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Reddit mentions of Love Has No Age Limit-Welcoming an Adopted Dog into Your Home
Sentiment score: 7
Reddit mentions: 10
We found 10 Reddit mentions of Love Has No Age Limit-Welcoming an Adopted Dog into Your Home. Here are the top ones.
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At this point you're still building a trusting relationship, not really training. Follow a daily routine. The better he's able to predict what comes next, the faster he'll settle in.
Assuming he's comfortable being physically close to people (which I hope is the case, if he's on your lap) then keep him on leash indoors to totally prevent the doggy parkour. He goes outside to a quiet spot (and hopefully pees...) then he comes back inside still on leash. He's either crated or leashed any time he's inside until he's more used to living indoors.
Add a second crate in the living room area so he has a safe resting/hiding spot without needing to walk down the scary hallway. Look for free/cheap secondhand crates on craigslist if price is an issue.
Practice feeding him by hand every day. If he only eats in the crate, that's fine--don't force anything. It's important that he feels safe. Just toss the food into the crate for him one piece at a time. After a few days of practicing that, he might be more comfortable with eating food from the ground near the crate, and then maybe eating from your hand. Let him set the pace. If you're nearby while he eats in his crate, take care not to use your body language to make him feel trapped. Sit off to the side, don't face him directly, and give him space.
Provide him a steady stream of sturdy chew toys. Chewing relieves stress. If you don't have a kong (hollow rubber beehive shape chew toy) yet, get one of those and stuff it with a portion of his daily food every day.
Pay attention to his body language, especially calming signals. Pay attention to your own body language (don't stare at him, bend over him, corner him. Do turn to the side, sit or stand calmly, ignore him, and let him come to you).
Play white noise indoors and limit (avoid if possible) loud startling noises or booming bass.
Try playing with non-squeaking plush furry animal toys. Ignore him (pretend he's not even there so he can watch you without pressure) and play with the toy yourself. Make it pause and move erratically on the floor like wounded prey. Pounce on it softly with your hands. Avoid big body movements, but use your hands to make the toy move, jump, scurry before you "catch" it. After a couple of minutes, walk away and ignore the toy. That gives your pup the opportunity to watch it and sniff it without pressure from you. After he has the chance to sniff it if he wants to (he doesn't have to) put the toy away. Repeat that process at the same time of day every day (build it into your daily schedule!) and he'll start to show gradually more interest in the toy.
With the hand feeding and toy play, the goal is to build up rewards that you can use as reinforcement during training later. First step is for him to be more comfortable just living with you, and then later the food/play will actually be useful in training. Right now you're still at that trust building level, don't have the typical arsenal of training rewards at your disposal yet.
Useful resources:
Books:
Related past threads (I bet you can find more; this is just a start):
You've done a fecal, right? Not just what the vet sees in office but sending it out to the lab to check for things like giardia which can be impossible to see in the vet's office. You've also done a blood panel, yes?
 
How long have you had her? It can take a while for a depressed dog to cheer up in a new home. The best thing is to not push yourself on the dog, don't force hugs or snuggles. Let the dog come up to you. When she's under your bed, just sit down on the floor next to the bed with a book and read. Have some dog treats and give her one every so often, and definitely reward her if she moves closer. Does she move away from you when you sit down or does she just stay in the same place? If she doesn't move, reading out loud can help. If she moves away, you need to work on her trust. PM me for advice on that, I'm not going to write it all here if there's no need.
 
It can take 6 months for a dog from a shelter to get used to new circumstances. This book might help https://www.amazon.com/dp/1891767143?tag=vs-pets-convert-amazon-20
 
Cheaper at amazon but the book description is better here http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/store/Love-Has-No-Age-Limit.html You can email her at that site, she's an amazing behaviorist. She's got a doctorate in behavior (or psychology or whatever the degree is that she learned behavior in) and she's not like Cesar Milan who uses outdated theories on dog behavior. She is usually good about writing back. Starting with "I've bought your book but my newly adopted dog is depressed and I need help" in the subject line can't hurt ;-)
 
Does she accept walks? Does she shy away or struggle? If she accepts walks, take her on one daily, and include time for her to just sniff and explore. It can't hurt to make sure she gets some exercise but again, don't force her to be lovey dovey with you, dont force her out from that safe spot she's found under the bed.
You sound well-prepared! Going with a rescue group you know and trust is a great idea.
Good luck!
Yep. Check out this book on the subject. The shelter is such a weird and stressful environment. Some dogs get wound up and hyper, some get scared and withdrawn. It can take months for your shelter dog's real personality to emerge.
Just a minor point here, but just because your rescue dog is fearful of men doesn't mean she was abused by a man. From Patricia McConnell's book on bringing home your rescue dog (Love has no Age Limit: Welcoming an Adopted Dog into Your Home)
"Many people believe that their dogs have been abused by men in the past becasue the dogs are now afraid of men. But as we noted above, the fear of strangers can be inherited. No matter what their history, shy dogs, with very few exceptions, are more afraid of men than women. We don't know why that is true, but speculate that deeper voices, bigger jaws, bigger chests, larger size, and a different way of moving through space might have something to do with it. [...] Thus, don't assume that in the past some nasty man beat your dog; it's far more likely that your dog was born a bit shy, and was not well socialized when he was younger." (emphasis added)
Most shelters have an open play area for introducing other dogs to each other.
You can get an idea of their interaction.
If you are doing introductions, and your dog is on a leash, leave lots of slack. Just relax and let them greet each other i.e. "butt sniffing" but always keep the leash slack.
Love Has No Age Limit-Welcoming an Adopted Dog into Your Home by Patricia McConnell is a great book.
This is great advice OP. I foster so have new dogs in the home all the time. Best to make the first week or two low key, get your schedule down so the dog has time to get used to it before you throw surprises in the mix. I also recommend starting off with whatever "rules of the house" you want from day one. ie if you don't want the dog in the kitchen or on the furniture, start that from the beginning so it's not confusing later.
Also, this is a great book if interested. https://www.amazon.com/Love-Limit-Welcoming-Adopted-into-Your/dp/1891767143
Get Patricia McConnell's book Love Has No Age Limit. I promise it will help.
Patricia advocates POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT training. as /u/Splunken says, you should start REWARDING independence. Patricia McConnell's book will help you do this in all aspects of your puppy's life. Walks, leaving him alone, feeding time, chill at home time. For example, give your dog spontaneous treats anytime he is lying down being calm and not begging for attention. Say, "Good calm!" and throw a treat. When it's time to eat, have your dog sit politely, then put the bowl down. Say, "Good sit!" and give him his dinner. Use EVERY time your dog does the RIGHT thing to reward him. Generally ignore bad behavior, except for a stern "No!" when you want to interrupt his behavior (like when you witness him about to eat something he shouldn't).
Read a basic dog training book if you haven't yet? I like 'The Power of Positive Dog Training' by Pat Miller or 'Dog Friendly Dog Training' by Andrea Arden. They are just very basic training books, there are a lot of more specific books for behavioral issues.
Patricia McConnell (my favorite dog behaviorists) has a short book on adopting a dog and a second one on getting a puppy.
So, yea, check out the library. More productive than just the random excitement.
Dogs are not good surprise gifts. If you're going to adopt a dog for the whole family, bring the whole family to meet it and bring the whole family to train it. One thing they don't talk about much in books is finding a dog that genuinely likes people and other dogs and finding a dog for first timers. Make sure you spend a good half hour with the dog and ask tons of questions about the dog's temperament from someone more experienced - if you have friends that own well adjusted dogs (probably not the one you mention in the post), bring them with you. Touch him all over to see how he deals with being handled, run with him walk with him one at a time, move slowly and confidently and look for signs of stress: http://www.maplewooddog.com/MDT/Articles/Communication-Handling-Articles/DogBodyLanguagePoster.jpg
You do not need to adopt the first sad eyes you see.
As for preventing behavioral issues like nipping, licking being a pest. You may want to start with a younger dog (10-24 months) who is less set in his ways and beginning to mature; more of a blank slate and willing to learn what is expected of him. It goes both ways, you must constantly train him what is expected in your household and how to distract him from doing things you dislike.
Keywords like this can point to a balanced dog: turnkey, easy going, relaxed, outgoing, happy, confident, playful, loves car rides, friendly, biddable, keen, young, good with people, good with kids, good with other dogs and cats, smart, spayed, aims to please, settles nicely, crate trained, house broken, watches tv :).
Stay away from dogs with keywords like these until you have more experience to care for their needs: special needs, shy, medical issues or allergies, reactive, fearful, may become aggressive, no kids, no cats, separation anxiety, needs lots of room, active homes only, growls, was a chained outdoor dog, not for apartments, suffered from parvo when young, epilepsy, intact, not for dog parks, not for off leash, needs lots of love, came from another country, strong prey drive, thinks he's smarter than humans.
For the more concrete questions: what to buy, what to do before the big day, how to introduce the dog to your home. Start with this book. It helped me SO much as a first timer.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1891767143
Invest in some good positive training courses a month later and make sure the whole household knows they need to provide activity/food/walks for the dog. You might want to do some breed research and find what agrees with your lifestyle. Many shelter dogs are mixes, but it's good to at least know the breeds so you don't end up with a Husky, feral dog, wolf hybrid or sighthound as your first dog. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but they can be a handful for people with no dog experience.