Covid 19 coronavirus: 'Create routines and let dogs rest', says Whanganui dog trainer

Sarah Hesketh with the star of her online videos, Poppy the poodle. Photo / Supplied

Pet Dog School owner Sarah Hesketh says the lockdown can be a time for people to reconnect with their dogs.

Hesketh has released a series of instructional videos through the school's Facebook page, with the aim of helping people in training their dogs over the Covid-19 lockdown period.

Sarah Hesketh with the star of her online videos, Poppy the poodle. Photo / Supplied

Entitled "The Reluctant Dog Trainer", the videos began by offering tips on "basic commands", as well as baking dog treats and grooming.

"I started off just getting people to get the basics going, like 'sit', and 'stay', 'wait', and 'leave it', which is a really important one," Hesketh said.

"Over time we've got slowly harder and harder, and this week there will be some tricks involved.

"All the videos we have posted are based on getting the basics right first, and if owners do that, we could post a video titled 'how to turn your dog into the new Lassie'.

"For now though I simply want to help owners help their dogs be the best dog they can be".

Hesketh said that dogs can become "part of the furniture" over time, and the lockdown period was a perfect time to "reconnect" with them. The videos are being viewed "more and more", Hesketh added, with people "touching base and going through the videos in their own time."

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"Goals are really important, and we've got to think, what can we achieve with our dogs in these four weeks?

"Because most of us don't have to go to work, we'll have time to add small routines with our dogs into our day to day lives."

Hesketh said that she hoped to run a seminar when the lockdown was eased, focusing on how dog owners had "got on" during this time, and expanding on the tricks and commands they had learned.

"People seemed to have realised just how cool their dogs really are and have reconnected with them in a big way.

"There will be puppies out there who haven't even met other animals yet, and a seminar would be an opportunity to get together and talk about the work we've done with our dogs over the four-week lockdown period.

"It would be the perfect chance to cap off what we've done so far."

Dogs needed an average of 16 hours of sleep per day, Hesketh said, and with families being together in the home for much longer periods than usual, it was important to give them time alone.

"What dogs are doing whilst we're away at work or at school is to rest," Hesketh said.

"People have been writing in saying their dogs have been acting up a bit and barking more, and that's because they haven't had enough time to sleep."

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

"Dogs don't always need stimulation, and their normal routines have been broken in the last few weeks."

Hesketh said that dogs could be left alone in their crates for periods of the day, as well as at night, to make sure they weren't being "over stimulated".

"The beauty of our training videos is, when they are awake, doing brain training with them will settle them more quickly and help prevent them from appearing to be going stir crazy.

"I think the problem dog owners will face when the lockdown ends will be separation anxiety when people are out of the house again.

"They will have had so much more interaction than they're used to, so we'll be releasing videos on that issue when we know more about when the lockdown will end."

Hesketh encouraged dog owners to share stories, photos and videos to the Dog Pet School Facebook page and to use all the instructional videos available on it.