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Rehoming an older dog
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Featuring: Ch. Glenbrook Good As A Wink - Winx
The first day you bring home a new dog is exciting, especially if this is your first dog. But, as exciting as the new family addition is, remember that your dog is likely scared or overwhelmed and still sees you as a stranger.
Essential Tips for Creating Good Behaviour After You Bring Home a New Dog
Establish Rules
Dogs love structure. Without it, they will create their own rules, which leads to destructive behaviours such as garbage raiding, chewing items they’re not supposed to, and developing guarding behaviours. Limit access to privileges like the furniture and bed over the first several weeks. This will help create a healthy relationship between you and your dog. Eventually, you can introduce these spaces by permission.
Hire a Trainer
Rather than spend years feeling frustrated with your dog and not being able to do the activities you want to do together, do yourself a favour and get started with training from the start.
Learn Your Dog’s Language
In addition to understanding dog body language, take the time to really learn what your own dog is saying through their different barks, tail flicks, and head perks. Taking the time to learn your dog’s language will build the trust between you and your dog because you’ll learn when to remove them from situations if you see that they are uncomfortable. Knowing their individual nuances and sounds will also alert you when they are about to reach their threshold.
Go for Structured Walks
One of the most important skills my trainer taught me in our first lesson was the art of the structured walk.
What is a structured walk?
• No sniffing and marking everything in sight
• Continuous movement, especially around triggers
• Human directs full attention on the dog – no music, no phones, no chatting with friends
• No meeting other dogs
• Walking in a heel position with a loose leash
• 90% structure, 10% freedom.
Instead of thinking of a walk in terms of a route or distance, began to think of it in terms of time. Set a timer for 20 minutes, and if all you do is walk up and down the same street during that time, then that’s ok. Those with highly reactive or overly excited dogs, may need to perform these walks inside your home until your dog can exit the door calmly.
Socialize Your Dog the Right Way
When you head out on your structured walks or venture out and about, pay close attention to all of the things that cause your dog’s ears to perk, growl, bark, or pant. These are stimuli that make your dog feel anxious or reactive.
Keep a detailed list of everything you see and then spend time working on desensitization to these scary things. Here are a few common triggers for dogs:
• Loud roads
• Delivery trucks
• Doorbells/knocks
• People in hats
• Bikes/skateboards/wheelchairs
• Other dogs
• Other people
• Statues
Truly socializing a dog means to expose them to a variety of noises, objects, and experiences so that they can learn that these things are nothing to fear. We tend to think of socialization as playing with as many dogs and people as possible, which, is asking for a reactive dog.
Use a Leash in the House
Leashes aren’t just for the outdoors! They are great to use inside the house, especially if you have a puppy or have brought a new dog home. Training starts indoors, which is a very boring location for your dog! You want to begin where there are few distractions and using a leash indoors will better prepare them for the outdoor world.
Crate Train
Crates provide a space for your dog to relax (even when you’re home), go when you’re doing house work (like vacuuming), and when travelling in the car. Most importantly, crates keep them safe when you have to leave them alone and prevents separation anxiety.
Slow Down
An eager dog will enthusiastically jump into the car, learn new tricks and they’ll rush out the door and jump out of the car if you allow. Slow everything down. Make them wait in a sit at thresholds. Sit and wait until you invite him up into the car, wait to exit the car,or to leave the house. When you see them starting to become animated at another dog, person, or bird up ahead, slow your walk. Slowing down shows them that you are in control. It also interrupts their thought process and keeps the focus on you.
Hand Feed
Hand feeding not only offers the opportunity to train your dog, it also teaches them that good things come from you. Hand feeding also:
• Builds trust between you and your dog.
• Prevents resource guarding
• Teaches impulse control
• Prevents eating too fast
• Prevents overeating
Avoid Dog Parks
But how will you ever socialize your dog without a dog park? Dog parks are the last place you want to take your new dog to socialize with other dogs. Rather, they are a great place to take your dog if you want them to get into a fight, learn poor behaviours, and develop fears and anxiety. Here’s why:
• Dog parks are unnatural settings for new dogs to meet
• Dogs with pent up energy will engage in rude behaviours
• There is no structure
• Energies among dogs are severely mismatched
• You are trusting strangers that their dogs interact well with other dogs
• High likelihood dog will learn poor behaviour from other dogs
• Most dog owners won’t understand dog body language, which can lead to fights
Dog parks can also harbour diseases. You have no idea whether someone’s dog is vaccinated, has kennel cough, canine distemper or another communicable disease. They are especially dangerous for puppies under a year old.
No On-Leash Greetings
Similar to dog park settings, on-leash greetings are not natural ways for dogs to meet one another. Further, allowing your dog to go up to any and every dog can create leash reactivity and other unwanted behaviours. Leashes are great tools for walking your dog, but they cause a lot of problems when it comes to meeting other dogs.
• They take away a dog’s ability to leave a situation if they feel uncomfortable. With only six feet of space to flee, it leaves your dog with only the option to fight.
• They foster leash reactivity. Your dog learns that lunging and barking create space between other dogs.
• Dogs sniff butts to greet. Leashes encourage face-to-face greetings, which dogs view as threatening.
Dogs don’t need to meet hundreds of dogs in order to become “socialized.” They need several positive interactions with calm dogs in structured settings. Instead, arrange a structured dog walk with a friend who has a calm dog. Start with a lot of space between the two dogs, gradually decreasing the space as the dogs feel comfortable. Walk in a single file and allow one dog to sniff the rear of the lead dog for a moment, switching places to give the other dog the same opportunity.
Rethink How You Play with Toys
Does your dog go through their toys in a matter of seconds? Some dogs are super chewers. If you give him a toy to just chew on, he’d destroy it. Instead, use toys as a training and engagement tool. When they have the freedom to access them whenever they please, it devalues the reward. Play for a specified amount of time and then the toy is put away. i.e. a frisbee. Use a natural hoof chew available from pet shops when leaving your dog for a longer period of time.
Facilitate Controlled Greetings with New People
Your friends really won’t enjoy this one, but this is crucial to curb unwanted behaviours and prevent your dog from feeling even more overwhelmed than they already are. New friends can be both overly exciting and overwhelming to a dog. In order to foster calm interactions with new people, keep your new dog tethered to your waist, in their crate, or tethered in place and ask your friends to ignore your dog.
Don’t Go Overboard with the Affection
You’ll naturally want to smother your new dog with affection once you bring them home. Resist the urge. You are still a stranger to them and you don’t know them either. Your dog may not enjoy being pet, hugged, and squeezed. Stay away from their face especially as you learn what they like and don’t like. Give them some space and let them tell you when they seek affection.
Set them Up for Success
Friends and family don’t often understand about strict rules in regard to greetings, or allowing interactions with other dogs. Set them up for success. If you don’t allow him to do the behaviours you don’t want, then he won’t do them. For example, don’t allow him to sit at the door and watch the cat unless he has proven that he can do so calmly. Aim to never put him in a situation where you will have to correct him because you want to boost his confidence and the likelihood of success.
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