Survival 101: How to Live Without Your Dog at College

Living without my dog is one of the hardest things I have had to do – my actual family members being a close second, of course.  If you have a dog yourself, you definitely can relate.  At home, it’s nice knowing when you get home there’s always someone to greet you at the door or hang out with when you’re bored… whether they’re forced to or not.  Here are some fun ways to keep in touch with your dog, or in my case, dogs:

1.) Keep in contact with your parents and siblings to get pictures!

When I left for college, I told myself I wouldn’t text my family that much, but once I arrived I would text either my brother or one of my parents about my dogs.  This way, you can keep in contact with your family and stay up to date with what’s going on with your dog.  You can even demand for them to send you pictures.

This is the picture I received the second week of school.  Who doesn’t love seeing their dogs?  You can even put pictures sent to you as your computer background so you never get sad.

2.) FACETIME

Ok, yes I know that dogs can’t talk or respond when you speak to them, but Face Timing or skyping your dog can bring a smile to your face.  Just seeing them wag his or her tail and run around while playing with a toy can remind you of them.  At this point, my family members don’t even wait for me to ask to see my dogs anymore, they just show me. 

3.) Plan!

You can always act as if you are still home.  You can suggest that they go for a walk, get groomed or need to lose a bit of weight to your parents or siblings.  Just last week, I very nicely suggested that my one dog needed to get groomed so a few days later my dad texted me the following picture with the caption, “I finally got your babies groomed.”

3.) Take advantage of any dog you can find on campus

Specifically, at St. Bonaventure University there are a few times where the campus brings dogs on campus during stressful times to take away stress from students.  This type of dog-therapy can help with feeling homesick from your own dogs at home.

4.) Make a countdown!

It can be on your phone, on a calendar or even a huge poster above your bed!  Either way, you can make a countdown until you see your pet again.  Therefore, it doesn’t seem that bad!!

Picture 1: http://www.dogbreedplus.com/images/puredogss.png

• dogs
• homesick
• puppy
• survival