Exercise My Pet

Hi All,

Here are some quick and helpful tips when dealing with a new addition to the home.

• Make sure any other dogs are safely removed from the house. Let your new dog have a sniff around the house in peace. If they make for a bedroom or under something to shelter please let them.
• Place your other dogs on leashes and slowly and calmly let them smell around the new dog. DON'T drag the new dog out or cause a stressful situation. If your dog starts to bark or worse, OUT they go! You may have to introduce your dogs to their new playmates a few times till they calm down.
• Let the new dog come out of it's shell in it's own time. Pulling them out, getting down to pet or comfort them it a waste of time. Your rescue dog has been through a very emotionally upsetting time and they have few ways to communicate what has happened. Let them come to you. Be ready to welcome them into your pack. Allow the rescue dog to feel it has at long last some power over it's environment.
• During feeding time always fed them in the same place and don't let the other dogs eat their food. The last thing you want are fights over bowls of food.
• Please be patient. The rescue dog may take a few days to come around. Don't fuss over them, and make sure your dogs aren't making their stay stressful. If play gets angry or they start to have a go at one another separate them in different rooms or one goes outdoors. Don't let them see one another. Wait twenty minutes and slowly introduce them again. I would recommend they are both placed on leashes. If they start to pull or bark, back away and get them out of sight of one another. Wait a few minutes then introduce again. Again you maybe forced to do this again and again until both are calm.
• Always remember rescue dogs need time as do their new owners and any new playmates. You have done a wonderful thing for this dog PLEASE be patient!