New puppy or rescue: what to expect
Welcoming home a new puppy or rescue dog can be overwhelming. There are highs and lows as you and your new family member get to know each other and many new owners find the first weeks to be a difficult adjustment. With this in mind, I wanted to lay out what can be expected when we bring a new dog home, both to help people with what to expect but also to normalise how difficult the adjustment often is.
The first few days
Often, we can be lulled into a false sense of security in those first few days. Our dogs are in a state of acute stress: they have left everything they have ever known and come to a new place, with new people and new smells where nothing is familiar.
This results in our dogs holding everything in. They will often be quiet, sleeping a lot and appear to be very ‘calm’. This is very normal but it’s really important to recognise that this behaviour is not going to be forever. Especially with a young puppy or adolescent dog, they are going to have a lot of carnage to cause when they realise they are home and safe!
Owners will often comment on how settled their dog is and how well they are getting on and feel very positive at this stage.
However, is generally after a week or two that new puppy parents and rescue owners will start to feel overwhelmed by their dog’s behaviours. As they start to decompress and feel safe, they will show more of their personality.
As time goes on…
After a week or two, your dog is feeling safe. They are starting to show more of their personality. They may start barking, jumping up, destroying furniture, toileting inside.
Again, this is normal. Your dog is feeling safe and therefore, they are being themselves. A puppy or rescue has not learnt the rules of your home or how we like them to behave, so they are just doing what comes naturally. It’s important to be mindful of the fact that they are not being bad, they are just being a dog.
However, no matter how much you remind yourself of this fact, it doesn’t always make it any easier to deal with the behaviours that are in front of you. It is at this point that owners will often feel like they’ve bitten off more than they can chew and may start to wonder if a getting a dog was the right decision. Often, these feelings of regret come intermixed with intense feelings of guilt, as we feel awful that we are having these thoughts. This is called the ‘puppy blues’ and again, is totally normal. If you want to read more on this phenomenon, I wrote a blog on the puppy blues.
This means that we’ve got a dog who is behaving badly and we’re feeling overwhelmed, sad and guilty to boot. This is a lot for anyone to manage.
So what can we do?
Go back to training basics. We need to build from the bottom up with ours dogs. Don’t expect too much too soon. If you can teach your dog to respond to their name, how to sit and how to ‘wait’ for a treat, then this is a brilliant place to start. This is the fundamentals of recall, basic obedience and impulse control – really important skills and super easy to start off with! Look for easy wins.
Reward everything. Whenever your dog offers you a behaviour you like, reward it. Sat calmly on the floor? Treat. Didn’t bark when someone walked past? Treat. Went to bed without being asked? Treat. Looked at you on a walk? Treat. Everything that your dog does that you like, reinforce it. This is the only way they will learn what we want from them.
Meet your dog’s needs. Make sure your dog is having all their physical and mental needs met. They need to be getting the right amount of exercise: too much and we risk overstimulating and overtiring them. When we come back from a walk, your dog should be calm; if they aren’t, then it was too much. Mental stimulation is also important.
Remain consistent. Make time every day for training. Practise makes permanent so even a five minute training session is better than nothing and will soon add up! You need to be a source of safety for your dog: your bond is everything.
Reach out to a support network. Don’t do it alone. Speak with friends and family, check in with your trainer. There are also lots of wonderful groups on social media where you can reach out to other puppy owners (just be wary of taking any training advice from here, as often this advice is harmful).
Remain positive. By this I mean, stick to positive reinforcement and don’t be tempted to punish your dog. Remember: there is no bad behaviour, it’s just dog behaviour. Dogs don’t do spite or malice, they are not trying to get a rise out of you. Stick to reinforcing what you do like and eventually, these choices will be made more and more reliably.
Take time for yourself. It’s important to have time away from your dog in these first few weeks. Have them go with a walker, spend time with a neighbour, friend or family member so you can do the things that make you happy without your dog. You can’t pour from an empty cup!
Professional advice
Seeking the help of a qualified trainer or behaviourist can also help enormously when you first bring a dog home. Make sure to seek out an R+ (positive reinforcement) trainer, who uses force-free methods. This is the type of training that is backed by science, where dogs learn through praise and encouragement rather than through fear, pain or intimidation.
I work with clients in person across Bournemouth & Poole but also online with clients across the globe. Click here to drop me a message.
