Bringing your dog home!
Bringing your new dog home. What you need to know.
Bringing a new dog into your home is an exciting and rewarding experience, but it requires careful planning and consideration to ensure a smooth transition for both you and your new furry friend. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you introduce a new dog to your home effectively:
1. Prepare Your Home:
Before bringing your new dog home, make sure your house is safe. Remove any hazards or items that could be chewed or swallowed.
Create a designated space for your new dog, such as a comfortable bed or crate, where they can retreat and feel safe.
Keep your animals separate for the first few days to allow each animal to get a feel for the other’s energy without having to be physically approached. You can use baby gates or other barriers to do this.
2. Avoid Trigger Stacking:
Trigger stacking refers to the cumulative effect of multiple stressors or triggers on a dog's behavior. Just like humans, dogs can experience stress from various sources, such as loud noises, unfamiliar environments, being separated from their owners, meeting new people or animals, and other situations they find challenging or frightening.
When a dog experiences multiple stressors in a short period of time without adequate time to recover or decompress, these stressors can compound or "stack" on top of each other. This can overwhelm the dog's coping mechanisms and lead to an exaggerated or escalated response, such as fear, anxiety, aggression, or avoidance behavior.
Avoid overwhelming your new dog with too many new experiences or stimuli all at once. This can lead to trigger stacking, where multiple stressors accumulate and cause anxiety or fear.
Introduce your dog to new experiences gradually and at their own pace, allowing them time to adjust and feel comfortable. For a new shelter dog, stray, or a dog who has been in a foster home, this can take anywhere from 2-3 days to 3-4 weeks.
Adjust your work schedule to accommodate your new dog. Just as you would take time off work to bond with a new baby, it is important that you are home and allow adequate time for a new dog to be with you while it learns it is safe in its new environment. We suggest taking off 2-3 days to a week off if you work outside the home so the dog can bond with you, and you can gradually introduce it to being in a crate for a few hours at a time. Bringing a new dog home and leaving it alone in a crate for long periods of time will only cause it to have separation anxiety, and you both up for failure.
3. Allow for Decompression:
Understand that your new dog may be stressed or anxious in their new environment. Allow them time to decompress and adjust to their new surroundings. ( See Trigger stacking above.)
Limit interactions with new people and animals initially, and provide plenty of quiet time for your dog to relax and settle in.
Ignore the dog for the first couple of days, and allow it to seek you out for petting, or attention. Often dogs will be timid the first few days of coming into a new home. You can encourage the dog to feel safe by sitting on the floor and just being in its presence. Not engaging in this way allows the dog to explore you and it’s new environment on it’s own terms.
4. Prevent Resource Guarding:
Resource guarding can occur when a dog feels threatened or insecure about their possessions, such as food or toys. This is a common and normal behavior with dogs who may have been kenneled with other dogs or had to fight for resources as a stray. To set the dog up for success, always feed dogs in separate areas, give bones/toys in separate areas. Do not take food, toys, or treats away from a dog. Instead, offer them a different treat, when they abandon what they have, take away and put up. Contact us if you have questions, or issues with this one.
5. New People and Animals:
Introduce your new dog to new people and animals gradually and in controlled environments.
Start with calm, neutral introductions, and observe your dog's body language for signs of stress or discomfort. If necessary, separate them and try again later. We encourage keeping dogs separate for the first few days and starting off with a pack walk where you and another person take the dogs on a walk together, on lead, but do not walk close enough for nose-to-nose contact. This promotes a neutral way for the dogs to “suss” out the other and promotes bonding. When you notice the dogs are more interested in their surroundings, or you, than they are with each other, then you can think about letting them get close enough to sniff each other’s back side and eventually be off lead together in the house or yard. Our team can walk you through any situations that may warrant a different approach should one or both dogs show reactiveness during this process.
6. Introduce to New Experiences:
Expose your new dog to a variety of new experiences gradually, such as car rides, walks in different environments, and meeting new people. We encourage waiting for at least a week before introducing them to new potentially “scary things.”
Pay attention to your dog's reactions and comfort level and adjust the pace accordingly. Always prioritize their safety and well-being. Learn what body language might suggest they are uncomfortable such as yawning, excessive stretching, pawing, or licking of the lips.
7. Your dog is a flight risk for the first couple of weeks.
Understand that newly adopted dogs may be flight risks, especially if they feel scared or anxious in their new environment.
Take precautions to prevent escaping by ensuring your yard is securely fenced, using a leash and harness during walks, and always supervising outdoor time closely. Never let the dog out into the backyard for any length of time unsupervised. Huskies come with a triple warning.
If you have children, at least in the beginning, secure a baby gate or pen that creates a barrier to a dog bolting out the door should a child open a door or leave one open.
Make sure your dog is microchipped, has an ID tag on, AND a location device of some kind. ( air tag, gps collar etc) Noone thinks this last step is needed, until it is! ( ask the co-found of the rescue who’s dog went missing for 15 days and it took a search and rescue team to get it back. Trust us on this one!
8. Provide Training and Socialization:
Enroll your new dog in obedience training classes to help them learn basic commands and build a strong bond with you. This is a must for puppies. Even if you are skilled at obedience training. Proper socialization does not happen in a bubble. Your puppies can begin puppy classes once they have had their 3rd set of puppy vaccinations.
Socialize your dog with other dogs and people in a positive and controlled manner, exposing them to different environments and situations. Make sure you follow the above guidelines and do this in a gradual manner after they have had a successful decompression period and have had a chance to bond with you, the other animals in the household and have successfully integrated into your home.
9. Seek Professional Help if Needed:
If you encounter challenges or behavioral issues during the introduction process, don't hesitate to seek help from our team. In fact, we insist on it! We are well connected to the dog world and have many trainers and professionals at our fingertips if needed. We are fully committed to making sure our dogs are successful in your home. Sometimes it takes a village.
