Adopting a Dog: Ensuring a Smooth Transition for Your New Pet

Understanding Your Dog's Psychological State

Adopting a dog is a rewarding experience, but it comes with the responsibility of ensuring your new pet transitions smoothly into its new home. The psychological state of your dog is crucial to understanding the requirements needed to help them settle in with as little stress as possible for both your family and your dog. It can take up to three months for a dog to fully adjust to its new environment, making it essential to create the right home environment to assist in this transition from the day the dog enters the home.

Misconceptions About Comforting an Insecure Dog

Many new dog owners feel the need to comfort a fearful or insecure dog with affection and a human-like loving environment, allowing it to do what it likes while it settles in. This approach, driven by our emotional responses, can be detrimental to a psychologically unstable or distressed dog. These dogs require structure in the form of consistent rules and boundaries from the day they enter their new home. This doesn’t mean being mean to the dog but providing a structured, behaviourally consistent environment for the dog to learn from.

The Importance of Structure and Boundaries

Establishing structure and boundaries helps dogs understand what is expected of them and reduces their anxiety by providing a predictable environment. Without this structure, dogs can develop various behavioural issues such as aggression, increased fearfulness, excessive dependency, and heightened anxiety.

Case Study 1: The Overly Anxious Poodle

Consider the case I attended of a Poodle adopted into a loving home. The owners' natural reaction was to give the dog lots of love and affection. However, this emotional interaction only reinforced and strengthened the dog's unstable psychological state. The Poodle's anxiety levels became extreme over a very short period in its new home, leading to aggressive behaviour towards its owner. The lack of structure and boundaries caused the dog to become even more anxious and unable to control its behaviour, resulting in an unsafe and unstable environment for both the dog and the owner. This dog was offered positive attention and affection when in an extremely anxious state and would react aggressively when it was denied its overly anxious need for attention. During my second visit to this owner's home, I observed the owner of the rescue, from which the dog had been adopted, rewarding and giving affection to the dog when it was in an extremely anxious state for attention. I shook my head in disbelief, feeling this person should know better. I do believe this person had good intentions with the dog; however, it was obvious that they had no idea of the distressed psychological state of the dog, and that their interaction with the dog was only reinforcing and strengthening the dog’s unstable psychological state. This dog was eventually returned to the rescue, as I had suggested during my consultation, believing the dog was beyond the owner's ability to work this dog through such extreme psychological and behavioural issues. In all reality, this dog should never have been placed into a home in its current psychological state. This dog required extreme rehabilitation and behaviour modification by a knowledgeable person who understood this dog and could offer the dog the structure and consistent training required, and not placed in the home of an inexperienced person that could only mother and coddle the dog.

Case Study 2: Unprovoked Severe Aggression

A dog that had, over a period of time, totally controlled its environment in the home, due to the owner not setting consistent rules and boundaries from the day it arrived. This dog had severely bitten several visitors, with many requiring medical assistance at a hospital. This "extremely" aggressive behaviour was totally unprovoked towards visitors to the home. The owner was informed by an inexperienced amateur dog trainer, who was focused on a positive-only ideology, to use positive-only methodology with their dog. This trainer had worked with the dog for over six months, suggesting undesirable behaviour be ignored or not dealt with, and suggested visitors offer the dog treats when they arrived. The dog's underlying psychological and behavioural issues were not appropriately addressed when it arrived in the home, and the owner was given what I consider irresponsible advice from an amateur dog trainer. This dog's behaviour had become so severe that the owner eventually decided to put the dog to sleep after a consultation and long discussion with me. The owner informed me that he wouldn't be able to provide the strict and consistent training and rules and boundaries required to work through this dog's behaviour, as I had suggested. I fully supported his decision, as the dog had become a very dangerous liability. This decision to put the dog to sleep was made after the dog aggressively attacked and severely bit a girlfriend who visited the apartment after I had already consulted with the owner, who did not follow through with my advice, which required his girlfriend to be rushed to hospital. Unfortunately, I was unable to take the dog, as I had only recently arrived in Vietnam and didn't have the facilities to provide training from.

Case Study 3: Dominant Behaviour

A dog adopted from a previous owner that could no longer keep their dog. I was asked to come out and offer advice regarding their dog incessantly barking at visitors to the home and noises outside the apartment. I offered a lot of advice and informed the owner they need to be consistent with the rules and boundaries that I was suggesting. Like most new dog owners of "cute" little dogs, my advice was acknowledged; however, as I was informed later by the owner, this information I provided was not maintained. Within weeks this dog started marking (peeing) places in the home, becoming very demanding of attention, demanding controlled rough play with overly firm almost aggressive biting, and back to the incessant barking. This case study is offered to show the importance of maintaining clear and consistent rules and boundaries when bringing a new dog into the home. Whilst all owners want the best for their dog, in many cases they tend to focus more on their own needs and less on the dog's, thereby consistency quickly evaporates, with all the suggested consistent rules and boundaries falling by the wayside. The owner acknowledges that they hadn't been consistent and need to follow through with all the suggestions I offered them during our initial consultation. We have more visits planned.

I can offer numerous case studies of mine that show just how important it is to understand the new dog you are bringing into your home, and that it's important to seek professional advice as soon as the dog is adopted into its new home. If you notice any concerning behaviours, no matter how minor you may feel they currently are when you bring a dog home, don't hold off hoping things will improve, or having been told to just give your new dog lots of love and affection, and your dog will settle in and love its new family. Unfortunately, not all rescue organisations offer to fully rehabilitate a dog with psychological or behavioural issues before adopting them out, mainly due to a lack of knowledge, and in many cases due to following and emotion based ideology. Many of these good intentioned people operating these organisations don't fully understand the psychological states of dogs they are releasing into homes, that are in some cases ticking time bombs if not correctly dealt with early.

Steps to Help Your Dog Settle In

1. Avoid Overly Emotional Attachment: Don't become overly emotionally attached to your adopted dog's past life, allowing these emotions to lead you to comfort and be overly affectionate towards the dog. These dogs do not need to be mothered and coddled. This mothering and coddling can be extremely detrimental to the dog’s overall rehabilitation.

2. Set Consistent Rules and Boundaries: From day one, establish clear rules for your dog to follow. Consistency is key to helping your dog understand what is expected.

3. Create a Predictable Routine: Dogs thrive on routine. A consistent daily schedule for feeding, walking, training and bedtime helps reduce anxiety.

4. Provide a Safe Space: Ensure your dog has a designated safe space where they can retreat and feel secure. This can be achieved by crate training your dog, or teaching your dog a "place" command, where it must stay until released.

5. A Balanced Approach to Training: Reward good behaviour with treats and praise to reinforce positive actions. However, undesirable behaviours need to be provided with a corresponding consequence. Do not fear applying positive or negative punishment when required in a way the dog understands to help set boundaries that the dog can quickly understand and learn from, therefore being less stressful for the dog.

6. Understand what's driving your dog's current behaviour, whether you view it as undesirable or even desirable behaviour. Not all desirable behaviour should be rewarded or reinforced if driven from a psychologically unstable mental state, such as an overly anxious state, fear, insecurity or hyperarousal. Behaviours triggered from an unstable distressed state should not be reinforced or rewarded.

7. Gradual Socialisation: Introduce your dog to new environments, people, and other pets gradually to prevent overwhelming them, if they are insecure or fearful.

8. Teach your dog respectful socialisation and interaction with people and other dogs, by enforcing strict respect for personal and social space, and condition impulse control.

9. Seek Professional Help if Needed: If your dog shows signs of severe anxiety, insecurity, irrational fears, or aggression, consult a professional dog trainer that specialises in modifying these types of behaviour. Please don't feel you can deal with this type of behaviours if you don't have the skills or knowledge to work your dog through them. You may deeply regret it in the long term, and it will be your dog that suffers for it.

By understanding your dog's psychological state and providing a structured, consistent environment, you can help your new dog settle in and become a well-adjusted member of your family. I suggest that any new dog owner adopting or considering adopting a dog, should organise a home visit by a professional to asses their new dog, and point out areas of concern, if any, to guide them and help ensure their dog settles in with as less stress as possible for both the dog and the new owner. Don't rely on information given by the person you are adopting the dog from, as in all probability the chances are, their knowledge and experience is probably extremely limited.