A woman confessed to keeping her dog inside for the best part of a year, but claims it truly changed her life.
Many of us dog owners walk our pups everyday without thinking twice. Whether you take them to the local park or up and down your street, it’s commonly understood this is a ‘must’ to help pooches burn off extra energy.
But Gabby Lawrence, from Bedfordshire, admitted to keeping her four-year-old Labrador Border Collie cross inside for a staggering nine months, following a series of unfortunate events. This all kickstarted in 2020, when Gabby first rehomed the rescue dog so that her Labradoodle, Jasper, could have a friend.
“When lockdown happened, we decided we wanted to try and get another dog for Jasper to play with,” the 43-year-old transport compliance manager told The Mirror. “We wanted to make sure that he maybe had another dog around because we noticed how much he was enjoying playing with dogs. But puppies became so expensive.
“I happened to see a picture of Rogue pop up on the website [of a Romanian dog charity] and she was beautiful – beyond beautiful. I said to my husband ‘I think this is the one we’re going to get’. She popped up and everything was absolutely lovely and amazing and she settled in really well. But then we had the second lockdown in December which dragged on to be like six months.”
Rogue was less than a year old when Gabby welcomed her into the home. And while she didn’t notice anything strange at the time, Rogue went through her first heat season and second fear stage amid the Covid-19 restrictions.
The former refers to the point at which a dog can become pregnant and is more prone to anxiety and grumpiness. Fear stages on the other hand are triggered by major cognitive changes in a dogs’ brain, making them hypersensitive to their surroundings.
Gabby continued: “The dog that had been slightly barky but coping with the outside world came out of lockdown in June 2021 unable to cope with the changes. When people were out, dogs were out, cars were around, we could very quickly see that she just couldn’t handle the changes.
“She developed a deep-seated fear of anything that moved. And on one day in 2022, we were walking in a really quiet area that people rarely went to and I was with my mum… and I said ‘mum I can hear a dog, let’s just keep the dogs really close to us’ – they were both on leads.
“And at that point a dog flew around the corner off-lead, took one look at Rogue and launched itself at her. All I could think was ‘I’ve got to protect my dog’. I did manage to get this dog physically off my dog and then I was basically holding two 30kg dogs at arms-length apart, screaming: ‘Someone help me please!'”
Although Gabby initially thought Rogue scraped by uninjured, her husband later noticed a puncture wound on her rib which got infected over the next few days. This was treated by a vet who advised that Rogue should be kept inside to recover for a short period – but this didn’t stop another incident from taking place.
“We took her out for a quick toilet trip because she struggles to go at home and another off-lead dog ran up to her the next day,” she said. “I was with my husband that day and he screamed: ‘Get your dog away’. The dog owner was going like ‘she’s fine, she’s just friendly’, but we said: ‘Our dog got attacked yesterday by one that looks like yours – you need to rein your dog back’.”
At this point Gabby decided it was time to give up walks altogether. She continued: “We had them running round doing bits and pieces in the garden, I did an awful lot of ‘puppy aerobics’, playing games to keep their minds active. They had snuffle mats, lick mats, I’d hide bits of food, teach them tricks.”
Gabby also claims that she often privately hired out sports fields to let Rogue and Jasper run around a little more, but they essentially took a ‘complete nine-month break from the outside world’.
Summer 2023 was the first time Jasper and Rogue were re-introduced to walks after Gabby had noticed them sitting by the front door and showing more interest in the world beyond. And while Rogue barks and lunges a lot less now, she still isn’t walked on a daily basis.
Gabby said: “I was really scared to be completely honest, but they were ready to go out and I needed to make sure it was as calm as possible. And it’s been fine.
“When we had just Jasper, we went out for a walk every single day without fail – no matter what – that’s what you do. I think because I saw how much Rogue was struggling, I was working on the grounds that I’d try anything to see if I could help her.
“The way I look at it is, if you went out personally for a walk for a mile on the same route every single day, you’d get pretty bored with it, you wouldn’t stick with it and actually it wouldn’t have many benefits to you… Whereas, if you did pilates one day, swam one day, went for a run one day, lifted some weights, it has more benefits physically and mentally.
“Whilst I recognise a lot of people may be sceptical, I genuinely think it’s because you don’t experience the stress and the worries that we did… It’s really important to listen to what your dog needs, there’s no ‘one size fits all’ and there’s no suggesting that walking your dog is terrible… it’s down to their individual needs.”
Albeit unconventional, this ethos is also backed by Niki French, dog trainer and owner of PupTalk, who helped Gabby on her journey and has even written a book on the subject. She told The Mirror: “A walk is a human invention. The typical walk might be around the block or on the school run, being rushed along without time for sniffing and exploring.
“Dogs off lead – or in the wild – don’t walk in straight lines, at the same pace. They mooch, trot, walk, run, stop abruptly and circle back to sniff something amazing. I often hear that what some people describe as ‘difficult dogs’ – these are not my words – just need more exercise, that they need tiring out. Mostly the opposite is true.”
If you stop walking your dog altogether, it’s vital to meet their needs in other ways, Niki adds. This could include working with a professional behaviourist or even taking them to a friend’s garden so they can do a bit of ‘scent work’.
Niki added: “Some dogs just don’t have the skills to enjoy going for relaxing walks. And constantly exposing them to whatever it is that they struggle with, normally doesn’t get them used to it. It just reinforces their reactions as they form habits of reacting.
“I’ve worked with working lines of Labradors and Collies, as well as overseas rescue dogs, who stopped walks altogether for several months. With the right help, they can really grow in confidence, as well as being able to relax more easily at home.”
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