Congratulations, it sounds like you’re ready to become a dog parent! Here are some things to consider before you pick a pooch:

• Life lessons - lockdown could make it difficult to teach your dog valuable lessons for life, especially learning how to be left alone comfortably and how to meet new people and other dogs in a relaxed way, without getting either too excited or worried. It may be difficult to give dogs the wide variety of experiences that will help teach them all about the world, when they are only allowed within their own gardens, or out for a walk just once a day. So make sure you plan ahead for how to give your new dog the best possible start, here’s how.
• Exercise - think about how you can give a new dog with the amount of physical and mental exercise they need. Some dogs thrive on being able to run around and play, so might find this difficult in smaller spaces. Current advice is that dogs should be kept 2 metres from other people and dogs, so walks may need to be on a lead depending on the outdoor space near you. Here’s how to enrich your a dog’s time indoors.
• Back to reality - another thing to consider is how well a new dog will be able to cope with sudden changes to their day when we are all able to return to school and work. Dogs generally enjoy routine so some might struggle when suddenly their days change very dramatically and their human families are much busier than they have learned to expect, possibly having less time to spend with them. Structuring your dog’s day now will help them cope later on - think about all the things that your dog would experience on a normal day when the lockdown is over and try and gradually introduce these now - read our simple tips.