Pets and the pandemic: Dogs experience separation anxiety, get rehomed as owners go back to work

By Ayana Hamilton
Published: Friday, November 26, 2021 - 5:05am
Updated: Friday, November 26, 2021 - 8:32am

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Arizona Human Society
Molly was a part of AHS’ Home Away from Home Program, which is a part of the Owned Animal Foster Program. The owner was able to have Molly in temporary foster with AHS so she didn’t have to surrender her to the shelter.

Many people got to spend more time with pets or chose to get a new pet during the pandemic. However, many now are experiencing separation anxiety and getting rehomed. 

When the country went into a lockdown in March 2020 because of COVID-19, pets likely were the only ones happy. Many people adopted puppies, adult dogs, and cats because they were home more often. 

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals released data from a poll confirming that one in five households acquired a cat or dog since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Pets went on more walks than usual, they spent more time with their owners every day and got more playtime. Then one day their owners returned to school and work, and pets were spending time alone like before. 

Cherie Rodriguez is a dog trainer and groomer, and she has seen an increase of dogs with separation anxiety 

“I’m actually going to be working with a Great Dane puppy that has separation issues. She howls and barks and can’t cohabitate by herself when mom and dad are returning back to work," Rodriguez said. 

Many dogs adopted during the pandemic also didn’t have a socialization period, which means not meeting other dogs and people.  

Rodriguez says, “They're not socialized and they're not used to having random people talking to mom and dad, random people in their space in general.” Also, people aren’t putting in the work to train their dogs and use COVID as an excuse to why they didn’t train them. 

“Training is the foundation of everything, once you get your training basis and you start bringing them into a groomer or you bring them into a store like Petco, PetSmart, Pet supply plus, anything like that. You want them to be able to enjoy the time they’re in a store, but it’s hard to do that when they’re poorly socialized and there’s tons of people walking around and there’s tons of dogs walking around,” Rodriguez said. 

Arizona Humane Society
Munkey was a part of AHS’ Home Away from Home Program, which is a part of our Owned Animal Foster Program. The owner was able to have Munkey pets in temporary foster with AHS so she didn’t have to surrender them to the shelter.

Despite reports, it’s not necessarily true that people are rehoming their pets because of bad behavior or they're returning to work or school in person. According to ASPCA, many shelters are returning to pre-pandemic levels of animal intake. 

Kelsey Dickerson is with the Arizona Humane Society and she said that, “What we are seeing is actually an increase of owner surrenders because of people being affected by the pandemic. So, that’s whether losing a source of income and not being able to afford their pets anymore, losing a home and not having any housing or stable housing.”  

Sarah Montalvo is someone who was affected by the pandemic and had to rehome her dog. 

“How the pandemic went and everything, it kind of drove my mom to lose everything she had. She had to sell everything. I’m in a three-bedroom house and I have a whole family of five and then adding my mom. It was kind of down to the point of either I help my mom or I keep my dog," Montalvo said. 

Montalvo had to give away her 6-month-old Pyrenees Akita, Jake. She was able to rehome Jake through Craigslist. He’s in a good home, and his new owner sends updates about him. 

The Arizona Humane Society offers help for pet owners who have to relinquish their animals. The shelter’s website has a program called Bridge the Gap. It supports people who want to keep their pets. The site includes an application and a coordinator can help pet owners. It also provides pet owners resources for pet-friendly housing.

“We do have a lot of different programs to try to help people. So not only do our pet resource center or our vet clinic offer low cost services. But we are also able to work with people through our foster programs as well,” Dickerson said. 

What started off as a dream come true for pets, ended taking an emotional toll on them. 

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