Veterinarians: puppies brought up during the pandemic have grown into shy dogs

Veterinarians from Auburn University in Montgomery studied "pandemic puppies" that appeared in the Americans during the lockdown, according to the Daily Mail . They have been found to be afraid of other dogs and people, panic in unfamiliar surroundings such as a veterinary clinic, and suffer from loneliness when their owners leave them to go to work. All this is due to the fact that animals spent the first three months of life locked up, the most important time for the formation of social skills.

As veterinary experts explain, the initial socialization of dogs occurs during the first three to six weeks, when the animal meets littermates. Then, from the sixth to the twelfth week, the puppy learns to interact with people. This three-month period in which puppies learn to connect and communicate with other dogs and people, and to interact with and respond to different environments, is critical to a dog's lifelong behavioral patterns. Animals that during this period were not exposed to people, objects, sights, sounds, smells and the environment can forever retain fear of these things.

Not only were the "pandemic puppies" isolated from the world - many of them became the first animals for their owners and therefore underwent mistakes that inevitably happen in beginners, which could also have a bad effect on development.

"Pandemic puppies" are sensitive to separation, and the situation is aggravated as more people are vaccinated as more people are vaccinated. Dogs that have never been left alone cannot adapt to the fact that they now have to spend all day alone with themselves.

To make matters worse, many of the people who, on impulse, took the animal into lockdown, had time to regret it. The Kennel Club of America estimates that 73% of dog owners who first adopted a puppy during a pandemic have thought about finding a new owner or taking it to a shelter at least once.