Meet Ava, our loyal companion. She was born on 12 June 2019 and we got her in Aug 2019. There were a number of puppies, I think around 7 in her litter.

My husband went to pick her up from Wexford with my eldest son. He was shown the puppies and asked to pick any one we wanted as only 1 or 2 were sold. My husband was looking at very energized puppies play fighting and running around and wasn’t sure which pup to pick until he saw a little movement right beside him. There she was sitting next to him, looking up at him as if she belonged. So essentially she picked him 🙂

Ava quickly acclimatized and became an essential part of our family. COVID happened and we worked from home. As we were not allowed to travel away from the house more than 5 km, walks with her became an escape.

But because of Covid and seclusion, and not being able to socialize with other dogs, Ava became what I call a Covid dog, who is not able to socialize with other dogs or people.

At home, Ava is the quietest doggie ever. She barks when there is someone outside or gets overstimulated with kids, but other than that she is a very calm creature.

The minute we are outside, she is a ball of nerves and excitement. All logical reasoning goes out of the window. The treats that typically she will anything for do not matter.

If kids are outside she is like mother hen or a herding dog. Has to be near them, has to get them into one small group. Any living creature approaching us has to be barked at. Dogs are not tolerated. At the same time she will bark at them non-stop then whine that they went away.

Because of that we have to go on walks with Ava where we know there are going to be minimal amount of people. Allowing her off the leash and to explore.

We have tried socializing her with other dogs. She goes for them and gets snapped at by them and runs to hide behind us, barking non-stop.

So if I had to tell her something that she should understand it would be please give other people and dogs a chance. They are not there to hurt you or us and have a right to be outside same as us…

Anyone else have a Covid doggie and going through the same?