Lockdown and Your Dog- Beware!
How to avoid separation anxiety post virus lockdown Adapted from an article by Southend Dog Network.
When We Get To Go Back To Work....it is a sad fact that when this self isolating is over and the government say we can go back to work, dog trainers everywhere, are going to see a spike in Separation Anxiety (SA).From out of our window, we see dozens of dogs walked every day, dogs we’ve never seen before, and we’ve been here 17 years! And it’s not just out little town, this is country and even world wide. Dogs going from being walked once or twice a day, to multiple times a day. That’s going to stop when you go back to work so JUST THINK! You’re going to have dogs that were used to be alone for large parts of the day, now used to having this amazing paradise of having their owner there-the person they love most IN THE WORLD- constantly, giving more fuss and attention than normal, teaching them more things then normal, breaking their normal routines. That’s all going to stop when you go back to work! The only one that won’t understand why will be the dogs. They have no idea what’s going on, they have no idea about the Coronavirus. All they will know is they’ve gone from having a set routine, to having the best time EVER with their humans and that will soon be ripped away with no warning, and no slow replacement of that joy with their usual routine. This will cause a lot of dogs to get stressed and anxious.
If you don’t want this to happen to you and YOUR dog- use your common sense:
Don’t offer more then you can give when life goes back to normal !
If you can’t walk your dog 4 times a day when life returns to normal, stop doing it now.
If you can’t fuss your dog, all day every day, when life returns to normal, don’t do it now.
If you can’t commit to teaching your dog new tricks every single day, when life returns to normal, don’t do it now.
STICK TO YOUR NORMAL ROUTINE! If during the day you’re at work, get ready as normal- this will be good for you and your dog and go and do things in other rooms of the house, or at least mostly ignoring them if they’re just sleeping, like they normally would, if I wasn’t home or they was not at work with me. Just because you’re stressed and want cuddles, they will be upset when this stops and you return to work.
Make sure they are not following you from room to room, and if they get a bit needy, give them something to do, like go to their beds and chill out. DO NOT just give treats for no reason. If in the evening, they’re on the sofa having cuddles with you, do that as usual. What you should not doing, is offer more, than you can continue to give, when ‘normal life’ resumes. Remember, dogs are creatures of habit. Keep giving them more and more and they will come to expect it and when it all goes away, they will get stressed. It’s hard, but it’s necessary. Because of all this time off work, this lovely time with your dog 24/7 is temporary and life will go back to normal soon. If you have a dog with separation anxiety already and you’re worried they will now start to go backwards because you’re now home all the time after all your hard work getting used to your necessary absences, drop us a message here or on our FB page https://www.facebook.com/lorasluck
