A Lancaster dog trainer has spoken out on how the ‘pandemic puppies’ trend is creating a wave of badly-behaved pups.

Tarik Jayousi, head trainer at A&T Trained Dogs, says that the UK is seeing so many new dogs come out of the pandemic with behavioural problems and social issues due to the lack of socialisation during the lockdown.

“Pandemic Puppies are a growing dilemma all across the UK and it’s not slowing down,” he said. “I would say that around 70% of all our residential behavioural therapy dogs are with us due to a lack of or no socialisation during lockdown.

“People thought it would be a good idea to get a cute puppy in lockdown as they had lots of spare time and were bored – now most of these dogs have severe social issues, are aggressive or have extreme anxiety.”

According to Pets4Homes, May 2020 saw more than 400 buyers for every pet advertised in the UK with pet insurance policies increased by 59%.

Google searches for “buy a puppy” increased by 115% with prices for some of the most sought-after breeds reaching record levels.

Tarik said: “It’s not impossible to bring up a well-behaved, well-socialised dog in a pandemic but us smart humans must take extra measures to ensure the pups get what they would usually get in their early and most important months.

“Due to day-care and dog training being an essential service, it has always been available throughout the lockdown. Taking advantage of such services would ensure your pup would be well socialised with new humans as no visits or gatherings were allowed and also dogs socialize in a safe environment together.”

Based within seven acres of beautiful countryside in Lancaster and with an extensive indoor training facility home to 100 luxury kennels, A&T Trained Dogs offer dog training courses, doggy day-care, dog grooming and comfortable, luxury dog boarding.

“Attending a day-care just once or twice a week would have prevented thousands of behavioural cases and saved many lives of dogs which have been euthanised through no fault of their own,” said Tarik. “It seems that their humans would rather neglect with a lack of understanding for the dog’s needs.”