The Pandemic Puppies Explosion

 

2020 was a strange and chaotic year, the weird thing is, 2020 was not strange just on us as humans but it was also strange for dogs and puppies.

A HUGE number of households, around 12 million, have either purchased or adopted puppies during the first lockdown last year.

Hospitals in different countries around the world have witnessed a major increase in the number of dog attacks during the pandemic and the global lockdown.

That is mostly caused by the lack of socializing for the pandemic puppies, they do not know how to behave around people other than their owners. This, sometimes, causes them to feel threatened and attack people around them.

What Are Pandemic Puppies

Lockdown caused separation from family and friends so, people needed some sort of distraction to help through this hard time, and what better way than puppies they are cute and cuddly.

Puppies are a big help in mental health issues, and they cure the loneliness that most people suffer during the lockdown and social distancing. In general,they are a joyous thing to focus on and keep you standing strong during these times.

Reports confirm that the demand for puppies has increased significantly during the first lockdown, more than 6500 people in the UK have got themselves a dog in the period of March to December of 2020.

“Pandemic Puppies” is a term that appeared in 2020 because of the increased demand for dogs and puppies during lockdown.

The problem with pandemic puppies or dogs is that they do not get proper training as the other puppies before the lockdown, and the fact that they have not been around people other than their owners for a long time, so it is hard to predict how they are going to act if put in a non-familiar situation.

The Threat of Pandemic Puppies

Experts say that pandemic puppies have not been getting the same mental stimulation as the dogs before lockdown, which means they (the puppies) will be afraid once they meet someone strange, or when they go outside for a walk for example.

When dogs are scared or feeling threatened, they tend to go violent and even attack the source of this threat. This caused a drastic increase in the number of dog attacks on people.

Most of the people who had been attacked by dogs are drivers delivering all kinds of stuff to people that have dogs in their homes.

In Liverpool, England doctors had started to notice a rise in dog attacks and bites cases after the first lockdown back in March of 2020. This rise reached its peak in July of the same year, in which doctors had been treating around 12 cases a week.

Fortunately, most of these cases are children with nothing major just some mild injuries, a knee scratch, or something like that. On the other hand, there are still cases of major injuries, and even if it is a small number, it is still there, and something needs to be done in order to fix it.

In West Midlands, England the police had dealt with 800 dog attacks in 2020. Some animal experts still want to make research to determine the specific reasons for such odd behaviors of the pandemic puppies, and how to treat them, so it would be safe to be around dogs and puppies again.

In the period of 20 years, from 1998 to 2018 the number of dog attacks or bits cases had gone up from 6 to 15 cases for every 100,000 people, that is around 8,000 cases in 2018. Children under the age of 14 are considered 15% of these cases.

The pandemic puppies are not trained properly to roam around the outside world or be exposed to visitors in their homes other than their owners, because it is not possible to know how they are going to react to a new circumstance.

As for the dogs that were trained before lockdown and experienced the “normal” world, they are on edge after a chaotic 2020 and 2021.

Exposing dogs and puppies to a different environment, now that the lockdown rules are easing, causing the dogs to go from calm to violent mode because they did not have the opportunity to learn how to act or how to deal with a world without a pandemic.

Dog experts agree that puppies need to be around people from the age of 8 to 16 weeks, so they can get used to the human world. Thanks to the global pandemic, the lockdown, and the social distancing rules that is not likely to happen.

Weirdly enough, the pandemic puppies are also practicing social distancing with their owners during 2020 and 2021.

Advice on How to Train a Pandemic Puppy

Dog owners can notice the initial signs of their dogs once they feel threatened or anxious, which will cause them to attack, they start by licking their noses and turning their heads away.

If you want to keep your pandemic puppy away in case someone is at the door, you can associate the bill ring with giving it a treat in its bed, this way the puppy will head to its bed instead of the door once it hears the door bill.

If you are not capable of training your dog correctly, you should get professional help to do this. A 10-week waiting might be a problem, but it is better than not having your pandemic puppy trained.

You have the choice of training your puppy virtually via Zoom or have the trainer at your house, where they will have to be wearing a face mask and keeping a 6-foot distance.

Training the pandemic puppies professionally will ensure that your dog will not be afraid around other people that it might cause them harm, and it will be ready for the world after the pandemic and the lockdown, which we all hope will end soon.

 

Written by - Leen Alrababah

Edited by - Adrija Saha