The term “pandemic puppy” has been thrown around a lot during the last few years, and is heavily loaded with largely negative connotations about underprepared and overeager animal adopters and dogs with socialization issues and lasting behavioral challenges. While I understand the spread of a catchy, alliterative moniker as an attempt to process the complex phenomenon that was living with a dog during COVID-19 shutdowns, the term is a gross oversimplification and generalization of a whole generation of dogs. Maybe I’m sensitive to the implied judgement against this cohort of dogs because I’m a Millennial (I’ll leave that to my therapist to help me unpack). Joking aside, my dog Sonder is what some would call a “pandemic pup” but to me, the only thing this means is that he was born sometime in April of 2020, and he came to live with me that July.

Flashback to 2020

There’s been a lot of speculation – and now some emerging research – about how the many and profound changes that people and animals around the world experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted dogs, and in particular their behavior (1–3). On one hand, we know that altered routines resulted in some dogs getting a lot more attention than they had been used to, which, depending on the pup, could have been either welcome or not. Other dogs ended up not being socialized in ways that they might otherwise have had the opportunity to be, or saw a reduction in the types and amount of activities and companions they were exposed to. 

While some humans faced difficulties caring for their pups during the pandemic, others had more time on their hands to spend with their canine companions, or to welcome new ones into their homes. Indeed, it was during the shutdown that many people and pups began their button learning journeys! What we don’t really know however, is how (or if) pandemic life has continued to influence dogs’ everyday experiences. 

Deep dive: Analyzing behavior in more than 45,000 dogs during the pandemic

As a researcher, a lot of my investigations involve collaborations with other scientists working on the Dog Aging Project, or the DAP. The DAP is a large-scale, longitudinal study of dogs living all across the United States, which aims to better understand what contributes to dog health, aging, and wellbeing. Today, there are more than 50,000 dogs enrolled in the project! Recently, some of my colleagues and I set out to establish a behavioral baseline for our canine participants— that is, we wanted to know, what were the overall behavioral profiles, on average, of dogs entering the study each year in terms of characteristics like excitability, fear, energy, aggression, and more.   

While conducting our analyses, we realized that because the DAP started collecting data in 2019, we also had the opportunity to look to see if there were any trends or interesting changes in dogs’ behavioral profiles during the COVID-19 years. So what did we learn in our study? 

In looking at average behaviors for dogs enrolled in the Dog Aging Project from 2020-2023, we found that across four behavior categories — Fear, Attention-Seeking, Aggression, and Trainability — there were differences from year-to-year, but not necessarily trends in one direction or another (4). Interestingly, however, owners reporting dog behavior in 2020 said their dogs were on average more responsive to training and learning than they reported in each year thereafter. In other words, dogs were reportedly better at engaging in learning before or at the beginning of “shutdown” than they were deeper into COVID-19 living.

We also found, unsurprisingly, that factors like life stage, sex, size, and breed makeup all influenced dogs’ behavior in different ways. That’s because, as with many animals — people included! — the whole of a dogs’ experiences, environment, and genetics come together to shape how they respond to different situations in their everyday life.

What does this mean for the dogs?

Our data don't necessarily show that “pandemic puppies” were harder to train or less ready and able to learn, but rather, that owners reported dogs across all life stages being less trainable during those years. With all of the different disruptions to people's home life and routines, this could have been because owners were approaching training and learning differently, there were new dogs in new environments, dogs were struggling to adjust, or any of the above.

Also, while 2023 “Trainability” averages were still reportedly lower than in 2020, of all the years, there was the smallest difference between 2020 and 2023 averages, which suggests perhaps dogs were becoming more trainable again as the pandemic ended, or at least that people were perceiving them to be so. At the end of the day, we can’t truly know if it was the humans or the dogs who were struggling more in this particular domain of behavior. 

Looking to the future 

Beyond focusing on the “pandemic factor”, from a research standpoint, it is really exciting to establish this data for this large population of dogs because now we can see how reporting of these average behavioral profiles changes — or doesn't change! — over time, and we can investigate how such changes may relate to other emotional and physical health outcomes. And, if we can see how these components are connected, we can find ways to help promote healthy aging for our dogs. 

And the takeaway for those of us at home? The most important thing is always to “listen” to animals with an open mind. If they seem fearful, look around and think about why that may be. It's also important to remember that for dogs, sometimes a behavior change can be indicative of something physical that may be bothering them. For example, when people are sick, we tend to get cranky. So, if your pup is acting odd for no apparent reason, think about taking them for a check-up with your vet!

And as I told Gizmodo’s Ellyn Lapointe, dogs “really are, in lots of ways, mirrors to ourselves, and we’re finding that out more and more… By paying attention to them and our relationships with them, I think we can only learn more.”

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Biogliography:

Courtney Sexton is a Postdoctoral research scientist at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and has a PhD in Evolutionary Anthropology and Comparative Animal Behavior from The George Washington University.

References: 

1. Jezierski T, Camerlink I, Peden RSE, Chou JY, Marchewka J. Changes in the health and behaviour of pet dogs during the COVID-19 pandemic as reported by the owners. Appl Anim Behav Sci. 2021 Aug;241(105395):105395.

2. Bolstad CJ, Edwards GE, Gardner A, Nadorff MR. Pets and a pandemic: An exploratory mixed method analysis of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected dogs, cats, and owners. Human-animal interaction bulletin [Internet]. 2021 Dec;2021. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/hai.2021.0012

3. Bussolari C, Currin-McCulloch J, Packman W, Kogan L, Erdman P. “I couldn’t have asked for a better quarantine partner!”: Experiences with companion dogs during Covid-19. Animals (Basel). 2021 Jan 28;11(2):330.

4. Li Y, Sexton CL, DAP Consortium, Fitzpatrick A, Ruple A. An analysis of behavioral characteristics and enrollment year variability in 47,444 dogs entering the Dog Aging Project from 2020 to 2023. PLoS One. 2025 Sep 10;20(9):e0330257.