Dog Walks : The Lockdown Edition

WE SPOKE TO SOME PET PARENTS TO FIND OUT HOW THEY ARE COPING WITH THE MOST ESSENTIAL TIME IN THE DAY FOR THEIR DOGS - THE DOG WALKS! HERE ARE SOME EXCERPTS OF DOG WALKS IN THE TIME OF CORONA

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1. T Dot Pet Parent to B (taller doggo) and C (not so tall doggo), MUMBAI
Taking the dogs on a walk every morning is definitely the funnest part of my day. In
actuality, the dogs take me out for a walk. I feel having a furry pooch in many ways
protects us from the judging eyes of paranoid citizens and lathi wielding lawmakers. I wake up before the sun and upon completion of yoga & breathwork  meditation, I sport my PPE and leash myself onto these 2 cuties. Everyday we walk around different sections of the same block, the same pathways can get boring. Main roads are empty and it’s fun to have them take lead on which way we go, I am merely the anchor and these are my captions, chasing birds, cats and other dogs in an unbelievably enchantingly dystopian city of dreams(never before has that descript to Bbay made more sense). Not much has changed post lockdown, if anything my cuties have more space to run around!

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Coby (our puppy) is a golden retriever and is turning one year old this month so it’s no surprise that he needs a lot of exercise. During this period of lockdown we had to get a little creative with how we ensure that his activity levels stay up. Sometimes during evenings, we vacate our driveway and he turns out to be an excellent fielder during family cricket matches. We managed to spot a dead end very close to our house which is a tiny empty corner. You should see the smile on his face now that 3-4 family members come out to play fetch with him. No one minds you walking your dog within a short distance in the locality provided you’re well protected and maintain social distance. We’ve also totally emptied our terrace to give him more space to play and run around. All of us in the family have taken an active role in making sure we keep him engaged in some way or the other and take turns to use spaces in our home to play with him till he tires and is content. Gets us the much needed happy workout as well :)

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3. Tanushree Pet Parent to Sly, MUMBAI

We have a huge park in our society which is exclusive to the residents only, and it comes with a dog park! So we’ve been very lucky, but I have definitely shortened the amount of time we spend outdoors. Sly is extremely social so he does wonder where all the humans are but I think the joy on seeing large areas of grass to roll on compensates for everything else! Alas the joy is short lived, but not for too long let’s
hope!

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We do not take Tobbler for his walks so often as we feel the need to clean his paws

after he goes down. We are worried about any infection he might carry back. We have trained him to use the guest rest room. However we ensure that we keep his activity levels high, together we get in around 4 hours of playtime, they are simply spent playing ‘fetch’, ‘hide & seek’ and ‘catch’. These really stimulate his sense of

smell and coordination which keeps his mind off the outdoors. But anytime he sees anyone with shoes on, he runs to the door and blocks it! He just loves going down and we feel terrible we have to deprive him of this luxury.

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We are very fortunate to stay in a gated community with a dog park and a walking zone for dogs. Inspite of all this we have reduced the number of his walks in a day, just goes done for his jobs and no playing in the garden too. The purpose is to reduce the human to human interaction and maintain a stay at home policy.  So Zack does miss out on longer outings but we compensate it by spending more quality time with him at home

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Oh I’ve had no issues, Guido is an above average intelligence dog. He’s toilet trained, I don’t even have to go with him! Every morning out he goes on his walks, and never forgets to take his toilet paper. He’s pretty civilised and would give most humans a run for their money.

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Bravo doesn’t get to go to the beach anymore , and there’s not much playing he can do downstairs. So we take him for walks twice a day and I spend time with him indoors and we play some games. We’ve definitely had to get creative with the lockdown because Bravo still needs his daily exercise. He loves the beach and misses it so much! It used to be our favourite time of the day!