Helping Your PET Adjust to a New Home

Our newest canine family member arrived in our home on June 6th.  We had picked her up in Ontario and drove all the way back to Nova Scotia.

As we are integrating her into our daily lives, we’re encountering some pretty predictable behaviours as she finds her way within our pack.

She was raised by a breeder and lived in a barn with a 5′ x 5′ kennel with her larger brother.  She is a 38 lb Rough Collie and will be 9 months old on June 14th.

And so coming into the house to live has presented some challenges. 

First, men.  She was raised by a single female breeder and is very timid and unsure of men.  I’m sure she’ll overcome it, which will be important since we’re surrounded by men here.  Her kennel is (was) in our bedroom and every time hubby would come into the room, she’d launch into a barking frenzy.  She has already started to curb this on her own, now barking for just a few seconds rather than minutes!

Second, stairs.  She had never encountered a set of stairs in her life.  So she is very timid and confused by them.  We have hardwood stairs and when we had our first Rough Collie Heidi, we put carpet tiles on the treads to give her something to grip as she made her way up or down.  Melli will sometimes be OK with the stairs, and sometimes she needs a little encouragement.

Third, she has an aversion to any squeaky sounds made by wood. It started with our 18 year old son pulling a chair away from the dining room table and sitting down.  At first we thought maybe she couldn’t see him clearly (she has an eye infection and is on drops) but it turned out that she just doesn’t like the noise of the wooden chair on tile.  She also doesn’t like the sound of hubby opening or closing the drawers in his dresser.  It sends into a barking spree which, thankfully, has already started settling down.

As she becomes more used to the goings on of living in a house, I’m sure she’ll settle and we’ll get to see her personality shine!

In looking for resources, I found an article by the American Kennel Club about helping an adult dog adjust to a new home. We thankfully did most of it right!

Click the button below to read the article on the AKC website.