Is All This Working From Home Upsetting the Routine of Your Pet Companion?

Hi everyone,

As literally nearly everyone in the western hemisphere is working from home there has been an acute change in our beloved pets environment. As much as they love us and we love them most pets do get used to a certain routine which usually involves the majority of the household going to work for a good part of the day!

Changes in the home can unfortunately for some pets cause stress, think of it a little bit like the long Christmas break which can often upset some of our companions as their routine gets totally knocked out.

If you are lucky and your companion does not care at all or just demands extra cuddles by blocking your keyboard all is well. 😉 But should you see any of the following signs of stress please do read on!

Signs of stress include:

• Behaviour change
• Spraying/soiling
• Over grooming
• Lack of interaction
• Pacing
• Loss of appetite
• Chewing
• Aggression
• Scratching
• Yawning

I am sure most of us have seen signs and behavioural changes such as the ones listed above in our pet companions before and it’s horrible when it happens. Who wouldn’t worry when your cuddly puss all of a sudden turns into an aggressive beast?

So what can you do to mitigate this if your new home office which may very well have displaced your pets favourite daytime resting space has upset your companion?

For starters, whether it be a cat or a dog try and set up a calm and quiet area for your pet! Ideal locations would be somewhere that you don’t keep walking by our needing to have access to all the time. It could be a corner in a bedroom or maybe away under a desk.

While this could be just a simple little sleeping place made up of a blanket or similar we would recommend especially for cats and smaller dogs to opt for a basket with high “walls” to create a nice and protected area.

The sleepypod Mobile Pet Bed of our sponsor sleepypod is one of our purrsonal favourites for this kind of safe area!

As seen with Rennie even a large Oriental has no problems fitting into it and should he wish to zone out all he needs to do is lie down. Obviously you would place it in a hidden corner instead of the middle of the room which we did for this photo. 😉

Should it still be fairly cold in your part of the world you can make this extra cosey and comfy AND OF COURSE attractive for your pet by installing a heatpad into this!

For those of you in the US the warmer kit is available directly via sleepypod whereas in the EU there are already a few importers of the new accessory via Amazon.

Best of all while your pet gets used to loving their bed it should make it so much easier for you in the long run when we all will go out again and you need to take them to the vet. Because by that point they will associate the mobile pet bed as their safe haven and you shouldn’t have the struggles of getting them into a carrier like many of us encounter with traditional carriers.

Of course, a safe location on its own may not be sufficient to restore your pet’s state of zen! You may need to grab some extra calming remedy to help you with this.

There are a variety of calming products out on the market that can help your companion to relax a little while they get used to this potentially long-term change in their humans’ behaviour.

Our preferred product is Pet Remedy as this isn’t species-specific but works on a wide range of pets from dogs to cats but also for rabbits, birds and reptiles. Unlike other products that use a species pheromone to impact your companion, Pet Remedy is completely natural and works with your pet’s own natural calming mechanisms by mimicking GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), which is a natural calming agent present in all mammals, birds, and reptiles. So when a pet becomes stressed or anxious Pet Remedy helps trick fired-up nerve cells into thinking they are getting a message from the brain to calm. This is why it starts to help instantly.

While you can not currently purchase it directly from Pet Remedy due to COVID-19 it is still available in pet shops and via various online retailers and our own webshop.

What is in Pet Remedy?

The formulation is predominantly Valerian oil based, with small inclusions of Vetiver, Sweet Basil, and Clary Sage essential oils.

• Valerian absolute oil which is obtained by cold extraction from the rhizomes of the plant, Valeriana Of cinalis, and has been used for centuries as an effective and safe calming agent.
• Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides) which is a tough, aromatic grass which belongs to the same botanical family as lemongrass, citronella and palmarosa. The essential oil is extracted by steam distillation from the roots. Vetiver has been appreciated for its calming properties since records began.
• Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is an aromatic herb with lush green leaves. The essential oil is extracted by steam distillation from the leaves and the flowering tops. Sweet Basil essential oil is commonly used in aromatherapy for its calming effect.
• Clary Sage (Salvia Sclaria) is a biennial herb, native to the Mediterranean region. The essential oil is extracted by steam distillation of the buds and leaves. Clary Sage has been praised throughout history as a medicinal plant, particularly for its calming properties.

How do you apply it?

The product is available as plugin diffusers, battery-operated diffusers, and spray. Ideally, initially you will want it to be around the house as much as possible so we would opt for a combination of diffusers and the spray.

Combining it with the sleepypod mobile pet bed is especially handy as it has a soft plush lining and you are able to spray it directly onto that so that your pet feels calmer and more relaxed while resting in their bed! And best of all the lining can be removed to wash it so there is no need to worry about it absorbing too much of the valerian smell.

We hope you all found this article useful and do let us know if you have any further questions or would like additional advice for your specific circumstances.

Thanks,

Marc