The first objective is to create a safe environment. How is it achieved? Do not punish or correct; focus on anticipating situations to prevent them from happening. It’s easy, for example: “I don’t want you to enter a room”. I have the door closed. If one day comes in, subtract importance. He just kindly asks him to come out.
The role of the people in the house is essential. They will quickly become a reference in the adaptation process, and it is not a good idea to be a reference that inspires fear.
Interesting, right?
Let’s avoid the first days shouting, the excitement of joy or arguments in his presence. If there are children, we will understand that a dog is not a toy and that they should leave it alone, not disturb or scare it. We will involve them in some pet care (for example, putting dinner on them).
If something “abnormal” happens that could scare the dog (there was an unexpected noise, the broom fell near the, etc.), we will not give importance; we will not try to calm him down. We will be close and act naturally; without abrupt movements, we collect what fell without speaking or looking at him. There is something to remember: dogs give importance to what we give importance to. If you don’t care about the incident, he will quickly forget it.
Walking routines are essential. A model routine could be three walks a day, about 20 minutes long. If one of them is off-leash, in a park or forest, it would be great. It is not a good idea to take great walks to tire them out. Think that possibly it takes a long time to get out of a cage too little, it can be too big a demand for long walks. Something similar happens with the exercise, it does not induce you to run, if you need to do it, you will run. Induced arousal could be harmful.
What else?
It would be great to substitute exciting and physical games, like chasing a ball many times for smell exercise games. A 15 or 20 minute daily routine of looking for small bits of food will relax and have enormous benefits for your new dog, plus he is sure to have fun. We can also consider extending part of your food ration so that you can find it.
Another point of importance is excessive attention or manipulation. Most of the time, we can not avoid being controlling everything he does, and we caress a lot, we hug, we kiss !!! We must learn to keep him company, to talk less and moderate more. It is important to remember that excess in our presence can create a defect in our absence. Many adopted dogs develop excess dependency and anxiety about separating. Let’s gradually teach ourselves to be alone in a room, in a pleasant way, never as punishment, fostering a little independence, the normality of being accompanied or alone.
In the first few days, your dog may defecate or urinate where it shouldn’t. Try if that happens, to be calm, it is a temporary thing caused by lack of hygienic routine, (during the time he frequently urinated inside a cage) or by the stress produced by an internal fluid imbalance and gastric disturbances. We urinate more when we are nervous, and sometimes “we have a bad belly.” If we maintain the routine of stable walks, in a short time, the problems will disappear.
