CALGARY -- As Albertans begin to prepare mentally and emotionally for an eventual return to work and school outside the house, they should also be addressing the concerns of the four-legged members of the family, says a dog behavioural specialist.
A large number of people working from home or being laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic means Albertans have been spending more time than usual with their pets, which could trigger separation anxiety when owners start moving back into a regular routine where they are gone for several hours a day, says Drea Baker, owner of Dogwit Training in Calgary.
"The dogs are going to feel it for sure. I don't think we're going to have every dog in the city suddenly with a huge case of separation anxiety, but dogs who may have struggled with being alone before then now have not had any practise at being alone," she said.
"It's been very good for them, so many dogs are having more walks and more enrichment. They're very social animals so that connection with the family is pretty huge. When we do all go back it will be another pretty heavy adjustment."
One way of getting Fido ready for that return, said Baker, is to go for walks — without them.
"In our classes we've been talking a lot to people about doing a bit of alone training, doing some stuff to prepare the dog to be by themselves again," she said.
"It's about creating short absences to start with so they're getting a bit of practise at it. We want to make sure those absences are as pleasant as possible for the dog, so we're providing some funs things to do while we're gone and building up the time."
Baker suggests starting with five minutes of separation and working up from there.
Some dog owners are also using things like Facetime and Zoom to make the transition a little easier.
"They can really see, what is my dog going to do when I'm not here," said Baker. "We can see in real time, is my dog going to stress, is my dog comfortable, do they just eat their stuffed Kong and go to sleep, or are they pacing? It can give us a lot of information to work with."
And it boils down to personality more than breed when it comes to whether a dog is susceptible to anxiety, said Baker.
"Some dogs are going to be a little more sensitive to changes like that," she said. "Again, dogs who have previously had problems with feeling anxious when their family is gone, we'll see them hit pretty hard."
