’s not always the best idea to adopt a new dog into your household if you’re not also prepared for taking care of them after the pandemic is over.
Normally, most people go to work or school from 9-5, leaving behind your pets to nap the day away until you return (or destroy the house without you knowing). We’re mostly still required to do work remotely and only leave the house to get groceries. This is great news for our pets who get to spend all day with us, getting constant attention and affection (the cats might not appreciate this one as much depending on how loving they are). However, we’ll now have dogs that can’t leave our sides for more than an hour at a time when we actually have to go back to our normal lives.
When isolation eventually does end… I hope… our pets will have to be apart from us for the first time in over or year, and for others, for the first time ever. This can lead to separation anxiety (for the dog, not you) and cause a lot of issues both for their own happiness as well as a variety of behavioral problems you might not have anticipated. Some dogs resort to being destructive of their house or toys, or breaking out of the crate or room you may keep them in while you’re away. My own quarantine dog, Noli, cries and barks constantly when someone leaves, and jumps to see out the window for us to come back (I admit it’s adorable, she looks like a toddler waiting for their mom). This was a risk we knew would be in the equation when adopting a dog into this situation of sitting at home for months on end, and something we will likely be working on for most of her life, but we also know it is our job as pet parents to combat this problem as early as possible to make it easier on them in the long run when we have to leave the house again.
Even during the holidays, many people adopt pets as Christmas presents and, consequently, shelters are flooded over the next few months as people realize they don’t have the time or energy to care for an animal with their busy lives. This same trend will inevitably be a major risk at the end of this pandemic, and if you don’t take training or the new change in time commitment seriously after this is over, then that’s irresponsible and puts these animals lives at risk because if they end up in a shelter, that never guarantees a second chance for them. But if you already adopted a dog, or are still considering doing so, that doesn’t mean they all have to be screwed up because of these crazy global circumstances, it just takes some (or a lot) of work to give them the best life anyways.
In the case of my own dog, my family works with her as much as possible to lessen this problem by trying to slowly working up how much time we’re away for, but even with our best efforts, she can be a demon child because she also has so little socialization with everything going on (the 6 feet distance is not helpful for training dogs to be around people and other pets). To break it down, dogs now run the world more than before and we can never leave their sides. And yes that does sound amazing, but I do need to wear something other than pajamas to class at some point again, so that will be a problem. I want more people to understand that one day we’re going to leave this pandemic behind us, and I just want more pet owners to know that they need to start preparing their dog for the next chapter even when it seems so far away so they can be as happy (and minimally clingy) when we open up our doors again and have to go about a new normal, because I sure as hell don’t want to see shelters start to fill up again because people didn’t know how much time actually goes into their furry and needy friends.
