Pets in a Pandemic – Human-Animal Connection Deepens
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a pet craze. It makes sense. With millions of people working, schooling and socializing from home, the unconditional love of a pet is helping us all through this new way of life. According to the Washington Post, acquiring a dog has been on the rise since March as shelters, rescues and breeders report an increased demand as Americans look to canine companionship during the quarantine with its widespread isolation and social distancing measures.
According to a recent study, Pets in a Pandemic, conducted by *Better Cities for Pets, 75 percent of the respondents indicated that their pets provide important benefits including companionship, stress reduction and entertainment through the boredom of stay-at-home orders. Another study published in Sept. from a UK-based research team showed initial findings that animal ownership seems to mitigate some of the detrimental psychological effects of COVID-19 lockdown.
As we all spend more time with our dogs as a primary benefit of working from home, many pet parents are citing that they are nervous to leave them once we all return to the office workplace (when we do) in 2021. Many companies have already told their employees that work-from-home arrangements will continue well into 2021 with giant corporations like Google and Facebook informing their associates that they can work from home through summer 2021.
According to the study and as covered by Pet Product News, just thinking about not being around our dogs is causing alarm – already! That stress is real. 78 percent of the study participants noted thinking about our dogs at home alone and confused is causing them to be anxious. Plus, not begin with our dogs throughout the day and thus not reaping the anti-anxiety benefits of their presence is a double whammy!
It seems the pandemic has deepened our connections with our pets to the point that pet parents are demanding more pet-friendly institutions – from the workplace to patio restaurants and more. According to the recent Pets in a Pandemic study, looking ahead to 2021 and beyond, pet parents are hopeful to have their canine companions at their sides throughout future daily routines including the office, while on travel and in various community spaces.
As dog lovers ourselves, we are supporters of this new way forward. Time will tell how this all shakes out, of course.
Until our dogs can be always by our sides, Kradle is here to help!
As we safely venture out more, for say that dinner with friends or a longer outing such as a holiday shopping trip, pet parents can feel better knowing their dogs are safe, happy and calm at home with the benefits of Kradle CBD calming products for dogs. Kradle products are purpose-built to calm anxious dogs using only broad-spectrum CBD. Learn more about the science behind CBD for dogs.
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*Study funded by Mars Petcare
