Jennifer Nixon's 10-year-old border collie Zac won't leave her side.
When she stands, the dog jumps up on her and when she sits, it tries to snuggle into her lap.
"He wants my comfort, it's just his possessive behaviour. He's always had it but this is the worst since we had to evacuate from the fires and it's getting worse," she said.
A bushfire came within 100 metres of the picturesque bush block where Ms Nixon's family has a farm back in January 2019.
Ms Nixon evacuated her dogs in a car. Now, her two-year-old kelpie Charlie refuses to get into the vehicle.
To get her pet in, she needs to use sedative medication, then carry it.
"When we get home from wherever … he is sick, he vomits, the stress really upsets him," she said.
Ms Nixon is seeking help for her animals and said she had a message for pet owners on the mainland whose animals may be affected by recent fires.
"Don't leave your dogs or your pets as long as I have … get them a check-up as soon as you can."
Hobart veterinarian Katrina Ward focuses on treating behavioural issues in pets and said the ability for an animal to overcome the trauma varies.
"Unfortunately, some of them do seem to develop complications after a traumatic event, much like humans developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)," she said.
Dr Ward said that pets experiencing anxiety and depression needed early intervention, adding that trauma in pets could be healed with medication, experiencing joy while playing and learning to relax again.
"Teaching them to just sit and look … if we reward calmness, whispering to them and enhancing calmness," she said.
Dr Ward said it was not just bushfires that traumatised pets — other events that have upset animals have included the Queensland floods, New Zealand earthquakes and Hurricane Katrina in the United States.
Colorado University professor Leslie Irvine studied the effect of 2005's Hurricane Katrina on pets and saw the effects on dogs and cats that were held in shelters without their owners.
"The best thing we can do to minimise their trauma is to keep them with us," she said.
Keeping pets and owners together "once they've been evacuated from an area, will go a long way to reducing trauma in animals and in humans," Professor Irvine said.
"Most people think of their animals as family members and best friends … if you disrupt those bonds, it can be very traumatic."
Professor Irvine said pets may still be traumatised despite evacuating along with their owners, because the experience can be highly disruptive to their environments.
"It can be very, very upsetting for them to leave home and stay in a place that's unfamiliar. They also pick up from their owners that something is not right."
Australians like Lisa Plohl, from the Huon Agricultural Society, are already organising ways that people can stay with their pets when they evacuate from disasters.
Ms Plohl turned the Ranelagh showground into a pet evacuation centre during last year's Tasmanian bushfires.
She said 90 people camped in the paddocks with about 400 animals in the sheds during the emergency.
"I'd encourage any agricultural society to look at their grounds and see what they could offer their communities," Ms Plohl said.
"If we've got these plans in place, we know they work and it adds less trauma when they have to evacuate in emergency situations."
