31/10/2025
When we’re not well.🫥
I’ve been home now for over a week and life has been improved significantly by having Sonnet back here for the last couple of days. The house just isn’t the same without my dogs.🥺
A lot of pups struggle with the altered movement and energy of sick or convalescing humans. Largely because I’ve been hobbling around, very reliant on a crutch, for months now, she is coping just fine and shows no behaviour changes at all. Sonnet has a very good sense of smell, like all dogs, but she doesn’t seem fazed at all by me.
Ember has been a different story. She is bigger and much less gentle than Sonnet, more impulsive still due to her age and breed, so we don’t feel it would be safe for me to be managing her on my own yet. But she has visited once, and it was a bit of a shock: she avoided me. Ember, my more openly affectionate dog, wasn’t comfortable being around me - in fact, she ignored me completely until I had some treats. We did a bit of touch and chin rest training, something we’ve been doing quite a lot of prior to the op, and as long as the food was on offer she engaged, but she didn’t want to be near me other than that and was visibly distressed when my daughter (who’s looking after her) left the room.
It was horrible - but rather than dwell on being upset, I’ve thrown myself into research around this subject, and found that there is very little literature out there dealing specifically with this. Anecdotally I’ve heard of a similar reaction recently in another dog, but it’s hard to find anything scientific.
So, my feeling is that her response to me centres around two things: a huge change in her routine (she hasn’t been home for nearly three weeks now) and the amazing canine ability to smell. The body goes through chemical changes when people are unwell, but also when we have treatments. In the last few weeks, I’ve had anaesthetic, part of my body literally removed and replaced with a prosthetic joint, and I’m prescribed pretty heavy-duty antibiotics. All these factors are likely to make me smell very different to the sensitive nose of a dog, and potentially to worry her.
It would be great to be able to start getting her back into a normal routine in order to tackle this, but it’s just not possible right now. Hopefully once the antibiotics are over and I’m safe to have her back, we can get back to normal.❤️🩹
