No such thing as a lockdown puppy

[Thewifefury]

More news today of how "lockdown puppies" have potentially contributed to the increase in dog attacks. I don't understand. There were no rules about not walking or socialising dogs during even the strictest of lockdowns. Letting dogs meet and play on dog walks whilst humans maintain a safe distance was all totally possible. Just feels like lazy dog ownership and a very useful, if flawed, excuse! Perhaps I am judging people too harshly? Covid did increase dog ownership, let's face it everyone was looking for a new hobby or interest they could actually do while the world was shutdown. So it makes sense that there was also a rise in Ignorant dog owners. I just get so irritated with the term "lockdown puppies". Shifts the blame off the reality - ignorant owners. And I am sure there will be people who say "I was shielding so I couldn't go out or get within speaking distance of another person" okay so why on earth would you get a puppy then? Again not a lockdown puppy. Another ignorant owner.

Just to add, mine was “ordered” before Covid hit, of a breed I have owned for many years. If I’d have known the impact of lockdown I wouldn’t have bought a dog then.

The madam.

I think of lockdown puppies as impulse bought from online ads - Poorly back yard bred or puppy farmed
Happened with Cats, too.

Someone bought a beautiful Maine Coon cat
She was a delight- but was poorly bred by an amateur in a flat from un health tested parents.

Beautifully social kitten, but she had congenital heart issues so her new owner returned her
Vet said it was a serious issue.

Poor cat.

Animals deserve so much better.

Lockdown definitely had an impact on dog ownership and behaviour - I think it's a bit ignorant to say it didn't.

Even my adult dog struggled when things went back to normal. He spent months home alone with me. We barely saw a soul on walks from probably around March to early June 2020. Delivery drivers would knock and step back - not chat at the door like before. We had no visitors. He didn't see (or socialise with) all his doggy and human friends for a long, long time.

Then all of a sudden, we were allowed to socialise again and he found it all very strange and overwhelming for a while. His reactivity increased (he wasn't reactive at all over lockdown!) and all of a sudden he was surrounded by dogs who were running around off the lead and wanting to play.

He was two during lockdown so if he struggled, I can only imagine how hard it was for those with puppies or adolescents.

I'm not sure, there were still plenty of people whose routine didn't really change like mine, or my sons. Not everyone was able to stay home for months on end, and after work when l went out for a walk there were always plenty of dogs being walked.
I think the problem is many people buy the wrong type of dog. Smaller, noisier, dogs seem to be all the thing now and because they look cute, people don't seem bothered about training them. They don't put the effort in that they would with a larger breed. None of the people l know with small yappy dogs have ever tried training them. They just let them do what they like.

Definitely!
Horrible snappy little dogs Cocker wocker Doo dah designer mongrels and heinous Pugs.

Some nice ones about whose owners have put effort in, but so many horrible snappy reactive small dogs about.

Lockdown affected one of my pups, he is a stud now from a planned litter and I can def see a difference in him than other pups iv had that iv been able to carry around shopping centres etc. Just a slight edge of wariness around new people which i could see being a bigger problem in more naturally aggressive breeds.

The first 12-16 weeks of a puppies life is critical for them to experience as many different experiences and people as they can. As an occasional breeder, when you have a litter all your dog friends come to see the litter, make a fuss, cuddle them. That couldn’t happen. They weren’t used to people coming to their house which increased a fear that doesn’t normally exist.

In the show ring you can tell the lockdown puppies, they just don’t have the same charisma about them. It’s like their personalities were shut down at the same time as the country

We had searched for and agreed on our terrier puppy in Feb 2020, and collected him on 17th March 2020 - so a few days before lockdown. We didn't get him because of it, we got him before anyone really knew what was coming!

Although he missed out on SOME of the usual interactions, he did go to some later puppy classes and turned out to be a very well socialised happy chap. There were enough other walkers around locally for him to socialise briefly with other dogs.

The main problem was him never having been left alone. We never left him at all (just took him everywhere) from March 2020 to January 2023 - then we got another dog, a puppy, and trained them both to be left alone at the same time, as they had each other.

The new dog is more problematic than the "lockdown" one.

That’s not the case for my friend’s dogs- she had a planned litter born in early 2021 and they definitely “sparkle” despite not seeing many people in their early weeks - they are confident and love people-and got placed at Crufts this year - I do think essential nature plays an important part, too… good temperament of the parents.
One of this litter is a therapy dog.

Nothing nervy or shy or aggressive should be bred from, no matter how “ good” the conformation.
Temperament and health and physical soundness is vital.

In my area all the puppy classes were cancelled during lockdown. I also i wouldnt feel comfortable letting my dog socilise with another without speaking to the owner first to ask if its ok. I would also want to be in range to interfere and expect the other owner to do the same, which wouldnt be possible.

Yep, that's my understanding of the term too. It was a boom era for greeders who hastily bred as many puppies as they could in appalling conditions with pounds signs chinging in their eyes. They then sold them online to a ready market of stupid, feckless and shallow people who wanted a toy because they were bored and the weather was lovely. Then everything went back to normal (who knew!) and the they dump the toy.

I follow a couple of lab rescues and despite what people were saying about lockdown puppies there weren't loads of dogs bought in lockdown that ended up being rehomed. It seems to have jumped in the past 6 months or so though, I've seen loads of lovely looking labs looking for new homes and normally less than 18 months old. Cost of living maybe?

Of course there were lockdown puppies. The majority of people who purchased puppies took notice of the supposed "rules" about what they could and could not do, when if fact as the OP states, you could go out as many times per day as you wanted. This did not happen though, pups were not socialised fully due to them not meeting and greeting other dogs and people.

There were no training classes. Dogs could not go to the vets, or their owners were not allowed in with them - this is all stressful for a new puppy.

When dogs did go out, all they saw was the majority of the population with a mask on, dogs read facial expressions.

Lockdown was an unmitigated disaster for new puppies - many people should not have got them.

There may be an increase in problems occurring, probably because there has been a vast increase in dog ownership due to lockdown. In addition, it encouraged excessive breeding from many backyard breeders who saw lockdown as a way of making a lot of money, with no thought to health or temperaments of the sire/dam.

I met a lady walking when out with my dogs, I will not say what breed she had but she openly told me her and a friend had decided to have a litter of puppies each as they could make in excess of £20k - no health testing, the bitches were both under 2 years old, no experience of breeding. When I mentioned it may not be a good idea her answer "everyone is doing it".

Person near us made £22,000 tax free breeding a hasty £ockdown litter- That's a massive amount for basically 8 week's 'Work' Breeder had people fighting over the puppies. They were very sweet, but all puppies are sweet.

No stud fees either as person owns the male and female.

One has a congenital disability, poor little dog.

I wonder if it is because Labradors are a ''Big'' dog , and need masses of mental and physical exercise and also training - an awful lot seem to 'pull' hard that I see - where their owners haven't trained them to walk sensibly on a loose lead.

They are a brainy and fairly greedy food orientated breed, so ought to be easy to train not to pull with small treats as a motivator!

It is the age of 'Adolescence' and perhaps it's ''Too much dog'' for people that fell for a cute 'Andrex' Puppy but had a bouncy teenage chewer to contend with [?]

Large gun dogs like Vizlas are also popular. Thankfully most of the Vizla owners seem to know what they are in for and are young and physically fit owners.

Although ''Brain work'' tires a dog out just as much as a walk does. {Games and puzzles one plays with the dog}

In my experience, Labrador owners fall into two categories - people who see them working as guide dogs and think they must automatically wonderful pets, and people who realise that it requires a lot of input to get them to that stage.

I walk multiple Labradors and the well-trained ones are an absolute joy. The ones who are just expected to "slot in" around the family are an absolute nightmare, lol.

She looks to me like a Collie Lurcher... if so no wonder she is 'hard work'

! We had a Lurcher years ago who had just a tiny bit of Collie in the mix and it made her relentless and tireless and very intelligent.
She was a lovely dog though and fortunately not destructive - but needed lots of mental and physical exercise no matter what the weather. You could not short change her on walks.

Exercise meant more to her than food.

It was torture for her when the vet to prescribed ''No walks for a few days'' like after her spay op.

It's funny how people expect a dog of a certain breed to be ''Instantly trained'' fresh out of the mother!

Labradors, Collies, Malinois, GSD,s GSP's Lurchers and other working types are highly trainable- but left untrained, bored and unstimulated will make their own entertainment and be absolute pains to be around.

Ditto people who buy Working strain cocker/springer spaniels. WHY?? unless you are doing drug detection or fieldwork, a working strain dog is not what the average person can keep happy.

Right dog/right owner = Both are happy.

Totally agree with you.

I've seen so many threads on here from people saying "I've got (working breed) and I don't work it or give it the right amount of exercise and it's eating my house/barking all night/mouthing me" etc. I genuinely don't get.

We have a working breed (beagle) but give him what he needs - he gets daily scent work, sniffy walks and lots and lots of company. He would be an absolute horror otherwise!

Saluki /grey /deerhound..
Bloody thieving nightmare tbh...

There is. Poor dogs, a lot to adjust to, just like humans except they dont understand.

We got our dog in lockdown. I’ve had dogs before. He is way more anxious than any other dog I’ve had due to us being around all the time, lack of visitors to the house, limited dog contact as we had to stay back etc. He didn’t experience the world in the same way other puppies have and will so I do definitely think it’s had an impact on him.

We got a puppy in late May 2020 and call her a lockdown puppy.

She’s incredibly nervous around other dogs and doesn’t like them to approach her at all. She wouldn’t attack unprovoked though.

We took her to puppy classes as soon as they opened, but that was summer 2021. We now socialise her at breed meet ups at our local doggy play centre twice a week to help build her confidence.

We don’t know anyone else with a dog and so we didn’t really have anyone to get together with to socialise her during lock down, plus our area never left the tiered lockdowns so there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to meet new people.

She’s great at being left alone and doesn’t have any separation anxiety, we trained her as well as possible given the circumstances.

My birthday was at the end of April. On my birthday I went to the supermarket, alone as only one person from each household could go and walked the dogs. I couldn’t see my parents or anyone. Even in the garden.

bubbles didn’t exist. People were still curtain twitching because Bob from up the road went out twice.

Much later than that, my mum got a visit from the police for dropping food off at her disabled sisters and a neighbour felt she hung around in the front garden too long asking how she was.

we got a rescue dog in November 2019. She was very well socialised and we didn’t have any issues. However, there were far less cars, buses, people walking past. Not everyone see loads of dogs on walks, even staying 2 meters away from owners. And socialising isn’t about seeing the odd dog on a walk. It’s about being around dogs, cats, people in all situations. In your house, out of the house, just knocking at the door, visiting friends etc. not seeing the odd dog on a walk.