Buying A Home
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XP: Dogs adjusting to new home/training (long)
Just wondering if anyone who is a new homeowner had dogs with problems adjusting to a new environment. We have 2 dogs that we rescued about 8 months ago and they have lived in the same place with us ever since. I'm worried about introducing them to the new home. I guess I'm mostly worried they will pee everywhere trying to mark their territory on our BRAND NEW carpet. I'm also worried about the rules we want to try.
FI and I have decided that we want to have new "dog rules"in the house. We are at a loss of how to teach these rules to our pups. We want to do the following:
- We have decided that the dogs will not be allowed upstairs (they have been sleeping on the floor next to our bed and driving us crazy for the past couple of months)
- We also want to designate one couch in the living room as "the dog couch" (they have had full reign of all furniture in the apt).
- I also want to teach them how to not act like freaking maniacs as I'm preparing their food (they jump all over me/bark and I usually end up spilling the food/water).
- Lastly, we are getting a doggie door installed so they can go in and out when we are not home. We will be putting a baby/dog gate keeping them restricted to the kitchen so they can't wander anywhere with carpet. (They have been crated the entire time we aren't at home since we got them).
Does anyone have any tips or tricks for making this adjustment easier? Or suggestions on how we should train our pups? Thanks for reading!
Re: XP: Dogs adjusting to new home/training (long)
We have a dog (she'll be 5) and i'm also wondering how she'll do when we move.
I think the key to start is to keep your routine as similar as possible to how it is now.
Not sure how to go about starting all of those new rules... I'm no expert, but I dont think starting right off the bat after you move is a good idea. Either start before you move with possibly #2 and 3, and then wait a while after you move to do the others.
See, I was thinking a new place would be a good opportunity to implement new rules but you're right that a lot of new rules all at once would be confusing. I can start working on 2 and 3 now. I'm just not sure how!
I think the key is to take the new rules one at a time, and start implementing them now. Pick the bigest one that can be applied while your still in the apartment and implement that. Once they have figured out what you want them to do with that one, add the next and so on. The key to implementing any new rule, at least for our dog, is positive reinforcement and redirection. The first day we brought him home, he walked over and lifted his leg like he was going to pee on DH's drumset. We immediately offered him a treat, and he walked away without peeing on the drumset. When he walked away, we praised him like crazy. He has never pee'd in the house since.
I'm not trying to be rude or snarky, but I would recommend not letting your dogs go outside when you're not there. I personally know to many dogs that have gotten hurt/bitten when the owners were there to keep an eye on them that I can't imagine what would've happened if no one was home at the time. My parents never let their golden out unless someone is home, and a few months ago he came back inside with a spider bite on him that ended up getting infected and required 2 1/2 months of antibiotics before it healed. The vet said if he had been home alone, and not rushed to the e-vet right away, they probably would've lost him.
Just my thoughts and opinions.
You might not want to give up their crates in favor of the gated kitchen strategy. Especially if you expect the dogs to feel anxious in the new space. A dogs crate is their little den. And I know it helps keep my pups calm when we are gone for the day.(I am also against letting dogs out when you are not home)
I would look into the NILF training, nothing in life is free, and it helps establish you as the alpha through simple steps. Works well for dinner time- only calm dogs get their food. Requesting they sit first, for example. Not letting them run outside before you invite them to go through the door. All of this you can start now.
Do your dogs currently mark their territory inside? If it isn't a problem now it might not be one later.
In anycase good luck! I am sure my pups will be a little tense prior to the move while they watch us pack. But I am hoping that is the only issue we face with them.
All of this too.
My dog was tremendously depressed for the first few weeks. I had trouble getting her to go upstairs (we had a 1 level before) and she still acts like she's afraid she'll fall off the Earth sometimes when she's on the 2nd or 3rd floor.
We've been here two months now and she's now really happy here. We replaced our carpet in our old home before we sold it and kept several small pieces of it to put in her crate on top of her dog bed to help make her feel reassured. We also kept familiar blankets, etc. in her new "areas". We give her tons of praise for pooing in the "right" place in the yard too, ha!
Great advice! Thank you!!!
I am in total agreement that you need to start now. This is because you need to have a schedule, ritual, and some sort of continuity during your move for them to feel comfortable. If you take them to a new place and all of the sudden they aren't allowed to do something, its even more shocking or upsetting to them.
1. That is easy, use a baby gate! Ignore when they bark, whine etc, don't give them attention for misbehavior! Sometimes you can use a sharp "NO" to get them to stop, but I usually do it if they can't see me (i.e. don't go to the top of the stairs to yell out, just hide around the corner so they can't see you).
2. This one is usually a bad idea IMO because its hard to teach them how to distinguish which ones are OK and which ones aren't. I am a personal fan of no dogs on the furniture at all.
3. This is very important and you should start doing this one today. They don't get fed until they chill out. Thats all there is to it. Teaching sit and stay (or "Leave it") if they don't know this already is another good key to mastering this one.
4. agree with PP on doggie doors. I think I would leave them crated while you are gone until they are definitely used to the home and you know there will be no problems. Some dogs really like "stuff" in their crates (like a blanket, shirt or something that smells familiar) some dogs HATE stuff in their crates. If your dogs like it, I would start with the something familiar in their crates right away, so that when you move they already have their security blanket in their crates to comfort them.
Sometimes the local Petsmart has obedience classes. You might want to check into them if you aren't sure how to train your dogs yet. They will get you through the basics!
We adopted B from a prison program and he came crate trained. They sent him home with us with the towel that was in the bottom of his crate in the prison. He will not lay on anything else in his crate. We've tried other towels and blankets, padding, anything trying to make it more comfortable for him, but they all get scrunched up in the back corner and he won't lay on them. He seriously would rather lay on the hard plastic bottom of his crate than anything else besides his security blanket.
Some dogs definitely prefer it one way or another. Just figure out their preference and keep it the same while you are moving! =D I wouldn't start anything new while you are in the midst of a move.
When we moved from our apartment, there wasn't much that we did differently to prepare our dog.
Since moving into the new house, we got a second dog and do not want him to go upstairs where it is carpeted. We have put up a blockade against our stairs (a baby gate would work, we just used what we already had) that prevents him from going where we don't want him to go. Problem solved.
If you do not want them on the furniture, start now teaching them "off" and don't let them on the furniture in your apartment. It is going to take them some time to get used to but you can't expect dogs to just realize that the furniture that they've been on in the apartment, they all of a sudden can't go on in now that you're in a new house.
Have your dogs taken any basic obedience classes? Do they know sit, stay, wait? What we do with our one dog when it is time to be fed is make him sit on the rug by the front door and tell him to wait while we go get his food. If he gets up at any point of time before we tell him he can get up, you stop what you're doing and go put him back where he should have been still waiting. He does not get released from where he is waiting until you're ready for him to eat. People get frustrated constantly having to stop doing what they're doing (e.g., getting the food) and putting the dog back where they should wait and sometimes give up and don't realize why the behavior isn't improving. But if you stick with it, the dogs will learn that the sooner they do what they're supposed to do, the sooner they get what they want.
You need to start all of this before you move into the house as you can't expect them to automatically change their routine because they're in a different environment. Keeping their routine the same as they're used to will really help them adjust to their new home.
It's a dog's life!
As many other people have stated, I wouldn't try to do all these things at once and definitely not right off the bat when you first move in. You might see it as a great defining point for new rules, but your dogs are going to be confused and out of sorts adjusting to a new place. You really want to keep things the same as much as possible for the first few months. So either start now or wait.
As far as marking new territory, they will most likely only do this if they smell other animals. If the house has brand new carpets, this probably won't be an issue. If they aren't brand new and the previous owner had pets, I would advise cleaning the carpets before you move the dogs in with an enzymatic pet cleaner. This will get rid of any pet smells and make your dogs less likely to mark the carpets.
With feeding, definitely teach them the "Leave it" command. We started small with our dog, using treats. She would sit and I would place a treat on the floor and say leave it (if she tried to get it I would put my hand over it and get her back to a sit). Once they learn leave it with treats, it's pretty easy to translate that to dinner. My dog knows that she can't approach the dinner bowl and eat until I give the release command to leave it which is take it.
And as PP said, the leaving outside unattended is not a good idea. You have know idea what they'll get into.
We are moving into a house next month and we are going to try and keep everything as similar as possible for our dog to adjust. We are dying to get a second dog, but know we need to wait a few months until our current dog gets comfortable. Throwing her into a new home, with a new dog would mostly likely stress her out.
As for the furniture, it might need to be an all-or-none thing. It's harder to train a dog that it's allowed on one piece of furniture but not the rest of the furniture. The dog doesn't know why some furniture is okay to jump on and some isn't. To the dog, there isn't a difference from one couch to the other.
Our dog was allowed on the furniture in his previous home (before we adopted him), and we just said "no, off!" when he tried to jump on any of our furniture. Lots of praise and perhaps a treat when the dogs listens and gets off the couch helps. It didn't take long for him to figure out that he wasn't allowed on our furniture. After a day or two, we were all set.
I'm glad you realize that a doggy door isn't the best idea. In addition to the safety concerns about leaving a dog outdoors alone that were already mentioned, dog theft happens too. It's been in the news in my area lately because 4-5 dogs of the same breed have gone "missing" from their yards in the last couple of weeks, and police suspect that the dogs are being stolen. I wouldn't take the chance of leaving a dog outside unattended. (As a side note ... everyone should microchip their dog if they haven't already. In the cases of the dogs that have gone missing in my area, the collars are left behind, so if the only ID on your dog is a tag on its collar, that's not enough.)
For the food issue, if you practice sit and stay commands, you can teach the dog that it will not get anything unless it follows those commands and stops going nuts every time the food comes out. Our dog has to sit and stay until we get his food ready and give the "ok, eat" command. He has to behave properly to get anything he wants ... which sounds a bit harsh, but he's very well behaved and knows that we're in charge, not him. Luckily our dog loves (seriously LOVES) ice cubes for treats. He will do anything for an ice cube, so it's super easy to train him. :-)
Mr. Sammy Dog
Pretend they are a brand-new or unhousetrained dog and don't let them out of your sight when they're on a carpeted area for the first few weeks. If you catch them starting to lift a leg or squat, do the loud clap/NO!/other loud sound and hustle them outside. They can't mark if you're watching them.
You could gate off the bottom of the stairs with one of those gates that swings open. Or, just don't let them go upstairs, ever. I read a dog training book that talked about walking your dog around on a leash when you bring them to a new home -- walking around the parameter of each room they are allowed in, like you inviting them into those rooms.My brother did this successfully with his dog. He got a bright, fuzzy throw blanket. When that is down on the couch, she can sit there. Also, he has to invite her up. I'm sure it took him a very long time (and patience) because she's a very hyper dog, but she never gets up on any other couches, just the one with her blanket on it. And 9 times out of 10, she does wait to be invited (ALWAYS when he is around ... but sometimes when I or my mom is visiting, she just jumps up there). A consistent "Off!" when they jump up on any other couch ... maybe a treat whenever they jump up on "their" couch. Eventually they'll learn they get a treat when they go on their couch, so why would they bother trying to go on the other one? At least I hope. We haven't worked on that consistently with our dog yet.
I'm in Week 3 of a Petsmart training class ($109 for 6 weeks of training in my area -- a steal!) and they're covering a little bit of this. Basically just make them sit and be calm, or they don't get the food.This is easy -- no training necessary. Just put the gate up and they'll get it.
My dog (a golden ret/shepard mix) who is 9 has lived in 8 different places as I've moved for work. He's a big guy and was quite a spazz as a younger pup but now is an upstanding pooch. I used to do the puppy gate to keep him in the kitchen, until he learned to jump it. I tried the crate, until he outgrew any that were not giant. Finally, I surrendered to the fact we just had to train this guy. I worked with him with info from books and then before my son was born we took him to a training class called Rowdy Rover. They really worked with him on all his issues specifically and what his triggers were.
The class was super helpful! he still sneaks on the couch once in a while, but isn't nearly as anxious as he was. I've found during all our moves it works well to move most of the belongings in (they'll be freaking out, but at least in a familiar place) and then make a big production out of packing their stuff and take them at the same time. Set them up a nice safe place in the new house - where you want them to be.