To Everything There is a Season: Preparing Your Pet for Fall
Ready or not, fall is just around the corner. It’s time for apple picking, pumpkin flavored everything, and coller weather. No matter how things go this year with going back to school or back to work, something will change. Most people think about how the change will affect them, but they don’t often think about how it will affect their pets. Studies about veterinary care for cats and dogs show that when our schedules change a lot, many pets get confused, get separation anxiety, or show other signs of anxiety. Under the stay-at-home pandemic rules, some pets showed signs of stress when their owners came home from school or work. On the other hand, when schedules get back to normal, it’s likely that many pets will feel anxious about other things. But there are things you can do as Westport pet owners to deal with seasonal changes in the right way, whether that means a new schedule at home or the usual changes in weather as summer ends and fall and winter begin.
Change Can Be Stressful for Pets
As with anything else that affects your pet’s health and happiness, you should start your search for help and support by going to your local veterinarian in South Coast for a checkup and vet care for cats and dogs. Anchor Animal Hospital in Dartmouth offers basic veterinary care, such as vaccinations, preventive care, and care in case of an emergency. But our team also offers many specialized services in Dartmouth, such as pain treatment, surgery, and advanced dentistry. If your pet has reacted badly to changes in the past, you might want to talk to your vet before anything new happens in the house. There are prescription treatments, training methods, and care programs that can be used to soften the blow and make things much easier for your pet to handle. But not every pet needs extra help, so it’s important to learn as much as you can about your cat or dog so you can decide if it will need extra help.
The first thing you need to know is how changes in your home might affect your pets. Moving to a new house, someone in the house leaving, or a new person moving in can all make some pets feel uneasy. It’s one thing to have a visitor for a day or even a week, but it can be overwhelming to have someone move in permanently with all of their stuff. Other changes can be as simple as a change in schedule, like going from a 9-to-5 job to shift work or from going to an office every day to working from home. It’s possible that they don’t miss you because you’re gone, but now that you don’t leave, they’re confused. Your pet might do strange or new things if you get a new baby, a new pet of any kind, or if you change how you exercise your dog outside, like going for walks or to the dog park. Accidents, destructive behavior, too much barking, whining, or even howling are all signs that a pet isn’t handling change well, requiring a trip to the Dartmouth emergency vet.
What You Can Do to Help
Some things are easy to deal with if you help your pet get used to the “new normal,” but other things can happen quickly and out of your control. Seasonal changes, like when the weather changes, and other things that happen that are out of the ordinary and change the routine of your home definitely fit into this category. Fall means that summer is coming to an end, which means that many pets can spend more time with their families outside, like going for walks, to the park, to the beach, or even on vacation. Many pets like being outside, so they might be sad to hear that many of those trips are no longer happening. Whether that means the kids are going back to school or it’s just getting too cold to play outside, your dog probably doesn’t care. All he knows is that you’re no longer doing the things he liked, which could make him act out or feel anxious.
Some pets react more strongly to change than others, so it pays to ease them into the new cooler weather of the season. Even if you want to keep doing the same things you did every day in the summer, like going to the beach, park, or taking longer walks, try to do less of them as fall approaches to make things easier for your pets. A new cozy bed and blanket, comforting treats and toys – there are lots of things you can do based on your pet’s interests and needs. If your pet is always stressed out by changes, whether they are seasonal or not, you should talk to a veterinarian in Massachusetts. Ask your veterinarian in South Coast about other seasonal pet care tips, schedule your pet’s annual checkup, and think about cleanings or advanced dentistry in Dartmouth to keep your pet healthy.
Ease Your Pet into a New Season
Learn how to train your pet that you will leave your home for work or school in a calm way to ease your pet’s separation anxiety. Give your pet safe toys and other things to do while you’re gone, and give them a place to relax and wait for you to come back. Start a new routine in response to other changes, like taking a walk around the neighborhood right after you get home, or try crate training as a way to calm your pet down if you’re worried that it might hurt itself while you’re gone because it’s worried. Learn how to tell the difference between excitement and worry in your pet. If you’re not sure, talk to your trusted vet at Anchor Animal Hospital in Dartmouth. We offer many professional services that are meant to keep your pets healthy and happy year round. Call 508-996-3731 to get in touch with our team.