The “new normal” of the coronavirus has pooches becoming codependent.
Owners being home all the time is a dream for many good boys and girls, but experts warn that pet owners should begin preparing their pups for a post-pandemic world where humans return to the office.
“They’re thinking, ‘Finally our owners know that we want to be with them 24/7,’ ” Humane Society of New York animal training and behavior director William Berloni tells Bloomberg. The canines don’t realize, though, that the situation is temporary.
“They assume it’s a new lifestyle,” says Berloni, whose credentials include preparing animal actors for Broadway shows including “Annie,” and “Legally Blonde,” as well as the TV show “Billions.”
Spending so much time with their humans is leading to dogs becoming “overly bonded,” and exacerbating the separation anxiety they feel in the moments their humans aren’t present (also, it may be making them fat). Indeed, experts are already seeing that the last few months have made many dogs reliant on their owners’ presence to maintain a sense of calm.
“The minute their person walks away, they’re pretty hysterical,” Andrea Arden, who owns an eponymous dog training company, tells Bloomberg. She is already seeing such tantrums taking place around town, with dogs reacting significantly worse to situations they could’ve handled much better pre-pandemic.
“Rather than being a little bit stressed they’re really, really concerned — vocalization, excessive panting and an overall worried demeanor,” Arden says.
For owners who see returning to an office as a near-future possibility, gradually reacclimatizing dogs is the best way to prepare them for a return to an incarnation of the old normal. To do this, Arden recommends humans put dogs in different rooms than themselves for two periods a day, slowly extending the amount of time they’re there from one to four hours.
“They’ll protest, they’ll scream, and you just have to let them cry it out,” she says.
Owners can also invest in food-dispensing toys, to help keep their fur babies entertained while they’re alone. Each dog is unique, though, and this is unknown territory for pet ownership. “[There] are no books for getting your dog happy at the end of a pandemic,” Berloni says.
Cat owners, meanwhile, don’t have to do anything — their felines are probably sick of the lack of alone time and more than ready for a vaccine to be available already.
“Cats are annoyed,” Berloni says. “Mine are like, ‘Why are you in the bedroom? What are you doing here?’ ”