This column is written for the Stray Ferret by Kimberley Metcalfe. Kimberley has an MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare. Her company Pooches Galore is based in Harrogate and specialises in dog training and resolving canine behavioural problems.

 

 

Lockdown has been a strange time for all of us, and our dogs included. I think though for them it is more of a positive change, having their owners around is most dogs' dream! However, this change has also caused a number of problems for our dogs.

As we come to the end of our second lockdown, we need to check that our dogs are coping with these changes.

The primary concern that we have seen coming out of the first lockdown, is dogs getting so used to us being around that when we started to leave them home alone, they just couldn’t cope. Although this second lockdown has meant that we have been able to leave the house more, for the majority of us, we are spending more time at home with our dogs.

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It is important to ensure that our dogs are fine home alone, and to know this we can record our dogs when they are home alone. Hopefully, what we will see is our dogs curling up and going to sleep.

What we don’t want to see is our dogs crying, howling, pacing around, toileting (if they are fully housetrained), not eating treats that you've left for them or destroying your home (you’ll probably not need a video for this one!). Although these signs don’t necessarily mean that your dog has separation anxiety, it does mean that we need to help them settle when they are home alone. If a dog is struggling with separation anxiety, it is important to build up departures very slowly to allow our dogs to get used to being home alone.

Other problems that we have seen have been around people coming into the home. As we haven’t had people into our homes, many dogs are finding it very strange when people are coming in. Hopefully for many dogs, pairing people coming into the home with a tasty stuffed kong or a nice chew will mean that your dog looks forward to people coming in rather than being fearful! It is the positive association which we want to encourage.

The most important thing to bear in mind with our dogs, is that in every home in the land there is some level of underlying stress due to the pandemic. This will have an effect on our dogs, as they pick up on the changes in our hormones and pheromones, and can detect stress and fear. This will have an overall impact on our dog’s behaviour. These might be subtle, where they sit a little closer to us, or through larger behavioural changes such as separation anxiety or aggression. No two dogs will react to advice in the same way, so if your dog has developed aggressive behaviour, it is important to get specific advice from a professional.