Rescue Tail / Two Legged and Four
In the flick of a cat’s whisker, our lives have all been turned upside down! Between the social distancing mandates and the uncertainty of the future, no one is resting easy these days. For many, the physical isolation from friends and family, the loss of meaningful work and engaging daily activities, and the surreal nature of what’s going on across the globe has left us with a boatload of intense emotions and off-the-chart stress.
In these very hard times, the companionship of animals can bring an even greater benefit to us than normal. For those who live with furred, feathered, or even scaly companions, we often find their presence comforting and entertaining. We may sleep better, laugh more, and feel less alone. They give us so much simply by sharing our world and our homes with us. Whether we’re giggling at funny cat videos or peacefully stroking the dog at our side, animals help reduce our stress and allow us to cope better with our fears. In light of what they give to us, it seems only fair to think about how their lives have been impacted along with ours by what’s going on. By looking at the changes happening from the perspective of our pets, hopefully we will have more understanding and patience if and when their behavior momentarily goes off the rails.
Right now Facebook is full of posts about how happy our animals are, now that we can stay home with them. But as we ourselves may be discovering, there is a flip side to having family around all the time. Everybody needs downtime, time simply to rest undisturbed. Up until now, most of our pets had all day to sleep while we were busy at work. Average dogs will normally sleep 12-14 hours. every 24 hours and cats up to 20 hours a day. Now with families home 24/7, the amount of sleep our animals are getting may be greatly reduced. And we all know what happens when we don’t get our sleep!
This is a good time to be paying close attention to what our four-legged family members may be trying to tell us. Like it does with us, constant togetherness can wear on nerves. I was told by a friend who is now working from home that, for the first time, her very loving cat is not sitting next to her keyboard as usual but has moved across the room and is facing the wall. That’s a statement, kitty-style! I’ve been hearing from some of my dog friends that their dogs are starting to give a big “paws-down” signal when it’s time to go for the 5th or 6th walk of the day. No bouncy excitement, no running to the door, not even a move off the couch. It’s as if they are saying, “Enough with the walks; pleez go without me this time!” What used to be fun and exciting becomes sensory overload. That can be stressful, especially for reactive dogs who are already uncomfortable with other animals and unknown people.
Stress affects us in many ways and each person can respond differently. Some of us tend to become manic and a bit crazed, running here and there, talking more, unable to settle and focus, and even snapping at loved ones. Others withdraw from the world and don’t want to see or hear anyone. We simply shut down. It may look like we are remaining calm, but underneath it all, we are anything but calm. We just deal with stress differently. We also all have different “triggers”, those events which cause us to feel stress. “Trigger-stacking” occurs when stressors pile one on top of another with no decompression time in between and eventually we reach our limit and lose it. It happens to all of us AND it happens to our animals. Trigger stacking is often what leads to unexpected or seemingly unprovoked aggression in animals. Given the stress we are all under right now, it behooves us to be aware of trigger-stacking, both for ourselves and for our pets.
There are ways we can help our four-legged friends cope with life these days:
- Observe their behavior and body language and learn the more subtle signs of stress. (YouTube has good videos on the topic).
- If possible, give them a break from activities and social interactions if they ask for it by seeking time apart. Let them rest!
- Consider what stresses them and try to limit those triggers as much as possible; be aware of trigger-stacking.
- Seek out new safe routes for dog walks if your dog is comfortable with that. If safety and space allows, use a long leash to allow more exploring.
- Allow your dog to sniff!! Sniffing lowers blood pressure and is natural and highly enriching. It’s calming for your dog and also a calming signal to other dogs.
- Read to your pets. It may help to calm and refocus both of you!
- Use brain games and short reward-based training sessions to entertain and enrich your pets’ daily life. The FKSPCA facebook page will be posting tips and videos on ways to provide fun and enrichment. Provide toys and chews to encourage them to self-soothe and entertain themselves.
- Animals pick up on our emotions so seek out things that make you laugh and smile every chance you get. It will help both of you!
Our community is going through a very hard and scary period right now and everyone and everything is being affected. Perhaps never before have we needed each other so much. This is true for all of us, including our pets. We are so grateful to all who have stepped up to help by fostering many of our shelter animals. The shelter is currently closed to the public and we have cancelled all our scheduled events. Our operational costs continue as our staff works hard to provide care to the animals still at the shelter and those who come in as a result of these hard times. We will do all we can to support our community and hope that those who are able to will continue to support us. We thank everyone for being a part of this great community. With kindness to each other and and safe practices between us, we can emerge intact, stronger, and more united!
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