NORTH CAROLINA — This year, business has been much slower than usual at A Dog's Dream Pet Resort. 

What You Need To Know

  • Less people are boarding their dogs since less people are traveling

  • Dogs are affected by the pandemic too because their routines have changed

  • With less socialization, dogs who don't attend daycare could develop separation anxiety

“At the very beginning of the pandemic we saw a huge downturn of people just coming in general. Everything from daycare, to boarding, to grooming just because they were home more,” Owner Dan Spangler says. 

Christmas is usually the busy season since pet owners board their dogs when they go on trips to visit family. As coronavirus numbers increase, people are canceling their travel plans and their dog boarding reservations.

“The long term situation of being down again over and over, month after month, it is draining on the business, and we all want to get back to normal,” Spangler says.

While people working from home are happy to have the company of their pets, there are a lot of distractions that come with owning a dog. As people could no longer manage constant distractions, the daycare part of dan’s business started to pick up again.

"They started realizing that their dog needed to get out, and they needed separation from their own dog to get them out, and get some exercise and things like that.”

Spangler says we need to remember that COVID-19 has been hard on dogs too.

“With this pandemic, we actually started talking about a 'pet-demic,' where the dogs are changing because they're getting used to being at home with their owners and building things like separation anxiety,” says Spangler.