Dogs, at Least, Love Home Quarantine

Mine and I still walk, and we talk a whole lot more.
By Alexandra Horowitz

Next to me on the couch, one of my dogs twitches his feet and curls his lower lip in his sleep. His tail thumps on a soft pillow. An “urph” — maybe a stifled bark — escapes his mouth and he wakes himself up, looking at me accusingly. “That was you!” I tell him.

As a writer and dog-cognition researcher, I can — and do — spend the greatest part of the day observing dogs, talking to dogs and hanging out beside my dog while working. And now, in this extraordinary time, many more of us find ourselves working at home with our dogs full time. Good for us — and great for the dogs.

Quarantine, and even social distancing, is meant to impose an isolation that most of us, as a highly social species, work hard throughout our lives to avoid. Even the most introverted of us need company — some touchstone of a shared existence through time. In reflecting on our changed society, the isolation of the elderly and the sick seems especially cruel. In many places, older residents quarantined in nursing homes cannot have visitors, and are suffering not just from potentially fatal infections but also from the loss of the company of their family members and the comfort of their presence and touch — a biological urge.

Our drive to keep animals, dogs in particular, strikes me as similar in nature: Their simple presence, and their willingness to be touched, is viscerally satisfying. Time spent reading on the couch is massively improved by a dog’s head resting on my leg; a warm, snuffling muzzle directed at me is instantly calming. Social media abounds with images of dogs (some bemused, some wagging their tails so hard as to sprain them) alongside their isolated persons: Dogs are now our proxy for other humans... (continues)

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Current view from the home office:

 

 

And yesterday:

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