"I'm a Mess About My Dogs and Coronavirus—How Will They Do?"

Dog in the wild.

Source: DaveFrancis/Pixabay

A very timely question: How will post-human dogs do without us?

During the past week, I've received a number of emails from the U.S. and abroad about coronavirus (COVID-19), dogs, and their humans. Some were flip and dismissive—"the COVID-19 scare is a media and political hype"—and some were meant to be humorous—"Well, nature always bats last, and we've done enough damage already." However, a good number were very serious—the people were deeply worried and nervous, not only about how they and other humans would fare but also about how their and others' dogs would do without us. Some came from Italy where, for the most part, the country has been shut down.

While Zazie Todd's recent essay "COVID-19 and Planning for Your Pet" deals with the more immediate situation of dogs and coronavirus and what we can do now to help them along, mine takes more of a long-term, futuristic perspective, but also stresses that we can easily do more right now to prepare dogs for a world without us. And, even if we stick around, what we do to prepare them for the possibility of our disappearing can be beneficial presently.

Among the emails that made me think deeply about the fate of post-human dogs was one from Anne-Marie. It read, "I'm a mess about my dogs and coronavirus—how will they do?" She went on to explain that she lived with two dogs, Man and Woman (really), and she was very concerned with how they would do in the long term, without her and without other humans, if the coronavirus "went viral." She was sure they'd suffer and die of broken hearts. Sadly, the coronavirus has "gone viral," and its spread has been called a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Anne-Marie's question isn't all that far-fetched, and I took her and others' concerns seriously and thought about two essays I've written on the subject, "How Will Dogs Reshape Nature Without Humans to Control Them?" and "As Dogs Go Wild in a World Without Us, How Might They Cope?"¹

Additionally, and rather coincidentally, Jessica Pierce and I are in the final throes of finishing a book on this very topic, and for the past two-plus years, we've been struggling with the extremely challenging and very wide-ranging questions: "How will dogs do without us as we leave and when we're gone?" and "What should we do now to prepare them for their post-human existence?" We've been using information from a number of different disciplines, including evolutionary biology, ethology, behavioral ecology, anthrozoology, comparative psychology, sociology, and philosophy, and our learning curves have been vertical, and remain so.

Thinking about how dogs will do without us isn't silly

Many other researchers also have been pondering situations in which we might disappear rapidly or slowly, so wondering how dogs and other animals will do without us isn't silly and isn't science-fiction. And the relatively sudden appearance and spread of the coronavirus has motivated many people to think not only about themselves and other humans but also about their companion animals and other nonhumans.^2,3

Working on our book has been an exciting and eye-opening venture, and despite intensive and wide-ranging research and discussions, Jessica and I have come up with few definitive answers other than something along the lines of, "Many dogs will likely do OK without us." While the jury is still out about whether dogs can or will contract the coronavirus, it seems unlikely that it will become a major problem among homed canine companions or other dogs who are more free-ranging or feral.

Gains, losses, and trade-offs

No matter how hard we've tried to come up with some easy answers, it turns out we haven't been able to compile a simple list of what dogs will gain or lose in a world without us and what this will mean to them. Of course, dogs who are alive when humans disappear will face a different set of challenges then dogs who are born to these individuals and later generations.

Trying to figure out the trade-offs among gains and losses, while an interesting exercise, is fraught with uncertainty about how to assign a value to each of them. It's mind-boggling to attempt to list all of the things we do for dogs that have various effects on their lives.

For example, how do dogs' gains in various freedoms—the abilities to make individual choices and have more control of their lives without being tethered, to choose when and what to eat, when and with whom to interact, and when and with whom to mate, to provide parental care for their children, and to have heightened physical activity and sensory stimulation—weigh against losses of regular (and often boring) food, a soft pillow, companionship, grooming, veterinary care, and potential exposure to predators? Quick and easy answers are few and far between.

To complicate matters, these sorts of thought experiments demand that we pay close attention to individual differences among dogs because these differences will play significant roles in who will survive and thrive, and what sorts of life they would lead. There is no "the dog" who can serve as a prototype for how life will be without us. This is what makes coming up with definitive answers in this speculative exercise—some call it imaginative biology—very difficult.

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Variations in personality and past experiences among dogs will likely play major roles in how different dogs will do without us. Differences in size also might be important, depending on local conditions in the niches in which dogs wind up living. However, while some people instantaneously say, "Big dogs will do better than small dogs," there's no reason to think larger dogs will necessarily be better off than smaller dogs or that bolder dogs will do better than more timid dogs. Both of my essays are available online for free, and you can find out more about why the question "How will dogs do as we leave and when we're gone?" doesn't lead to any firm answers.

"Homed" and other dogs: Most of the people with whom I've spoken or otherwise communicated are concerned with their and others' "homed" dogs, predominantly Western homed dogs, a class of dogs with whom they're most familiar. For these individuals, it's really difficult to make any predictions, because how they'll fare as individuals depends on what survival skills they've previously developed and the nature of their relationship with dogs, other animals, and their human(s). It seems reasonable to predict that the more independent they've been will have a positive effect on how they go on to live without their or other humans. However, many other variables enter into the equation, so this might not be so for some individuals.

Another educated guess is that "homed" dogs might be at a disadvantage when compared with dogs who have lived more independently of humans and had to develop survival and other skills. Because around 75 percent of the world's 900 million to one billion dogs actually live somewhat or fairly independent lives, it's safe to assume that many of these dogs will do just fine without us as long they don't contract whatever it is that led to our demise. Many people are shocked when they learn how many dogs don't have regular contact or support from humans because the only dogs with whom they're familiar have humans who care for them to varying degrees.

Clearly, musing about how a dog will do in a world without us raises numerous questions that are related to who they were before we disappeared. When people talk with their dog, they often ask something like, "What would you do without me?" or say, "You would never survive without me." Regardless, it's likely that many dogs, and perhaps even some of these individuals, might do very well without us.

Doomsday prepping for a dogs' world: Mixing love with challenges and enrichment

Jessica and I also wonder if we should be doing some sort of "doomsday prepping" for current dogs. We could prepare them for a future without us by positively challenging them, enriching their lives, and allowing them to hone some of the skills they don't use or need in our presence, including those they may have lost as they morphed into dogs as we know them today. We'd have to be sure to delicately balance making them work for food or for other things they need and giving them more independence with treating them kindly and giving them lots of love.

We also will have to allow them to learn to resolve conflicts on their own. Homed dogs might be better prepared for our departure by experiencing more independence and freedom that mirrors the ways in which many free-ranging and feral dogs live. (See "Dogs in Gilded Cages: Surviving, but Not Thriving.")

What might a dogs' world look like?

Stand by for further inevitable discussions of how dogs would do in a world without humans. Each time I ponder how dogs will do without us—what might a dogs' world look like—more and more questions arise. The list of questions that need to be addressed is seemingly almost endless, and this makes this futuristic thought experiment so very exciting because it also focuses on the current state of dogs and the nature of their relationships with humans and other animals.

While we may hope that questions about our demise remain thought experiments, there also are good reasons for us to consider what we can now do for dogs and other animals if this were to occur. I also hope that musing about what and how dogs will do in a world without humans will benefit them now as they currently try to adapt to an increasingly human-dominated world that many dogs find highly stressful. This surely would be a win-win for all, even if we'll never know what happens to them in our absence.

I thank Jessica Pierce for her invaluable input about what a world without humans would be like for post-human dogs and other animals. She also came up with the phrase "post-human dogs."