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So, Im adopting a 7 month old rescue. Hes been around people, cats and dogs and fostered well since he was born. Pregnant mom found in a bombed out house in Ukrane. Taken away from anything nasty before he was born though.
Ive had dogs in the past but this was 15+ years ago.
Any tips or suggestions will be well revieved.
Ive been stalking that group for a while. My time is coming.
We recently adopted a 1 year old dog, with a much less traumatic back story than your new one though! My advice would be not to have too rigid a idea of how it's going to be when he moves in. I got quite depressed at first as he didn't want to walk much, but didn't want be left alone either so I felt a bit trapped in the house and thought we'd made a big mistake.
We'd been planning to get a dog for a few years and I imagined us going hiking, biking etc, but he was overweight and unused to exercise - we've had to slowly work up to it, now he really enjoys being outside.
Apparently it can take around 3 months for dogs to feel safe in a new home, so take you time and just adapt to each other slowly. Any time I get annoyed I try to remember myself as a teenager and empathise with him 😂
Now we're 3 months in and I couldn't imagine not having him as a member of the family, definitely one of the best decisions we ever made.
Good luck and enjoy it!
Set the rules from day 1. Rescues will have been taught something but it may not be what you want. The spottydog didn't know to wait for dinner or when playtime was over and serious time was now. Took a couple of days to get new habits underway but he is very biddable. Overdo the walking for the first month or so. Exercise and concentrating on walking to heel on a slack lead with wear them out faster than an hour chasing the ball (don't do this at 7 months, joints are still forming and hearts can be over-strained. Classes with a selection of other dogs to socialise the beastie (will also leave him mentally drained). Try not to do all the thinking as he needs to work out what is needed.
Assuming he'll be coming for the odd bike ride later on, don't start before 18 months.
No adoption pics from the rescue organisation? There's rules about this!!
Good luck.
Remember the rule of threes - 3 days to begin to unlock, 3 weeks to begin to get used to routine, 3 months to begin to feel settled and 'home'
Be really careful not to read too much into behaviours shown in the first month, and especially in the first couple of weeks. It's a huge amount of change for the dog and they probably don't know which way is up. You have to go with the flow a bit (whilst setting appropriate rules/boundaries)
The puppy blues, aka 'WTF have we done' is a real thing.
All dogs are different - we've had one rescue who was a chilled out dream from day one, our current one is nine months in and, er, isn't.
Thanks for this. Some good advice
O think at this point you're running out of goodwill.
Pitchas, we need pitchas.
I think he will be a big boy. Currently 55cm to the shoulder and 20kg
Thats a handsome hounds!
Only thing i regret about the time with our rescue dog was that he was too old to get into brushing his teeth. We tried everything but it just never happened. As a result he had two lots of teeth cleaning during his 11 years.
If I got a puppy/younger dog in the future I'd make teeth brushing a regular thing rather than denti sticks/vets cleaning.
Good point actually we were the same. She was having none of it.
GET INSURANCE FROM DAY1.
My other advice is usually 'don't get a dog', but no one listens. I love my hound, but christ it was hard-work learning about her and going through illness and operations with her (and close to £30k in vets bills over the first couple of years).
It sounds ideal from a rescue point of view in that he's not had any bad experiences that you know of, mine had 6 months we don't know much about that lead to a lot of bad habits initially.
Buy a Halti lead and consider a nose guide thing, put a bigger dog in a chest harness and they'll pull like a train. Halti are lovely to handle and much better than cheaper less adaptable leads.
Learn all you can about dog training and positive reinforcement.
Buy Kong's, find a decent local sitter, train them to be alone and ok with it. Hand feed as part of your training, don't assume you can let them off the lead and not have it be a problem with other dogs, don't trust they they are just scratching an itch when they roll on the ground. Train them to let you take food off them, train them to keep them calm and controlled in stressful situations (I was walking across an open park when some Diwali fireworks kicked off last night!).
It also looks like a Shepard breed of some sort (or derivative of), so don't be surprised if he's not the most affectionate of dogs, this could be totally wrong, but I have friends with Collie variants and they aren't snugglers.
Advice like leads is only advice don't be surprised if you end up buying all the things to find one that works.
Don't forget all it want to do is please you. Its never intentionally bad.
Thanks for all this. Apparently he likes a cuddle at the moment. I did think some Alsatian. I'll have a look at those leads.
He will be heading into those teenager years imminently. Be patient and consistent, if things are not going well - stop. Always remember they are not trying to be difficult and they can have bad days like we do.
Did I mention being patient and consistent ?
Find out what motivates your (gorgeous) looking pup - food, affection, play etc, it will make training much more effective. We've got a pup that is equally food and play motivated but our last pup had zero food drive.
Good luck
Whereas all lola is interested in is her next meal 🤣
@joshvegas Bodie's drivers are: food, ball and filthy water. (Washing in the shower/bath is "pure evil")
Advice like leads is only advice don't be surprised if you end up buying all the things to find one that works.
Indeedy, my partner run dog training classes and found these were the better option for weird shaped dog (mix and match sections): https://perfect-fit-dog-harness.com/harness/full-harness-set/15mm-perfect-fit.html
Our lurcher's chest is so big, std harnesses wouldn't fit him. As for behaviour, it sounds like you have a good one, we have a rommie rescue that had two previous failed adoptions. So she still struggles eight years on, they really aren't the toy some people expect.
Some great advise above, good luck