Tips on Bringing Your New Dog Home

Housebreaking/ Crate training

• Every dog (even housetrained ones) are likely to have accidents in the transition
  • Make sure they know to purchase an enzymatic cleaner (like Nature’s Miracle) for cleaning up accidents
• Recommend crate training
  • Don’t just crate when you are leaving (dog will associate crate with you leaving, and he won’t like the crate)
  • Crate during meals and at night
• Correcting Accidents
  • Only correct elimination in the house if you catch the dog in the act. DO NOT yell at the dog if you find excrement or urine and you didn’t see the dog producing it. NEVER “rub the dog’s nose in it.”
  • If you see the dog eliminating in the house, make a loud noise to startle him into stopping, take him immediately outside and praise and treat him if he finishes outside

Recommendations on Dog training

• Positive Reinforcement:
• • Encourage good/desired behavior with treats.
  • Always give an alternative to inappropriate behavior
  • Example: with chewing something bad: Say “DROP” and give him something appropriate to chew, like a toy. Then praise him for chewing appropriate object

Walking the Dog

• Dogs and dogs should be introduced first on neutral territory – walking side by side.
• If all goes well on neutral territory, bring new dog into home:
  • Keep new dog on leash to observe for a couple of hours
  • Pick up all toys and only allow each dog one toy at a time, while supervised
  • Feed dogs in their crates. This also creates a positive reaction to be crated.
  • Crate dogs when not supervised in the beginning until you are comfortable with their behavior.
• When leaving home, always keep dogs in a gated area or crate. Never leave dogs free to roam when not at home until you know they are comfortable and not stressed when left alone.
  • Initially keep animals in separate, but adjacent rooms 
  • Feed animals on either side of the door so they can smell each other while eating
• Take a towel or blanket that the each animal has been laying on and switch it with the towel the other animal was laying on
• Take new dog into the other room on a leash and give treats to both animals. Them take the dog out of the room and stop giving treats. Repeat several times.
• When the animals seem more comfortable, open the door and put up a baby gate so they can see and smell each other.