What to do the first TWO weeks with your ranch dog!

Over the years we have helped many families through the first two weeks of bringing home a new dog - we used to refer to this as the “2 week shut down, and then the 2 week sleepover”. Now we are simply calling it “the first 2 weeks of adoption” and our guide focuses on what to do during the first 2 weeks of bringing home a new dog.

The first two weeks of adoption are often the hardest because your new dog may be stressed out with so much change.. AND you as the owner are navigating a new routine with many unknowns.

The most important things to remember during this first 2 week phase is to take things slow and to focus on routine. Our outlined plan below is PROVEN and it works! If you follow this guide, you will have your best chance at success!!

The purpose of the first two weeks is to let your dog settle in and get to know you. You chose to adopt this dog - but they did not choose you. They need time to acclimate to your environment, your routine, and to feel fully secure with you. Your dog already loves you but may not fully trust you. Since it takes dogs an average of 3 full months to totally settle in, the 2 weeks is not representative of how the dog will act once they are totally settled. They need time to decompress and transition.

Purpose:


Behavior:

Since the transition to a new home, new handler, and new pack can be over whelming and stressful for dogs - you should expect some of the following behaviors:

  • Lack of appetite

  • Excessive water drinking

  • Accidents

  • Barking

  • Apprehension, increased excitement, or reactivity with meeting new people

  • Apprehension, increased excitement, or reactivity when going new places or doing new things

  • Apprehension, increased excitement, or reactivity with meeting new dogs or cats

  • Excitement and reactivity with new resources such as bones, couch, or food.

Don’t worry. This behavior won’t last if you give the dog time to settle in. Many of these behaviors can be prevented or curbed if you slowly introduce the dog to new things, new people, new dogs, and new places. Its important to realize the impact of the transition on the dogs mental and emotional state. If you have other dogs or cats in the home, please recognize they are going through a transition too! You should spend extra special 1:1 time bonding and doing fun things with any existing pack members to help ensure they feel loved and appreciated during the transition.

People:

For the first 2 weeks, the dog should focus on getting to know your family.

  • Adult dogs: should focus on getting to know the immediate family within the home.

  • Puppies: can acclimate to more new people, but behaviors may change if they are stressed or feeling overwhelmed

  • **** Imagine how you would feel if you were forced to move into someones house, and then they said - hey lets go to a birthday party with little kids and then lets host a huge barbecue with loud music. That would be very overwhelming. The dog needs to bond with you first before facing situations with new people such as going into the public or attending a social gathering. Remember, your pack is a LOT for a dog to acclimate to.

Dogs:

For the first 2 weeks, the dog should have minimal contact with other new dogs. Again, they need to get acclimaited to your home and environment and work towards bonding with you so that you both can accomplish dog socialization together at a later date.

  • Adult dogs: should be working on learning their new routine AND acclimating to their new doggy sibling if they have one! Focus on waling in your neighborhood or a hike on a quiet nearby trail. If someone asks you The dog can not greet other dogs yet. We do not want the dog to interact with dogs while stressed. Please imagine how scary it must be for the dog to go into this situation with you. The dog does not know you and does not trust you yet, so they may act out. We also want to protect the dog and prevent them from having a bad experience with a "not social" dog that you don't know.

  • Puppies: can acclimate to some new dogs but ideally should pace themselves with meeting new dogs. Its good to bring them out to meet dogs but it should be done at a pace.

Leash:

While the dog is in your care, please be cautious. Leash walk the dog at all times outdoors. If you have a fenced yard, supervise the dog in the yard. The dog does not know you or trust you, so they will not come back to you if they get off leash. They may run away. If they get loose, do not chase the dog. Instead, run the opposite direction and yell “WOO HOO!! YEAAA!!! PUPPPYYY!! LETS GO!!!”. The dog will hear your off to a party in the other direction and may follow you.

Crate

All ranch dogs are crate trained and many of our dogs go home with crates. Please crate your dog for sleeping, eating, and anytime you leave the house. This will help ease the transition and help reduce negative behaviors. Your dog has not had any time loose and unsupervised in a home, so they will act out if they are given this privilege too soon!

We use crates to give dogs a safe place and to instill boundaries. The crate ensures the dog is safe and will not hurt you house and that the dog is gradually exposed to privileges in the new home.


We recommend that the dog has a room with a door that can close. This will help drown out noise and prevent them from seeing other animals in the home. At night, the dog should sleep in their crate(door closed) in the room with the door closed. They may cry- ignore it. It is too soon to sleep with the dog. Eventually a long term goal for the dog is to sleep with humans; but it is not part of their routine yet. We want you to emulate the routine that the dog had at The Ranch. This will expedite their ability to settle in and will reduce stress.

Integrating Dogs

IF YOU HAVE A DOG PRIOR TO ADOPTING FROM THE RANCH
At the point of adoption, your dog and the new dog will have already met at least two times.

We ask you to take integration very slow. Imagine if a person showed up at your house, and you didn’t know they were coming. They walked in and started making a sandwich and put their feet up on your table. This feels overwhelming. This is how dogs feel when they are rushed to share a home too fast. We have a set of slow integration exercises that give the dogs time to warm up to sharing resources. Resources can be: food, toys, couch, space, or people. Here is the rough routine to follow. We will provide an exact plan and routine to make it easy for you: 

  • Week 1: Your pup and new dog go for a walk outside together 2-3x\day. The dog’s meet out in the street. The dogs have no contact in the house. The dogs re-enter the house through separate doors and resume their routines . You may gradually let the dogs see each other while one is crated. We can help customize this phase based on how social each dog is!

  • Week 2: Your pup and the new dog go for a walk outside together + go potty in the yard together 2-3x\day. The dogs re-enter the house together and have a little time together indoors and then return to their crate\room for high value time.

  • ***Dogs should not have any contact indoors during high value time which is couch time, meal time, sleep time.

  • Week 3: Your pup and new dog exit house together and go potty together. The dogs re-enter the house together and resume their routines. Start to give them a little more time together while you sit on the couch or sit at the table, but still no eating together and avoid sharing high value toys.

  • Week 4: Your pup and new dog start to spend more and more time in the house together. 

Integrating Cats

At the point adoption, the new dog has already passed the cat test. The dog has been exposed to cats at least two times and displayed neutral or positive behavior. The new dog has already been exposed to your cats. When we expose dogs to cats, we like to keep things as casual and as calm as possible. This helps remove the “I WANNA GET IT!” feeling for dogs (which can be created if they feel teased). Here’s how we will expose the new dog to your cats:

  • Have your cats in their normal environment. Ensure cats have a way to escape and run off

  • We will arrive at your house and take the new dog for a walk in your yard to tire out. We will ask you to come out and say hi to the dog. This decreases excitement.

  • We will then bring the dog into the home on leash. We will walk the dog around on leash to see the house.

  • Upon entering the cat area, we will drop the leash and let the dog wander. The dog will be allowed to go up to the cats freely, with the leash dragging. This allows the dog and the cats to have some exposure, and allows the cats to run away or take space. We do not want to hold the leash and create any stress or tension.

  • Depending on how that goes. We will pick the leash up and walk the dog on leash by the cats. The dog may appear more excited at this point with tension and pressure on the leash. We will keep the total exercise short at 1 minute. We will exit the area with cats.

  • You will repeat this exercise many, many times over the first two weeks. You will keep the leash on the dog at all times, so that the dog can freely approach the cats on their tower or at the counter tops..but the dog can always be reined in.

  • You will not leave the dogs and cats unsupervised for any reason.

  • You will not put up baby gates for the dogs to see the cats but not be able to reach the cats. Baby gates can create tension.