During the summer, your pets have constant companions when you have kids at home. Lots of feet in the house often means lots of attention and exercise for your pet, but when the time rolls around when your kids need to go back to school, it may throw your pet for a loop.
Adjusting to a new schedule can be difficult, but here are a few ways you can help your pet cope with the change.
Take your pet on an extra daily walk.
Primarily if your pet regularly gets to play and romp around with your kids in the middle of the day, a sudden decrease in activity may be a hard adjustment. To compensate for this lack of exertion, try adding another daily walk into your pet’s schedule. Can you take your pet on a walk before work, after work, or during your lunch break? Alternatively, hiring a local dog-walker to swing by to take your pet out or play with it can make the back-to-school adjustment and lack of activity less abrupt.
Ease them into longer periods of alone time.
As back to school approaches, start easing your pet into increasingly more extended periods of alone time, so they get used to spending more time in solitude. Having your kids around 24/7 and then suddenly going to extensive periods alone can confuse your pet. If you ease them into alone time in advance, they will adjust to a new schedule more easily.
Leave a puzzle or another activity at home for your pet.
Nobody, including your pet, likes being left alone at home for long periods without any activities to keep themselves occupied. Invest in puzzles or other activities that your pet can occupy itself with during the day while your kids are at school. Activities are an excellent way for your pet to cope with a new schedule while also distracting it from nosing around where it shouldn’t.
Take your pet to a daycare facility.
There are many pet daycare facilities where you can board your pet or have someone watch your dog during the day while your kids are at school and you’re at work. Even just making a weekly date for your pet at a local daycare means that it will be able to play, get exercise, and find companionship with other pets. This also offsets the loneliness that may be a result of your kids going back to school.
While coping with a new schedule is often challenging, we hope that these tips have given you helpful advice for easing your pet into a new schedule this school year. For more information on how to best care for your pet and keep it happy and healthy, contact CAUDLE Vet Clinic at (615) 227-6230.