He was a cute little thing, so I crooned hello to the small white dog as I walked through my neighborhood park. He greeted me with a growl and a sneer, as if to say, “Don’t you dare come any closer.”

So I didn’t; I stayed well away. He was on a leash wrapped around the wheel of a toddler-sized baby stroller. Maybe he’s just being protective of the little one racing around the park playground, I thought, but the owner said he’d been that way ever since they got him, back at the beginning of the pandemic.

That was before baby came along. That was when both parents were working from home, only going out to buy groceries or to run errands. One of them decided they needed a puppy to break up the loneliness of lockdown. The other one agreed. And here the puppy was, a teenage dog now, growling louder as we talked. The owner rubbed his head.

“He’s still not used to people,” she said.

And that’s the problem, says Huntsville pet trainer Margie Wiesman, owner of Island Dog, a training center where humans learn to live joyfully with their dogs. There are so many “Covid Puppies” out there now. That’s what Wiesman calls these pets who are shy and fearful. They were on lockdown, too, just like their owners. They weren’t introduced to other humans because most humans were shut in their homes, sitting in front of computers or a big screen TV, day after day.

Some of them decided to get a dog because they were lonely. Wiesman says the idea was : “We’re stuck at home, so we might as well be stuck with a furry friend for company.”

But then things changed. The humans went back to work, and it was the animals who felt lonely. When the humans came home from the office, they were tired and didn’t have the energy to take the dog for a long walk, including “sniffing time” along the way, a necessary form of communication for canines.

Pandemic pups weren’t taken out to new places with new scents in the air. They didn’t meet new people. They didn’t learn that the world can be safe and fun, Wiesman says, so they decided it wasn’t.

Going to a concert in the park may be too much for them at first. They may snap and growl out of fear, the way humans yell and fuss for the same reason. Going to restaurants with outdoor seating may be too much, too, but with patience and baby steps, pandemic pups can learn a new way.

When Wiesman sees them in the training room, they hide behind their person, not sure they can trust anyone else. While they may never be social butterflies, and new situations may overwhelm them, their guardians — which is what Wiesman calls their owners — have to take the time to reintroduce them to the world.

Bringing dogs into your home is a lifelong commitment, she tells them. They are companion animals. They’ll need human companions even after the pandemic is over— especially after the pandemic is over.

This takes patience, Wiesman says. This takes baby steps. One paw at a time.