On March 14, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, decreed a state of alarm throughout the Spanish territory and with it a period of two weeks was imposed (until March 29) in which we had to stay at home to contain the unstoppable advance of the new coronavirus. On Sunday, March 22, Sánchez extended the confinement for 15 more days, until April 11.
As the owner of one or more dogs, you will know that taking him out to the street is allowed, but with conditions. The walks must be individual, short, only to cover physiological needs; without contact with other animals or people; You must bring a bottle of water with detergent to later clean the urine and bags for the feces and prioritize the hours with less influx, these are the recommendations of the General Directorate of Animal Rights.
If you skip the obligation to take short walks, you will not be responsible and you can also be fined: the penalties for breaking the rule range from 100 to 30,000 euros.
The confinement situation to prevent the spread of COVID-19 can not only affect us physically and mentally. For dogs, the limitation of walks and the absence of contact with other canids and other people can also take their toll.
“ The well-being of a dog depends on three fundamental aspects, which are physical exercise, exploration of the environment and contact and social interaction . All of them can be affected by this exceptional situation in which we find ourselves today: drastic reduction in the practice of exercise, freedom of exploration – especially through the sense of smell – and the lack of contact with people and other dogs ”, report from the Affinity Foundation.
So that the animal is affected as little as possible by this exceptional situation, we can play with it every day, a couple of times at least and 15-20 minutes each time . With the game we will be encouraging the dog to do more exercise than a short walk can provide.
“The type of game can be adapted depending on the space available. The best known dynamic is throwing a ball or other toy and having him go to pick it up, but there are also other equally stimulating options that require less space. For example, the Affinity Foundation proposes to play hide and seek food: hide pellets of feed or prizes at various points in a room , without the animal seeing it, and then encourage it to look for them ”, indicate from the Foundation.
Another idea to improve the mental well-being of our best friend is to reinforce their education through positive training, that is, one that uses caresses, games or snacks to teach the dog what it should and what it should not do, establishing limits and avoiding punishment. You should know that our animals like to feel useful and, therefore, they enjoy seeing that by doing things as they should be rewarded. Take the moment to teach him the basic commands or other more advanced ones! You will also be strengthening the bonds between you.
Finally, by not being able to walk freely, the dog’s energy expenditure will be lower, so it will be necessary to control the amount of food it eats at the end of the day. Being overweight in dogs is a very common problem but it is still serious because it can significantly affect their health.
In this sense, the Affinity Foundation proposes to turn mealtime into a game , thus stimulating the animal. If your dog is a glutton of manual and you do not have a feeder that forces the animal to eat more slowly, Affinity Foundation proposes these two ways to make a homemade one:
- Take the cardboard from a kitchen roll and poke several holes in it. Introduce pellets of feed inside and cover the two ends. In this way, we will mentally stimulate the animal so that it can obtain food, which it will ingest little by little, facilitating its digestion.
- Take a box and put a cloth inside it. Between its folds, hide small balls of feed that the dog will have to find later.
One last thing, it is possible that the confinement situation takes its toll on your animal and from time to time it shows symptoms of nervousness. Be patient, it’s happening to all of us.
