Pets 101
Pandemic Pets!

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Click on the podcast below: So many people adopted a new pet during the pandemic and that even includes our own VetScoop crew!  Dr. Kwane Stewart adopted his new puppy Cora during the pandemic and just like many of us, he’s going through the ups and downs of making sure their life together gets off on the right paw.  He joins Dr. Natalie Marks for this VetScoop podcast to talk about what we need to do when we bring a new pet into our home.

Dr. Kwane Stewart:

So Cora was a surprise. At least the idea or the thought behind it, probably like a lot of pet parents during the pandemic, but I’ve been without a dog now for about three, four years, which is a little unusual for us, right. I was getting a little bored, a little lonely, and I ended up visiting my old shelter that I worked at for five years in another lifetime and was walking up and down the aisles with some old friends and staff telling them each time I pass a dog, no, I’m not here to adopt. I’m not here to adopt. I just wanted to, to revisit and catch up. And it was very nostalgic for me because, you know, as a shelter vet, there’s some very rough days as you can imagine, but some good ones too. But again, the point was just to say ‘hi’ to some people. 

Dr. Natalie Marks:

I think that’s sometimes one of the first mistakes perhaps that we hear about is finding, falling in love with the pet that may not necessarily be right for your spot in life or for your family, or maybe for the time that you have to give to that pet that you’re bringing into your family.

Dr. Kwane Stewart:

You really have to ask yourself some of those more serious, questions, or maybe have your partner or your family come to you and ask you those questions. Because a lot of times we don’t want to admit some of them, right? You know, we think we have plenty of time when we don’t. We think we have the resources to care for a pet and we don’t, we think we have the space and we don’t, and right there, that probably knocks down three of them. Because you are bringing in a new family member, right? That’s how we think of it these days. And they are there, you know, this, this whole migration of pets once in a yard to the porch, to the living room now in our beds, they are family.

Dr. Natalie Marks:

I think one thing we’re finding with the pandemic puppies that have come into a lot of families’ lives is, because of quarantine and lots of other restrictions, the standard sort of neighborhood training classes that were supposed to be happening didn’t or the trainers that used to come to the home couldn’t because of quarantine. So a lot of these puppies that came home are with their families 24/7, and didn’t really get any, or very little to no obedience training at all. And now we’ve got puppies that are a year old or more, with not a lot of manners and families are trying to go back to work or kids are going back to school and we’re finding that a lot of families are struggling with that.

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Pets make our lives better. At VetScoop, we’re on a mission to return the favor by giving you access to trustworthy, science-based information so you can provide the best possible care for your pets.

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