The Covid Effect on America’s Family Pet

March 2020, Americans would be abruptly halted in our footsteps and forced indoors for the next 12 Months.  Many of us chose to pass the time by attempting to scroll back to the beginning of time on our phones, watching JoeExotic, and finding anything at all to pass the time.  Americans were bored, forced to remain home.  No School, Church, Movies, Friday Night LIghts, Concerts Clubs or Slumber Parties.   Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, a 15 Months later we are starting to return back to some semblance of normalcy.  But our pets are NOT.,  

While we were bored out of our minds, many passed the time with Man’s Best Friend.  Some decided to adopt a pet, others simply were able to spend time with the pet that was already a part of the family.  Either way, collectively, we now had an abundance of time to “Love” our pets.  Day after day, hour after hour our family dogs were in many cases the center of attention all day long.  

Many dogs were able to have 12-16 hours of stimulation every day.  From chasing the kids around the house, laying on the couch next to anyone willing to constantly stimulate by petting and having tons of toys left out to self stimulate, our dogs were the opposite of bored… They were overstimulated.

Over the last 9 months, we are seeing a 300% increase in our Aggressive Dog Behavior Modification program.  Many dogs have become reactive to strangers on walks or coming to the house, reactive to other dogs on walks, and reactive to children yelling and screaming.  We have also seem the same increases in the number of dogs that are suffering with separation anxiety,. Many of these behaviors are a result over stimulation and a lack of clear expectations and proper socialization and no training foundation,  Our dogs respond best to us when we are communicating clear expectations that the dog understands, and is in a healthy environment that does not add stress to the dog, rather encourages focused attention and impulse control.

For more information regarding our programs contacts us at  https://criticalcanine.org

Jonathan Dee Hopper
Jonathan Dee Hopper

Jonathan is the Owner and Head Trainer here at Critical Canine Dog Training. Like most trainers, Jonathan started at the bottom, working in the kennel & caring for the dogs’ most basic needs. Fortunately, he developed a strong rapport with the dogs and a high standard for quality of care. Which he considers the cornerstone of the work done at Critical Canine Dog Training. And requires anyone that works here to go through the same process, instilling the same quality of care and respect for the dogs. Jonathan is a student of his craft and is forever learning and growing. And believes that one of his biggest strengths.

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