Mary Allen
At some point in the future, I will look back and say that our life, especially that with our dogs, is divided into a life BEFORE and life AFTER Corona. In between is what is happening right now.
We live in Bavaria, or more precisely, in beautiful Franconia, in an area that has been spared from corona infections longer than other parts of the country. Then came the first reported cases, life started to slow down here too. And suddenly the message on the radio: curfew! After that everything goes very quickly. Shops are closing, dog schools are closing, my husband and I are released from the job, unfortunately, a home office is not an option for us. We are currently gutting our house, my brother-in-law will live in our guest room until late summer. And since the children’s rooms are currently under construction, we have to move closer together. A family room for four people – and two dogs. And everyone is at home almost around the clock, except for shopping and walking the dog. Great!
But the first realization is not long in coming:
Our dogs don’t care at all! They don’t care that we’re all sleeping in one pile right now and it looks like a youth hostel. They don’t care that we don’t meet anyone outside. That the dog training is canceled, and that we don’t meet up with our canine friends. They don’t worry about curfews or if we have enough toilet paper. The fact that we have to cut back financially, for the time being, does not affect them either. They are simply satisfied that they can be with us. I am thankful for it! Incidentally and unintentionally, they teach us how little we need to be happy. And we, we are using the first day of the curfew for a family council with the aim of discussing how we can turn the Corona crisis into a Corona opportunity! For us as humans and also in relation to our dogs.
Lilly, our youngest bitch, presents us with a number of challenges. She is a lovable creature, friendly to people and animals, she is incredibly curious, and curiosity is so much better than walking on a leash. And chasing is way better than listening for recalls. And anyway, sometimes she just thinks she’s not meant if she doesn’t like the command at the moment. What led to a great result with our male through consistent training turns out to be a little more complex with the little lady. And I admit, we often don’t have the time to do justice to their demands for upbringing.
But NOW – now the world is stopped. Yes, it’s true, we’re not making any money right now, Corona is taking that from us, and at the same time giving us something valuable: time. Time for us, time for our children, for the renovation of our house, and of course for the dogs. This is our chance to implement some of what we learned in dog school and make our young Lilly a dog that is easy to live with. For example, I just put them on from time to time. For half an hour or an hour. I’m not talking to her at this time. She just goes with me, no matter what I do. When I paint a wall, she stands next to me, when I cook, too. She accompanies me, learns to orientate herself on me, and to become calm. If she would rather play, that’s not possible, that’s supposed to promote frustration tolerance. In the last few days, she has become much more relaxed. She looks at me quite often now, even when she’s not hanging on the leash next to me. I can already see that this method creates a lot of closeness. Gradually, my husband and children do the same. Every dog has a turn.
And the second realization is spreading: we don’t have to increase the time we give our dogs. But the calm that spreads through us because we are without appointments and commitments has a positive effect on living together. We are much more patient and finally have time to take care of the dog training as a family. We hide treats in the house and ask them to look for them, we build a small course out of old boards and bricks in the garden. We train the recall and freshen up the seat and place. You can do all this wonderfully at home, and the dogs are happy. And the fact that the two of them accept our attention so infinitely joyfully and gratefully makes us forget that we are actually in a state of emergency.
We want to use the quarantine wisely. On the one hand, to better structure our everyday processes with the dogs, on the other hand, to make us happy that our dogs are not interested in Corona at all during the Corona crisis.
And then comes the third insight: we never want to live without dogs again!!!