As we all know, COVID-19 has resulted in people staying home for months and months. Until very recently when malls and restaurants are allowing people in, there was very little to do that involved getting out of the house. For us humans staying in meant possibly picking up new hobbies, catching up on work, watching more Netflix; but for those of us with pets it meant spending more time with them. This may seem like a positive, but are our pets really happy with this new situation?
Most people know that one year for a person equals seven years for a dog, but did you know that it is the same in regards to hours? So when you’re away from your pet for an eight-hour workday, they feel like you are actually gone for fifty-six hours- crazy, right? So as people, we tend to assume that our animals are happiest when we are home all day, but that is not always the case.
Pets tend to have the ability to sense their owners’ moods. So if you’re happy, your dog will be happy, but if you’re stressed or anxious your dog most likely will be as well. This whole pandemic thing has resulted in causing a lot of stress in people’s lives and if you have that energy in your home, your pet may actually want you out of the house so they don’t feel the stress too. If you are feeling that your pet may be anxious from the pandemic to give them some space. Some signs of a pet being overwhelmed is a change in diet, clinginess, the want for more space, or more vocalization.
However, some people and their pets are so bonded the pandemic has pets tickled pink. If you’re a person who is soothed by having more time with your pet, chances are your animal feels the exact same way. There’s even been a rise in animal adoptions because of COVID; hopefully, these pets are still taken care of when this all ends. So the pandemic has had both positive and negative effects on our pets but now the question is: What happens when everything returns to normal?
According to professional dog trainers, there could actually be a great dog depression when everyone returns to work and school. So we all pet owners need to make sure once things return to normal that you are all still spending enough time with your animal. Remember, our eight-hour workday is fifty-six hours to them, and no one wants to spend that much time alone.