Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/dog-beg-dinner-lockdown/

It’s been more than a year since Covid-19 led to school and workplace closures, ushering in the infamous “new normal” of work-from-home, social distancing, and intermittent lockdowns.

During that time, people and their pets have adapted to the changing world around them in a variety of ways. One shameless dog has become the poster pup for the way quarantine has changed dogs’ lives the world over.

In a Twitter thread posted by Tommy Vietor, his goldendoodle, Lucca, shows off her begging and negotiating skills, which Vietor notes helped her “bargain her dinner time down from 5 to 330.”

The photo shows Lucca putting her full effort and attention towards looking desperately hungry, pulling every puppy-dog trick in the book to get her way. Vietor humorously captioned his photo with a note to himself, showing how hard it is for him to tell her no: “Hold the line, Tommy… Hold the line.”

Things intensified when Lucca timidly placed her paw on his foot, escalating her campaign to have dinner time moved forward!

Vietor continued to capture the moment and noted it’s not just dinner time that Lucca wants to change: “she has also learned that inching over and lying down on my head at around 530am is a good way to get breakfast early…well trained pup,” he added.

Vietor cofounded Crooked Media and co-hosts the political podcasts Pod Save America and Pod Save The World. Lucca is credited as “Foreign Pawlicy Advisor” on the team’s website.

By sharing this moment from his life, Vietor inadvertently demonstrated a phenomenon that has affected many who shifted to working at the dining table instead of the office. As lockdowns caused millions worldwide to spend more time indoors with their pets, some quirky behaviors have started to surface, and pet owners want answers.

Whether your pet has been bouncing off the walls from all the inside time or loving the extra attention they got while you worked from home, the Covid-19 lockdowns definitely impacted routine-loving dogs in one way or another. Hopefully, for her sake, Lucca wasn’t too successful with her “negotiations” to move dinner time up.

Dr. Heidi Sutcliffe of Norwell Veterinary Hospital explained in an interview with WBZ-TV that her advice to pet owners during lockdown would be:

“Try to keep your routine as close as possible and be consistent with feeding schedules. It will provide them some structure. They’re very in-tune to your behavior so if you can do your best to remain calm then your animal will as well.”

The best thing for Lucca, like all dogs, is consistency.

She definitely deserves a treat for her adorable antics, and with her experience as “Foreign Pawlicy Advisor” on the Crooked Media team, she might just use her negotiation skills on the campaign trail someday!

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog