Was Your Dog Harder to Train During the Pandemic? Science Says You’re Not Alone

Was Your Dog Harder to Train During the Pandemic? Science Says You’re Not Alone

New research from the Dog Aging Project found that average trainability scores declined after 2020, but ticked back up again in 2023.

Was Your Dog Harder to Train During the Pandemic? Science Says You’re Not Alone - WorldNL Magazine

Lockdown during the covid pandemic was hard on everyone, including our dogs. New research out today suggests dogs were harder to train in the years following 2020 but became more teachable as restrictions loosened. A study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One analyzed owner-reported behavioral data for more than 47,000 companion dogs during and immediately after the covid-19 pandemic. The researchers looked for trends in fear, attention, …

Study reveals dogs harder to train since COVID pandemic

(Photo by Matthias Zomer via Pexels) By Stephen Beech Dogs are harder to train since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research. The study involving more than 47,000 pet pooches and their owners showed that dogs enrolled in the research after 2020 had lower average trainability scores. The pandemic's "unique" circumstances - such as more dogs being adopted from shelters or owners being more stressed than usual - may have played a part, Ame…

Dog owners say it was harder to train dogs during the pandemic