Article about pandemic dogs

[SAujla]

Pandemic puppy owners struggle with bad behaviour say vets

Some owners use methods that distress and confuse their dogs, the Royal Veterinary College warns.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Glitter's fun]

The socialisation issues would be expected but I find it interesting that separation anxiety is so prevalent.
Of course growing up with constant company during furlough will be a big component of it but that isn't the full story.
Not sure if it was the same report but I read that a lot of lock-down puppies had first time owners who were using negative training methods that they remember from parents or grandparents.
I did a dissertation on prevalence of separation anxiety in dogs that had been house trained by positive or negative methods.
The negative group were very significantly more likely to develop separation anxiety.* Happy to explain the mechanism by which the anxiety develops but don't want to make long boring post!


*please don't ask me what the chi squared etc was. The doggy stuff I remember very well but the statistical analysis was painful & I have blanked it out!

 

[SAujla]

My Clover is a pandemic pup I admit but I was looking for a dog before it all started. When we meet dogs of a similar age they do tend to be on the wilder side, fortunately we go out early and her afternoon outing is always a street walk.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Separation issues would not surprise me at all - everyone was at home, now they are not. I was at home a lot when I got my puppy (it wasn't planned, a 'pandemic puppy', the female's owner couldn't go abroad, wanted to use my male and I got a puppy instead of a stud fee, le sigh) but even when I was at home I got her used to being on her own by putting her in the crate/car/kennel for short periods and I was 'there' to know if it was causing her any great panic (it didn't).

People who aren't 'doggy' probably wouldn't think of doing that/wouldn't think beyond next Tuesday.

Breeding/genetics is also a factor. I chose my bitch based on a lot of assessments/how she was when she was apart from the rest of the litter, how she behaved when elevated, etc. You can often tell if a puppy is going to have certain anxieties, my older male was very noisy/leaked drive and my trainer asked immediately if he was travel sick when he was a pup, he wasn't sick as in barfing, but exceptionally drooly. He also had a massive problem in the downstay, both of these are a form of separation anxiety, in that I was there, he could see me, but I was apart from him. He was much better when I was out of the picture altogether, gone gone!
A lot of anxiety/nerve problems are genetic and people who were breeding pandemic puppies for a quick buck were not thinking of that.

 

[blackcob]

Interestingly my youngest has the least separation anxiety of any dog I've ever owned (zero), and she is the only one I was home 24/7 for (not a pandemic puppy but I am permanently WFH since the pandemic). Having had an older puppy with severe, destructive separation anxiety previously though I was very conscious of this and engineered scenarios in which to practice leaving her alone. Going for a walk without a dog and sitting in the car to eat lunch did feel a bit mental at the time.

Cocked the rest of it up mind you but got the separation anxiety nailed.

 

[Morwenna]

I answered that survey as I got my dog in whatever their timeframe was so it’s interesting to see the results. Mine is also my first dog. We were out of all the lockdowns when I got her but I was working from home and so made sure I left her alone for a bit every day starting with popping out for 5 minutes to stand out of sight and building up to going to sit on a bench in the park with a cold drink for a nice little break from the vampire teeth! We also started training classes as soon as she was allowed out after vaccines.
I think,apart from the unrealistic expectations and people not thinking through what would happen when the world got back to ‘normal’, the lack of training and socialisation was the big issue. It certainly explains the issues I see with lockdown pups around here and the ones advertised by rescue centres.
I think online training is great in some respects but it really not ideal for first time dog owners (though appreciate there was very little choice during lockdowns etc.).

 

[FinnishLapphund]

I must admit that I'm actually both surprised, and not surprised. I'm not surprised by that basically what some started warning about already during the pandemic clearly has happened. Such as that too many of the dogs bought under the pandemic wouldn't get enough amount of socialisation with other dogs, and that many of them risked developing separation anxiety when people started being allowed to spend more time away from home again.

Though what does surprise me is that 2 of the problems on the list of top 3 reported problems, are exactly the same problems as I would've expected to find on such a list from before the pandemic, when people was able to go to puppy/dog classes, but chose not to/didn't realise how much time and effort they would need to spend on teaching their puppy/dog what they wanted it to learn/didn't realise that smart puppies/dogs that learns everything quickly requires a certain level of continued mental activation which they'll need to provide if they want to avoid so called problem behaviours.
"The most common were pulling on the lead (67%), jumping up at people (57%) and not coming back when called (52%)." I mean, okay, in some countries you were barely even allowed to let your dog out to go the toilet, but wasn't one of the few things people were allowed to do in the UK, to go out walking their dog? So why didn't they train not pulling on the lead when out walking their puppies?

Did/do people not realise that you can train recall indoors? That you can start teaching them to resist temptations and come when called, by adding temptations such as one or more toys, and/or plates/bowls with treats, also indoors? If you want to go really advanced, you could even tie a piece of cloth/a glove/something else (the fluffier to imitate fur the better) to a string, maybe place the string around a heavy furniture leg, and pull it to add a moving temptation during recall training. None of it is exactly the same as the temptation of other dogs, or seeing a fluffy wild rabbit bottom disappearing into the horizon, but it's better than nothing.

I know some individuals are more difficult to train than others, that you can persevere year in and year out trying different methods, different combinations of leads, and collars, and the result is still just at a sort of tolerable level. But the results talked about in the link, seems to me to just show that even when you force people to stay at home, there will still be X percentage who still don't think about using some of that sitting at home time to look up puppy training online, or reading a book about puppy/dog training.

 

[MurphysMinder]

My youngest heeler was a lockdown pup. The bitch had missed at an earlier mating so I had no choice really. I wasn't able to visit to choose him but I knew breeder and she knew what I was looking for, I also got regular videos. I had to illegally sneak over the border to Wales to get him! Separation anxiety wasn't a problem as I worked all through lockdown, socialisation was difficult, luckily he was tiny so I was able to carry him round to see things, even if he couldn't meet people. As soon as things lifted a bit we had 1 to 1 training, then progressed to groups of 6. He did miss out on the sort of early socialising my other dogs have had but doesn't seem to have been an issue.

 

[misst]

We got Ruby right at the end of January 2020 so just before lockdown. She never had any issues. She wasn't our first dog or even our 2nd dog. We already had another adult terrier so socialisation was not so much of a problem and as soon as we were allowed to meet outside she was walked with sons dog and daughters dog and with friends dogs. She has no separation anxiety - but she has Moti for company anyway. OH worked from home a fair bit but I worked almost FT during the worst of the first wave and OH was helping engineers at the local hospital so she was crate trained and left for a couple of hours from an early age a couple of times per week. I think we were lucky in that she had an almost "normal" puppyhood.

There were a lot of lockdown dogs round here when things opened up and initially it was easy to see the unsocialised untrained ones. Most of them seem to have come right now though.

 

[scats]

I groom a lot of pandemic puppies and they are some of the most badly behaved and anxious dogs.

 

[Esmae]

My friend has a whippet that she bred herself and couldn't get out to socialise like a lot of people. She is the most social little soul but absolutely shakes in her boots if she goes to ringcraft classes. She is okay in every other circumstance but this is a no go for her. Interestingly she has qualified twice for crufts, so shows don't hold any terrors for her. Just this one thing. Shame she can't speak and tell us what the problem is with it.

 

[Clodagh]

The socialisation issues would be expected but I find it interesting that separation anxiety is so prevalent.
Of course growing up with constant company during furlough will be a big component of it but that isn't the full story.
Not sure if it was the same report but I read that a lot of lock-down puppies had first time owners who were using negative training methods that they remember from parents or grandparents.
I did a dissertation on prevalence of separation anxiety in dogs that had been house trained by positive or negative methods.
The negative group were very significantly more likely to develop separation anxiety.* Happy to explain the mechanism by which the anxiety develops but don't want to make long boring post!


*please don't ask me what the chi squared etc was. The doggy stuff I remember very well but the statistical analysis was painful & I have blanked it out!

It says in the article about negative training methods making things worse.
I would consider taking in another rehome Labrador but I just can’t be doing with all the baggage. Red and Scout may have had a shitty time in their first home but at least they were handled by pros.

 

[Morwenna]

The saddest thing is the number of dogs bought in lockdown that are now in rescues that are struggling to rehome them due to lack of socialisation. I know there have always been plenty of dogs that can’t be rehomed with other dogs / cats / small furries / children etc. but looking at the rescue my sister got her dog from, every dog there now fits in this category.

 

[malwhit]

The saddest thing is the number of dogs bought in lockdown that are now in rescues that are struggling to rehome them due to lack of socialisation. I know there have always been plenty of dogs that can’t be rehomed with other dogs / cats / small furries / children etc. but looking at the rescue my sister got her dog from, every dog there now fits in this category.

I was told rescues won't rehome dogs to people with children as they can't guarantee how the dog is with them. The previous owners could lie and the dog may not show it's full temperament until it has settled into a new home.

Imagine the criticism they'd get if the dog injured or killed a child.

 

[SkylarkAscending]

I contributed to this study - my pandemic dogs (both of them, brother and sister 6 months apart) are just fine and have none of the issues the study had tried to identify

That said, they are JRT so…..you know…..

 

[CorvusCorax]

I was told rescues won't rehome dogs to people with children as they can't guarantee how the dog is with them. The previous owners could lie and the dog may not show it's full temperament until it has settled into a new home.

Imagine the criticism they'd get if the dog injured or killed a child.

The legal implications are not worth the risk.