Having a dog is the most amazing and pleasant thing that we could ever imagine as an owner. Dogs known for their loyalty and lovely personality, that is why many people choose to take them as a pet, whether you take them as a puppy or adopted an older dog. It still extremely rewarding feeling that you could experience.
But just like human, they have emotions and ability to adjust a new environment surrounds them, and this adjustment take a time. As an owner we can’t force them to understand their new environment with our own time. What we can do is make them feeling they are welcome and make sure they are in the most comfortable place.
So now, we are going to give you some tips of how to help a dog adjust with a new family, that we hope brings the improvement to settle in their new family and home, also to increase the bond between you and your dog.
- Let Them Starting Slowly
Just like us, human, starting a new life is something really hard for dogs. You have to help them adjust their new home and family, introduce them with all of your family members, so they know that your family is their new owner. Let them explore a lot of new things around them, every corner and places in their new home for their own.
Give them a time to decompress their feeling. Especially if you adopted your puppy or dog from a shelter, because they already get used with a noisy and stressful place; so, this sudden changes that they feel in you house – the calm, warm, cozy, and quiet atmospheres, maybe gonna make them a little bit uncomfortable.
It’s gonna take a time for them to absorb everything. Maybe for the first couples days you will see that your dog act stiff, probably it’s the best to leave him alone, and check out things around him. Don’t be over simulate them to do a lot of things. If they decided to get your attention, that is a good sign which means that your dog is starting to feel comfortable with their new environment.
- Give Them A Space
Giving them a space is important thing to do, because sometime they need their own space to comprehends what just happened. They like to have their own comfortable place where they would feel safe – to retreat themselves. And each dog have a different time, there are some dogs whose need a longer “me” time, but there is some whose really fast adjustment with thing surrounds them.
There is a time that they are not in a mood to cuddle and playing, in these cases, you could attract them with some toys such a rubber stuffed or a food dispensing toy, and don’t forget to give them some yummy present if in the end they decided to join and play with you. All of this thing to aimed their trust and to show them that you care of them and give them a thought that you are the provider of many cool things.
You should take more attention when you adopted an adult dog, because they have more memories in their brains about their past life such their previous owner, and previous home. The most important thing that you should remember is, be patience – do not rush. Some dogs might take days, weeks, even months, but in one point, they will accept it.
- They Might Lose Their Appetite And Get A Stomach Issues
The new scenes and environment also might cause your dogs lose their appetite. The stress that they feel will make them won’t eat the their food. If your dog is a shy one, perhaps it’s gonna take a few days to make them back to normal and eat their food. Sometime the change in food also a new diet menu become the problem for a new dog.
Don’t worry, if your dog is in healthy conditions, soon or later they will start to eat their food. They would never starve themselves. As soon as they feel comfortable with everything around them and decided to deal with it, they will eat their food. But, if you still worry about your dog, then you could try to offer them high quality food like chicken or ham.
If your dog keep refuse to eat their food even though you already give them high quality food after a few days, it’s the best way to check them to a doctor or veterinarian.
You also have to prepare yourself about the possibility that your dog could get a diarrhea. Yes, the changing dietary menu and the stress can be another causes of dogs to get diarrhea. You can handle it with asking the shelter which food that they use to fed your dog. This is help you to prevent the troubled stomach.
- Let Your Dogs Know Your Routine
Show them how everything works in your house by keeping your routine. It will increase their confident and improve them to be more comfortable with your house and family. You could train them by:
- Consistently going out in the same time
- Feed them in the same time every single day
- Going to bed in the same time every night
You should also add a time for exercise, and relax time that which is the best time to cuddle with your new beloved dog. As soon as they learn your routines, it will improve their emotions and the bond between both of you. Don’t spoil your dog to much. They still should understand what they should do and not.
- Train Your Dogs
You have to consider training your new dog how to behaved. Because, some dogs might become destructive when they are alone. And for sure, you don’t wanna come back home with in a battlefield look like house. But maybe you will get some issues while you trained your dog, especially for puppies. And perhaps you will find some accidents during the train.
But it’s normal. All you need to do is give them a time and try to understand them. Also, the most important thing is to give them so much love, then you will reward with so much love from your beloved dogs. I hope these tips of how to help a dog with a new family will help your relationship with your new dogs.