Fallout - an unexpected or incidental effect, outcome, or product:

Not all fallout is unexpected, in fact much fallout behavior is highly expected. How many times have you heard the statement “there’s going to be fallout from this?” I say it myself when I see life unfolding in a particular way as to forecast fallout. So what is fallout behavior?

When I say that there will be fallout behavior I mean that a life scenario that is in play is going to result in other issues that we will have to deal with. Pinch/prong collars result in fallout behaviors. A dog is inflicted with pain by pulling and very quickly associates that pain to whatever happens to be around when it is inflicted. That can mean aggression, fear, cringing at the presentation of the causer or any other number of behaviors.

Fallout is not typically associated with something positive; it is usually something bad that will occur and have to be dealt with. There will be fallout from this pandemic. Of course there will be all sorts of fallout for we humans as well as our dogs and many other things as well. A few things that will result from our unusual quarantine life with regard to our dogs will be and are:

Under socialized dogs having to deal with a lack of life experience.
Fear and suspicion resulting from a sheltered life.
A new life to learn and live caused by the fact that many dogs have been surrendered and re-homed during the pandemic.
Under trained dogs. Trainers like myself have also been quarantined.
Dogs that will have to adjust to huge changes once things go back to normal. Acquired during the pandemic when everyone was home.

So what can we do to help reduce the impact of the fallout on our dogs? Baby steps. If you have a young dog that has been under socialized, take it slow. You don’t want to go from 0 to 300 miles an hour in a few seconds. Many dogs are going to be apprehensive to their surroundings and life in general. That includes proximity, we’ve been distancing so we need to close the gap slowly once it’s time.

The biggest thing that we will need to concern ourselves with is space and time. As you all know I am a big advocate of space, I was even before all this COVID stuff happened. But now we will need to focus on it even more for our dogs. Baby steps to success. Your dog may require a great deal of time to get back the a “normal” state and time.

Time with our dogs will have to be reduced slowly. So what if you have to go back to work full time in a few weeks? Start getting space from your dog now, slowly. Go out, somewhere, anywhere without them. Many dogs may suffer from separation anxiety due to this pandemic. Start removing yourself today, not drastically but calmly and methodically. Don’t lavish attention on them every second your are home; let your dog learn to be alone even when you are at home. Go out at different intervals, keep the tv turned on. Keep your comings and goings on the down low, no big deal.

With our help, our dogs will transition through this. We will all have fallout from this, it’s been a very strange time for sure.