Rio trusted children much faster than he trusted adults.
Your new dog has just landed on an alien planet—your home. He needs time and encouragement in order to feel that it’s his home as well. Introducing the new dog to your other dog(s) has a whole page of its own. This page covers making the dog comfortable with the people and other critters in the house.
Before you bring the new dog home, hold a family meeting to talk about how you will handle the newcomer. Remember, all dogs crave structure and love routine. What family routines will the new dog need to fit into? In what parts of our life together can we create dog-friendly structure?
Bring everyone—especially children—on board with doggy communication. Humans who can tell when a dog is stressed or feeling aggressive can keep not only themselves but also the dog safe and healthy.
Explicitly teach children how to handle the dog. Teach them some pack leader behavior. Then have them show you how a pack leader stands—erect, shoulders back—and how a pack leader behaves—calm, strong, aloof toward misbehaving dogs. A little role play—you play the dog—could be fun and will cement the lesson.
The first time you bring the dog into the house …
- walk her around on leash, let her smell everything. Keeping her on leash keeps you in the position of the tour guide – this is good.
- as you walk around, watch and see if she wants to mark (pee) – the moment you see her begin to squat, make the momma noise “EH!” or “hey!” and run her outside. On her planet, it’s normal to mark, so don’t be surprised if she needs a quick lesson. This is not a big deal; Rio marked A LOT yet learned housetraining almost immediately.
- walk her around the yard with the same approach, on lead.
- settle down in a room for a while, with some “yes’s” available (e.g. a toy and a safe place), and just get her used to being in the space and around everyone.
At this first meeting and ever after, your most important task is to stay calm. If you are anxious or annoyed, your feelings may rub off on the dog. Have a glass of wine, take some Rescue Remedy, do some deep breathing—whatever it takes to keep you feeling calm and confident.
Little did we know, stairs were new to Rio! Going down was a little harder than going up.
A good first step for training the dog into the household is to establish the crate as a safe place. Place the crate in a quiet, out-of-the-way corner. Warn the children (or the roommates) that a dog in her crate is never to be disturbed. This is the safe place to which she can retreat—or in which you can put her—when things get stressful.
You also need to establish a simple but vital rule: Animals who live here are not prey. Dogs chase cats or gerbils because they behave like prey. You get dogs to leave them alone by establishing, through your actions, that these animals are members of the family. Even the baby—an apparently four-legged animal—could look like prey to a largish dog. Teach your dog to treat all members of the household well by rewarding good behavior and redirecting anything that looks like hunting or aggression. Making as much fuss over the cat as you make over the baby may also help.
If certain actions or sounds trigger a hyper reaction in your dog, do some de-sensitizing. For instance, our newest dog, Rio, would go nuts when he heard or saw anything that made him think “Out! We’re going OUT!!” Any activity near the door, any handling of keys, any leash sightings sent Rio into a frenzy. We solved this problem by going near the door, or opening it without going out, dozens of times a day. We played with the keys and the leash when we had no intention of going anywhere. We tried to make these activities routine and boring so Rio wouldn’t get excited every time.
