Covid-19 and your dogs (Part 1)
As we enter the second phase of lock down and the rules continue to change almost on a daily basis dependent on where you live, this leaves a lot of owners confused and frustrated of the do’s and the don'ts of daily life with your pet.
This affects many of us including dog walkers, hospitality, groomers, animal training classes this is compounded by the emotional issues which affect each and everyone of us and our pets. This is certainly a tough gig for humans and their best friends.
Dog walkers were certainly one of the first people to be affected by this as staff have been either furloughed or sent to work from home and busy people found we had a little more time to walk the dog. This created a predicament in the form of whether or not to continue pay our dogs walkers or use the opportunity to enjoy the time with our pets. Either way it was a very difficult decision for many of us and impacted on both parties either emotionally, financially or both.
Then less important in some respects but something some of us like to do is to take our dogs to the pubs and enjoy a socialising with our friends and family and pooches. Rules around taking your dog to the pub during covid are very unclear. Are you allowed to bring a bed or pet rug for them to lie on; should you stroke other people's dogs? Should you even take your dog the pub, and should you even go yourself or is this simply not worth the risk?
There is also the emotional side for people who live alone and this maybe this is their only opportunity to talk to other people. Everyone has an opinion on what’s important and it could be a very long blog indeed if we opened up that can of worms.
We agreed to take care of a puppy at the beginning of lockdown for a friend for various reasons, but all local puppy classes had been cancelled; which means we relied on our own experience to ensure the puppy was trained correctly. But the risk around furry friends not been able to socialise with humans and other animals in the normal way may not be apparent for a couple of years and could make dogs less sociable with other dogs once lock down ends.
These few points are just scratching the surface and there are so many things to consider, please let us know how lockdown has affected you and your dogs, by commenting on this blog. Watch out for part 2.
Thanks
The Petsnooze Team