The state of Connecticut has been on a non-essential business closure for four days, and promoting social distancing for the past 10. I watched the dog facilities locally and nationally grasp for straws as to what to do, with every new recommendation from the CDC the options became more and more restrictive. Crazy successful, large, well-known dog businesses literally brought to their knees in a matter of weeks.

But the dog training industry is made up of many different types of services, which left private training and board and train situations certainly on the table, and the rest of the professional dog community scratching their heads.

“Are we essential business?”

No. Nope. Not a chance. There is no world that I live in, in which dog training is essential to society or worth risking personal and public health. But here we are floating in the grey, collectively asking if we can bypass restrictions because we can interact with our clients in a “social distancing” way? I mean, think of all the emails from people who need help, now.

I gave social distance teaching a shot, here is how it went.

Riley and Pabu enjoying their lesson outside at a park while I teach under social distancing orders.

Last week I alerted all of my clients before the start of their lessons that we will adhere to the current CDC recommended guidelines, I will remain 6 feet from you at all times, we will hold all lessons outside so I am not entering your homes, I will be washing my hands as often as possible. Technically, this should be good. I am not touching surfaces, I am not risking being coughed or sneezed on, I am taking all the steps to limit my exposure. But here is what I found: my brain was in such a state of panic that I could not be a quality teacher.

First and foremost, I preach to my clients: if your dog does not feel safe, they cannot do anything other than try to secure personal safety, and it is not up to another being to decide for them if they are in fact safe or not. This is the rule for all mammals, safety first. At large I am not an anxious person, I am not a germaphobe, I am not a worrier. And yet every client, every surface, every leash, every bypassing stranger had me on high alert.

I would take a payment, put it in my vest pocket, and it would burn my chest the whole drive home. I could not find hand sanitizer, I could not find gloves. I learned how much of a struggle it was to actually staysix feet away from dogs who know me and from a client who is unsure about how to hold their leash, or who is getting jumped and bit by their new puppy. I caught myself too many times accidentally reaching in to help them, then instantly feeling the sting of COVID-19 that was for surenow transferred from their leash to my hands. I would recoil like I had just been burned, and dig my hand back into my pockets.

I am not and do not want to be that teacher, the teacher who fumbles to pass understandable information, the teacher who jumps back when a dog pulls towards me, the teacher who stands idly by as their student struggles to understand a concept. The teacher who is thinking about nothing but her own hypothetical personal safety, over the concepts she loves to share with others.

We know COVID-19 does not affect dogs and that it does not do particularly well living on fur, or most materials like leashes. But that doesn’t mean that your dog clients are a bubble of immunity. It just means that you are more likely to pick up the virus from your client’s door knob than by interacting with their Golden Retriever, but certainly still possible.

So for my protection and my clients’ protection there was no question to me, that when the Governor ordered working from home for all non-essential businesses I would be getting directly off the road. I would rather be the teacher I know myself to be online, even if it means a reduction in business and personal comfort.

I am asking the rest of the private trainers to do the same. Get off the road. I see you still out there, calculating the risk to yourself and your income, and trying to minimize the spread by social distancing from your clients. I am begging you to stay home. Move through the discomfort of moving your in-person clients to online platforms. Don’t be the person who is willing to still show up for your private clients for the sake of yourself while it risks us ALL. We need to unify in order to save our physical health and our industry. Will you and your clients be pleased when you have to take a month or more off, in the middle of their new program, because you did not get off the road? Will they be happy to receive the notification that they were directly exposed by you to COVID-19? That you took this moment as a chance to ramp up your business instead of helping the collective set a temporary new normal? Clients are looking to usto make this call. Are you choosing correctly?

A Letter to Fellow Dog Trainers During COVID-19: We are NOT essential, please distance yourselves from clients.