Since this pandemic started, I’ve heard the restrictions in many countries (US here) have prohibited people from walking their dogs.
I’ve got friends in South Africa who luckily have had a garden to let them romp in, but that certainly isn’t the norm. How to they (both the dogs and humans) manage?!
I had not heard that. most places in lockdown do allow dog walking. Which is why, I suspect some dogs are being walked a LOT!
South Africa had really stringent restrictions at the beginning of the pandemic (since lifted I believe), but I know that certain regions in AUS are currently under a “no dog walking” mandate.
(Trying to share a screenshot from the Southern AUS police Twitter - unsure if it’s gonna work!)
That’d be tough. We have a yard but I know that’s not a universal luxury nor would that be sufficient for many breeds.
If you had the means, you could probably have a decent substitute with a treadmill. However, I found that my dog was never as tired after the treadmill. The change in terrain and mental stimulation from sights and smells is almost as important for mine as the physical exercise.
Some places aren’t allowing dog walking in public, but that’s not a problem where I am, even in lockdown, as long as I’m wearing a mask.
It was reported that in the Yunnan Province in China, a policy was issued on the 13th that banned residents from walking dogs in public, with fines for the first two violations of the rule, and the pets would be confiscated and killed upon the 3rd violation, starting November 20! Sounds like the policy got enough people upset that it’s being reconsidered.
On our Caribbean island we were in lockdown for a month in April. The first two weeks we weren’t allowed to leave our yards, not even to walk dogs. Since I don’t really have a much of a yard, that was tough. But I do live at the base of a very long flight of stone steps, and my neighbor who lives at the top of the stairs is a favorite of my dog. So I’d let my dog race up the stairs to her, then call her back. Rinse, repeat until she got the zoomies out.
After 2 weeks they started letting us walk for 2 hours in the am and 2 hours in the evening so dog exercising got a lot easier. Towards the end of that period my dog got loose and chased a goat over a cliff (and somehow didn’t die) so we had to get police permission to break mid-day curfew and hike out to rescue her. We did it.
Wow, how would that work for people who don’t have yards? Where does the dog pee and poop unless their owner can take it outside?
In Europe even during the worst of lockdown people were still allowed to walk their dogs, even if it had to be for an hour max and within 1 km of where they lived.
Can’t walk your dog? Thats a bit much.
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