My Top Ten Tips for Your New Dog's Successful Transition to Your Home

Most of my work at present is with new owners of refuge or rescue dogs – I’ll be sharing some of their stories in the future. These are kind-hearted people willing to give a second chance to a dog that, for whatever reason, has been lost, abandoned, discarded or dumped. More often than not these dogs are adolescents or adults given up because their previous owner could no longer ‘handle’ them or no longer wanted to. In all cases, whether the dog is a pup, an adolescent or an adult, I offer the new owner my top ten tips for a successful transition from the refuge to the family home.

Due to my working with several refuges, some of which are in France up to five hours away, my contact with the new owner may be via email rather than in person and in some cases takes place through a volunteer liaison person at the refuge who knows the dog and has met with the prospective owner.  Because of the volunteer nature of these refuges and shelters their primary focus is to find homes for the dogs in their care, not to offer advice on training. By my offering to kick start the process with some easy to follow guidelines, my hope is that more dogs will successful integrate into their new homes, thus reducing the number of dogs returned to the shelters.

Adopting a New Dog?  First Ask Yourself a Few Key Questions

…and note down the answer – these will form the foundation of your “house rules” – No. 1 of my top 10.

Who will be his primary handler? Your new dog must have only one primary handler – this person is responsible for all aspects of the dog’s training and decisions related to him. Other members of the family can help out, but the dog needs one human he can look to as the manager of the pack – someone who will show him the ropes and protect him if need be from other humans as well as dogs.

Where do you want your dog to sleep? All dogs need a bed just like we do, sharing yours is not a good idea; it should be kept as a special privilege for a dog that has learned good manners. So decide right from the start where you want your dog to sleep, and stick to it.

The dogs on their couch

 Will he be allowed on the furniture? Making a rule at the start as to what places are out of bounds for your dog makes for a happier home in the long run. Remember is easier to train a desire behavior than correct an undesirable one. If you don’t want him on your furniture, he needs some ‘furniture’ of his own – a bed, bean chair, old couch, a mat in the corner, and you need to have a consistent way of managing his attempts at getting on to your furniture by reinforcing his going to his own.

What toys are acceptable for him to chew? Your puppy or new dog is going to chew whether you like it or not. If you do not provide him with suitable chews, he’ll find his own – shoes, bags, chair legs, couch cushions, the door mat…trust me I know this from experience. Stuffable chews (eg, Kongs) are the best as they keep him cognitively occupied as well as addressing his need to chew, you can stuff them with something yummy (like mince and rice) and freeze them. There are a wide range of toys suitable for dogs to chew and a little cream cheese, or peanut butter can make something new and alien into something interesting to explore.

Where will his ‘safe’ place be? Your dog needs a safe place to call his own whether it is a crate, a cordoned off part of the kitchen, or a “puppy pen” set up in the living room. You need a place to put your dog when you have other things to do.

 What will his routine be? Just like a new baby needs a routine for eating, toileting and sleeping so too will your new dog.  While he was in the shelter, there would have been a routine to his day, now he is with your family it is up to you to teach him the routine you want. Try and fit it as closely into your daily schedule as you can, but write up a routine and follow it – it will make things a lot easier in the long run.

Where will he toilet? Your new dog, whether a puppy, adolescent or adult, needs to establish a toileting routine with you as soon as you get him home. Decide where you want him to toilet and take him to this spot: after he has woken, after he has eaten, and at two hour intervals otherwise.

Now you have considered these questions – you can use them to form the basis of your house rules.

Top 10 Tips For a Trouble-Free Transition

1.  Establish a set of "house rules" for your new dog as soon as you get him home:  Depending on the method of training you employ it may take weeks to secure desirable behaviors for both dog and family members alike. If you start as you mean to continue you can establish good habits early rather than having to unlearn bad habits later.  Keep in mind, what may be cute in a little puppy, will never be cute in a full grown adult.
2.  Start your new dog’s training on day one: Build into your routine lots of 3-minute training sessions. Make every training session about one thing only. Keep a leash on your dog throughout the training so he is fully under your control. Have a pile of treats at the ready and a clear idea of what you are training. The Sirius Behavior Blueprints are a great place to start.
3.  Make coming and going from your home no big deal: Get in the habit of leaving your puppy or new dog for a few minutes at a time. Put him in his safe place and walk into another room for a minute or two. Return to the room your dog is in and pay him no attention until he is quiet and settled (keep yourself busy doing other stuff). When he is calm, go to him and quietly tell him what a good boy he’s been and reward his calmness.  You want to avoid your dog getting over excited when you leave – raised adrenalin equals raised anxiety levels. Try leaving the house now for 2-3 minutes and when you return again pay no attention to your dog until he is calm and settled or enough time has passed (5-10 mins) for him not to associate his feelings with your coming home. Gradually increase the time you leave him alone and always focus on and reward his calmest behavior.
4. Decide a feeding schedule for your new pal right from the start: Work out his daily allocation of food and put half aside for treats for training during the day, divide the rest into 2 small meals – one for the end of the morning, one for the end of the day. If your dog is very food orientated, use the meal as a special reward after a series of training sessions. If your dog is fussy or picky, give him 15-20 minutes to eat his meal before taking it away for good. It won’t hurt him to miss a meal occasionally, it might even do him some good, just like fasting does for us.
5. Decide where you want your dog to be when you are eating your meals/when you have visitors call/when you want the children to get their homework done: It is a good habit to teach your dog to go to his mat, or den with a stuffed chew (or some other non-interruptive behavior) when you sit down to your meals or you want him out of the way for a while. The last thing you want is a dog begging for food at meal times or for attention when you must give it elsewhere. Encourage quiet behavior by rewarding any occurrence of him lying quietly in his den keeping himself occupied.
6. Work on "off lead" behavior as early as you can: Start in the house in a safe place (for your belongings as well as for your dog), let your dog romp around and get him used to coming back to you frequently. Reward him with a special treat (taken from his food allocation) any time he comes near you. Do this frequently, ALWAYS wait for your dog to come to you, reward each time. At this stage you don’t need to use any cues or commands, simply use your body language to encourage your dog to come to you. You can even move away and see if he will follow. The earlier you establish this foundation for the recall, the easier it will be for you to teach your dog to come on cue later on.  ALWAYS stay cheerful and positive when your dog comes to you, you want this to be a pleasant and enjoyable experience for your dog every single time. If you yell, or make a scene, or raise your voice, even in fear for your dog, just once, your puppy or new dog will remember that and there will always be the off chance it might happen again so he will be reluctant to return.
7. Handle your puppy/dog often: Get him used to being touched by you. If he is a puppy pick him up and carry him around, stroke him, play with him. Get him used to you touching his paws, his head, putting your hand inside his mouth, brushing him. If the dog is older and more wary, start with simple stroking along the spine. Reward with a treat, any calmness the dog displays. Touch his collar, run your fingers along the inside. Reward him for letting you do that. Progress down each leg and so on.
8. Please, please take your new dog to good manners and/or puppy socialization classes at your earliest convenience: Please ensure that the trainer only uses positive training methods (clicker training, positive lure based conditioning).  Avoid any trainer who talks about "alpha dog" and "dominance" training or the need to use punishment as a training device. Dog training has evolved beyond these methods and there is plenty of good information on the internet in support of quality positive dog training: the Associationof Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) offers advice on appropriately certified trainers and you can find a register of Certified Training Partners at the Karen Pryor Academy.
9. Encourage your new dog to be on his best behavior whenever you are in a social situation: (including playing with other dogs, or children or when attending dog training classes.) You have the bigger brain so it is for you to establish the boundaries of what is acceptable behavior. Decide how it is you would like your dog to behave in the presence of others and reward him for incidents of that behavior. Any undesirable behavior should result in the end of the association i.e. take the your dog away.
10. Teach your dog his name: Your dog’s name needs to have all the power of an emergency recall. Whenever you use it you want it to mean something wonderful is coming. Start by saying your dog’s name and feeding him a treat. Keep doing this until he looks at you when you say his name in anticipation of the treat. Mark that behavior (with a bright ‘yes’ or a click) and feed him a treat.  Now go to a different room or take him off leash and let him run around a little. Say his name softly, does he look at you? If so, mark and treat and say his name again. Repeat until you get 8 correct responses in a row. NEVER use your dog’s name in anger, or yell it, or say it over and over again. Say it once, and expect a response, if you trained the foundation then he will respond every time. Good dog!

Final Word

Share these Tips with all family members and any guests you might have visit you. It is so important that your new dog be presented with a united front and that means everyone needs to follow the rules.

Your dog is smart, if the rules relax when you have guests visit, then he’ll catch on quick “Ah, people coming to visit means I can do what I like, yippee!”

Start as you mean to continue, focus on what you want your dog to do, reward for good behavior, ignoring everything else, and you can’t help but have success.