What to Expect in the First 24 Hours With Your New Dog

So you want to bring in a new dog to your homestead and are just wondering how to go about it. Well, fret not because you have come to just the right place. We have dedicated the entire length and scope of this article to examining the steps you ought to take to acquaint your dog with the new place.

It all begins by alerting the family members of your intention to bring a dog to your premises. This gives them the psychological preparedness they need to receive the dog and get used to it altogether. Let us explore and examine this subject matter in finer detail.

There are numerous issues you can expect on your first day upon introducing the new dog to your room or household. Many of them unfortunately are negative and should hence be avoided at all costs. We take a look at some of the steps that can do you some good here:

Prepare in advance

Do not wait till you bring your dog to your home before commencing the preparation exercise. Start a day earlier. Preparing here means accumulating the supplies you will need to usher in your dogs or puppies. They include but are not limited to the following:

• Adjustable collar and leash
• Collar tags with contact info
• Food and water bowls
• High-quality puppy food
• Poop bags and holder
• Dog bed
• Toys and treats
• Playpen and baby gates
• Crate

Puppy-proof

If the dog you plan to bring in is a puppy, you have to be sure that your puppy proof your premise. This simply entails taking every step possible to make your premise proof of the potential damages that come along with the direct exposure to the puppies.

Eliminate any long cord that might entangle your puppy’s feet, any piece of furniture or household item that can be easily damaged by a puppy, and so on. By the same token, see to it that you designate certain portions of your rooms wholly to the puppies.

Start potty training right away

Immediately you bring your dog to your room, you should embark on the task of potty training. Find and designate a portion of your room exclusively to the puppies and nothing more. As soon as you note that your puppy intends to relieve itself, kindly direct it to the place.

If you do this repeatedly, the dog will hardly stray away and use other parts of the typical room to do its things. Be sure to praise it whenever it gets the concept right and chide it if it does not get it right. That will act as a motivation for it to behave well.

Introduce other pets gradually

Obviously, there are many other pets in your household already. Take your time to introduce these other household pets to your new dog or puppy gradually. Taking a gradual approach is great as it minimizes the likelihood of conflicts arising.

If you have a natural enemy of a dog like a cat or another dog, consider leashing the existing one to avoid conflicts. Needless to say, be on standby to anticipate any conflicts and tackle them as soon as can be.

Setting Simple Boundaries

Apart from potty training, it is important that you set other boundaries for your dogs. These could take the form of restraining it from accessing certain parts of your rooms or yard. Alternatively, it could also entail you setting up a stringent timeline for it to operate.

For instance, you may designate some time of the typical day to wake up, sleep, eat, exercise, or hunting, and so on. Let your dog maintain its workings and operations strictly within this allotted timeline to gain the necessary discipline.

Set up the crate

It is in a crate that a dog sleeps at night and carries out many of its activities. Given its significance to your dog, you want to set it up strategically at a location that is easily visible and accessible. Choose a corner of your room for that.

The place has to be less trafficked to prevent your dog from interfering with the other occupants of the room. Some of the areas could be the backyard or a corner in a tucked-away segment of the room.

Make their areas comfortable

Over and above merely setting aside portions of your rooms to the care and occupancy of the dogs, you also want to make those areas very comfortable. This is a feat you can achieve in several ways and means. Of these, it is the introduction of cozy additions to the rooms that stand taller.

Others could be introducing lights to the rooms, settings up special accessories for their comfort, and even adding to their rooms, sources of music, and so on. All these serve to make them happier and more engrossed.

Prepare them for naps

Dogs do take naps each night just as the men also. This hence is a reality you have to prepare for well in advance. In this regard, you have to take deliberate steps to make your dog as comfortable as can be on its first night.

Puppies tend to wake up periodically several times in a typical night. Be alive to this reality as well. Put in place measures that are intended to reduce the inconveniences that potentially come by at night. These could be set up and sticking to a stringent routine.

Keep the digs quiet on day one

Keep your dogs super quiet on their first days. Refrain from inviting your friends to come over and see your new dogs. That will only serve to intimidate the dogs and make them shy as well as introverted. You want neither to happen to you.

Instead, keep it tucked far away from the general public as much as possible. If you have to introduce it to a new visitor, let that happen politely, quietly, and kindly. Simply put: the visitor has to inflict the least inconvenience to your dog as much as possible.

Ask for help when you need it

Dogs, like humans, may also get overwhelmed with new environments. Do not let the issue weigh you down alone; not when you can ask for help from a qualified vet or a professional dog owner. Thus, you should take the first step to seek external assistance if need be.

Go through the directory to find your nearest veterinarian or trained expert who can be of help to you. As a matter of importance, never attempt to administer any drugs to your dogs without the consent of a trained vet.

Conclusion

Acquainting your dog to a new location is not something you can hurriedly do. You want to take your precious time to juggle between the numerous options that may be available to you at any given time. Then again, it pays to start early. In fact, you should start by planning weeks in advance.

You are not the only dog owner in your locality, are you? Indeed, there are many people around you who similarly own dogs and may also want to leverage the benefits of this article. Is it not wise of you to pass it on to them?