His world has changed forever, a kodak moment as he waves rescue goodbye and begins his new life with his excited new owners.
As the car rolls away his new mum recites to him the exhilarating week she has planned for him, who they will meet, where they’re gonna go; it’s so tempting to expose him to anything and everything, after all he’s missed out for too long right?
The phrase ‘too much too soon’ is more prevalent than ever here, I’ve seen it countless times, with owners with very good intentions simply over doing it with their new rescue dog.
In our human minds we focus on the amazing new life this dog is going to have, the things we want to do for him, we want him to have fun and be a big part of our family, and being human with little impulse control we want to do it all now; for us we have an exciting new addition to our lives, but for him his whole world has changed yet again.
So how to make this first week work? Well, first of all after a sniff around the garden and the house, let him sleep, have plenty of comfy resting places available, if you don’t want him on the sofa then block access, don’t expect him to understand it’s out of bounds. Some dogs prefer the floor, others a crate, some like to follow you, some like to stay and observe from a distance in a place that feels safe. Be around but not on top of him, sit and read or work with gentle music on while he rests.
He may be too amped up to sleep, if so then allow many toilet breaks, chew toys, a stuffed Kong, do some casual scent work by scatter feeding, this will all help get that adrenaline down.
First night, he will be very unsure of everything most likely, don’t make him cry it out for hours, set him up for success and work out what he is most happy with sleeping wise. He has no idea where he is, and when it’s dark and he wakes up alone with unfamiliar smells and objects it can cause a panic. There are some dogs of course who surprise us all and slumber through the night without a peep.
Don’t ask too much of him, just let him be and make everything a pleasant experience, next door’s dog has come outside, so lets go In and have a kong instead of garden time right now, it’s noisy outside so lets put on some music and stop things getting scary, a friend wants to visit, lets give it a miss this week, it’s too soon to unsettle him.
Day 3 or 4 lets do a gentle walk, one with plenty to sniff and take in, high value treats on hand in case of any potential stressors, nice comfortable harness and decent length lead to allow freedom of movement, lots of reassurance where needed but a focus on calm and mooching. He may like dogs and people but quiet walks win the race in that settling in stage, a busy park will blow his already whirring mind and may make him act out of character, let him approach people in his time, he may choose not to.
And we slowly build this way, thing by thing, brick after brick, cemented together by a growing human to dog bond. We are taking the time to plan how to prevent issues occurring and how to manage any that rear their head, understanding that as he settles over the months new things will pop up and initial issues may lessen but this will take time. The pace we move at has to be his pace not ours.
Do we expect him to just fit in because we have been lovely and adopted a rescue dog? No of course not, he didn’t ask to live there. Will it be worth it in the long run persevering through these tough times? Completely.
After all, nothing worth having comes easy. And these dogs are worth the effort.
awareofthedog 