It’s an exciting time! Welcoming a new family member and giving a shelter dog a safe, secure life and future! But for the dog, it is also a very overwhelming time. What they knew as “life” is now turned upside down.
Sometimes, there’s some known history of the dog's previous life, but in a lot of cases, there is not. We have to think about starting from scratch to learn about this new family member. Patience will be key to making the transition successful!
Generally speaking, you’ll want to give the dog 3-6 days to decompress, acclimate, and settle into their new home. Keep things as quiet and peaceful as you can during this time.
During the first 3-6 weeks the dog is in their new home, it will gain confidence and understanding of routines, schedules, and expectations and start to open up and show you more about their personalities. Observing the dog during this time will allow you to start to learn a lot about who they are!
You’ll want to allow 3-6 months to truly get to know the ins and outs of the dog, their likes, their worries, their strengths, and areas of training that may be needed, and to allow the dog to build a trusted bond with your family.
Patience is hard! But in the end, if your family will allow for this transition time and not put too much on the dog too soon, the comfort of your new dog and the success of the transition, will be much better for the long term!
Jo Downing, UT-CCFT, AKC CGC Evaluator, AKC Tricks Evaluator, ATD T/O, AKC Farm Dog Judge, CTDI/Tricks Evaluator
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