Millions of younger students have headed back to grade school and high school while millions of older kids have headed off to college. Parents are often relieved when school begins again but the loss of their friends and the schedule disruption often leaves pets depressed. MSNBC has a great article about this subject written by Kim Campbell Thornton. Thornton says it isn't unusual for pets to "go into a funk" when kids return to school.
It's not unusual for dogs - and sometimes cats - to go into a funk when the kids go back to school in the fall or off to college for the first time. They may even mope around when your work schedule changes.
Cats can also get depressed when kids go back to school. Cats really aren't big fans of altered schedules to being with.
"Part of that emotional attachment is a behavioral expectation that the two are going to do something predictable," says John C. Wright, an animal behaviorist and professor of psychology at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. "It's important to the cat on a daily basis. So you have a disruption in daily routine when someone leaves for school, a disruption in the emotional security the cat has, and that can result in both emotional and behavioral depression."
With emotional depression, the cat appears to be distraught and may vocalize more than usual, Wright says. Signs of behavioral depression range from lethargy - the cat tends to sleep longer, especially during those times when it's used to interacting with the person who's gone - to hyperactivity.
Cats need stability - don't we all. Kids going off to college is probably the hardest on pets. When a child goes to grade school or high school at least are they are back the same day and the pet can adjust to the new schedule. But a college student may be gone for months at a time. One good remedy suggested in the article for a dog who is missing a friend is exercise.
"For many people, when a kid goes off to college, the whole household is kind of depressed," Nitschke says. "It's a change in status in people's lives, and everybody reacts to that at some level."
Getting out and walking your lonesome dog is good therapy for both of you. If you face the prospect of a child going off to college or camp or basic training, start preparing your dog sooner rather than later, especially if your child and dog share a particularly close bond.
"If the kid going off to school was the major source of the dog's playtime, then when you take that out of the environment, there's going to be what seems like a deficit to the dog," Nitschke says. "I would increase the physically active interactions with the dog. It's not a bad idea to get the dog used to being walked or played with by other members of the household before the child goes off to college or back to school."
The article also includes some tips for preventing separation anxiety by training your pets to spend time alone.
