With the arrival of the end of the Christmas holidays It’s time to get back to the routine: long working hours, many hours away from home to go to the office, the return to fixed schedules during the week… All this, after a vacation period in which every day was different.
In the same way that breaking routines could negatively affect our dogs, returning to it can also become a problem for many of them, since is equivalent to spending many hours alone at home again and expose yourself to sudden changes.
This is known as post christmas syndrome and it is something very typical, due to the sudden change in routine and the return to it, also abruptly. This is explained by Anika Rytel, dog trainer and founder of Dogs and that’s it.
“Dogs are animals in love with their routines, They love them to the point that, if they do not have these established, they usually appear upset and nervous,” he details. “During Christmas, being a relatively long time, they enter into a different habit that becomes their new routine, so that returning to day-to-day life means, once again, a new change for them.
Gradually changing routines
During Christmas, the children are at home, we have guests at home, Christmas elements appear… That is, our dogs’ routines are altered. “This leads to the dog becoming more nervous. but also to begin to interact with new routines,” explains Rytel.
“Here comes the key element of why this happens: humans have the ability to understand how the world works from our perspective, but it is difficult for us to understand how the dog understands it,” he says. “That is, when the end of Christmas approaches, we can reflect and knowing that there is a day or two left and we can get psyched up, something our dogs can’t do.”
How do they live it? According to the dog trainer, they act according to what is happening in the environment. “Overnight they find that, for two weeks, they interact with us in a certain way and, suddenly, “The house is alone again and the dog feels out of place,” explains.
The ideal is that we begin to adjust the routines that we are going to live once we fly to work, even if we are still on vacation, so that the change is gradual.
“The animal goes from being accompanied for a long time, from going on more outings, walks or excursions, in general, from having more interactions, to suddenly being alone,” he adds. “At this moment it is easy for the dog tries to have the same level of activity (out of inertia) and may demand a little more attention.
The canine behavior expert says that with this post-Christmas syndrome different behaviors can appear, such as being more upset or nervous. “They may break something in the house or howl out of loneliness, demanding attention,” he exemplifies.
“You may also feel energized and nibble on something at home or uncontrolled urination during the first weeksdue to jet lag,” he adds. “Or he may simply appear sadder or more apathetic.”
To prevent all these symptoms of post-Christmas syndrome, the ideal according to Rytel is that, before concluding the holidays, Let’s start adjusting the routines that we are going to live once we fly to work.. “Even if we are still on vacation, try to make the change more gradual,” he advises.
“We can do it by adjusting the walks to the schedules that we are going to have, waking up earlier and, even if we are at home, go out even if it is the whole family and leave the dog short periods of time to get used to it and that he doesn’t have to spend from zero to eight or nine hours alone,” adds the dog trainer.
Something we can also do is adjust meal times and encourage energy expenditure with games. “Once we are in the routine we can leave our dog with a toy with which they can interact (such as the typical fillable ones, the typical rolled towel with treats inside or chews so they can use their jaw,” he recommends.
This is especially important if the dog has emotional dependencies, because this post-Christmas syndrome will be more noticeable and will produce more peaks of anxiety, as Rytel says. “If we know that he has problems being left alone, we must try to readjust routines as soon as possible or, conversely, not to get too upset during the holidays,” he concludes.
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