An important article from Dogs Are Deserving Rescue
“Two Weeks! Give Them a Break!”
The Action:
“I have a new dog!”
“I found/adopted a dog!”
“I introduced her to 15 people”
“He was a bit leery but seems to like my other 3 dogs”
“She went everywhere with me “…
All in the first few days of the new home … (!!!)
The Reaction:
In about two weeks later we get the call back to the rescue;
“I think it’s not working out with the new dog”
“The new dog barked and nipped at my kid”
“We had a dog fight” “what do we do?”
Ok, folks, here it comes, the big secret to many foster/adopter homes success with a new dog that came from unknown or even not so good homes!
Doggy two week shut down!
Giving the new dog, post finding, adoption, etc., time to adjust to you and your family and the dogs in the new environment.
Why The Two Week Shut Down?
The Two Week Shut Down is a time familiar to a dog’s mind, as it mimics the whelping box when first born, as the puppy’s eyes are not open and it relies totally on the mother’s ability to take care of it. By smelling, sensing, listening the puppy starts his journey into the new scary world. New adult dogs come into our home the same way, “a journey into a new and scary world” By giving the dog a “time out” the dog can learn its new world, its new people and begin to relax and blossom under the care of the new care giver.
Why we all want to run out with our new dog, show everyone our new pet, we forget that even an adult dog is now back to a puppy newborn like mind, all is new, the voices speak a new language, cars might be new, leashes and handling under nice people might be new.
Even petting and acceptance of a pet is stressful on a new dog. “Who are you? Where did we come from? Where are we going? What is expected of me?”-the dog thinks! Just like a newborn baby we wouldn’t rush out and pass the baby from person to person, we set up a stable and save environment, our new dogs are just like that, our newborn baby. We also give the rescue dog a bit of time to heal, mentally and physically.
Step back for a minute and think how you might feel if you were never going to go back to your “home” and that you were expected to live with new people who didn’t understand your language. What if these new people took you to all sorts of different places expecting you to greet everyone happily and feel comfortable with an overload of attention all at one time? How might you feel after all of that, to have to go to your new “home” and interact with a bunch of strangers?
It’s very likely that you’d feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and ready to retreat but really have no place to go to. You might begin to act out and yell at people for coddling you and insisting that you do this and do that.
Well, many dogs are put in the very same position and the only way they know how to get their point across is to act out or “misbehave.” The dog may act out by nipping at children for he didn’t understand them and was corrected harshly before knowing how he was to be around them! Growling when being moved off furniture -he didn’t know he couldn’t be here. “What is expected? Where am I allowed?” Starting fights with the other animals in home -that dog here was giving me the evil eye my new humans are not leaders, “I must defend myself!”
How to: TWO WEEKS – “Shut Down”
For the first two weeks, (sometimes even longer depending on the dog) a dog takes in the new environment, who is the top persons, dogs, who ARE these people! By pushing a dog too fast and throwing too much at the dog we look like we are not the leaders, and the dog can feel it MUST defend itself, as the leader is surely no one he has met so far. We coo, coddle, and drag the dog to home to home to person to person, and the dog has NO idea who we are. A great way of thinking of this time is a line I stole from a friend; “this is the dating period NOT the honeymoon.”
When you first met your “mate”, you were on your best behavior, you were not relaxed enough to be all of yourself, were you? Just think of the things you do physically once you get to KNOW a person, you wouldn’t run up to a stranger and hug them and squeeze them! Imagine, if on the first date, this new person, was all over you touching you and having their friends hug you and pat you on top of the head, and jostle your shoulders, then he whisked you off to another stranger’s home and they did the same thing. Would you think this person normal and SAFE? Would you feel invaded and defensive and begin to get a bit snarky yourself? Wouldn’t you think to push these people away for obviously your date is out of their mind and they aren’t going to save you from these weirdo’s!! Yet we do this to our dogs, and then get upset or worried that they aren’t relaxed and accepting of EVERYTHING instantly! Why do we expect a dog to accept a situation when we ourselves could not?
By shutting down the dog, it gives the dog TIME to see you, meet YOU, hear and take in the new sounds and smells of your home.
Literally in two weeks you will see a change in the dog and begin to see its honest and true personality. Just like a house guest… They are well behaved and literally shut down themselves these first few weeks, then post this time, they relax, and the true personality begins to shine thru!
So, please, if nothing else for your new dog, give it the time to LEARN YOU as you are learning who they are! This method works on shy dogs, confident dogs, abuse cases, chained dogs that come in, rowdy dogs, all temperaments! It isn’t just the big bully smiles, it’s the expression, the way they start to LOOK at me, for guidance, I gained their trust and showed them, calmly and fairly what this new world is like, they literally relax and feel safe. There is no need to force that-we are the leaders, slow easy guidance, patience, showing them what we DO want them to do in a new home instead of correcting them when they do wrong. We install that we are worthy to the dog to be its leader!
So please for the sake of your new dog, slow down … waaaay dowwwn … Give them a chance to show you who they can really be!
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