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Bringing your new humane society dog home

When you bring your new humane society dog home, is everything going to be perfect? One can hope, but it isn’t likely. There will be more chores for you to do, another mouth to feed, walks to schedule in your busy day. These things may be easy, or difficult, depending upon the way your life is set up at the moment.

And your dog is going to have a few surprises for you. No matter how carefully you screened your new pooch, there are going to be some things you didn’t know. Some of the surprises may be good ones. Pepper, my Border collie, knew how to sit, stay, fetch, go lay down, get in the car, go outside, and “NO!” She was a stray from the Humane Society, about 9 years old.

And some of the surprises may not be so positive, even when they aren’t your new dog’s fault. For instance, I found out that my 13-year old female cat (also a Humane Society find) is not fond of dogs, to put it mildly. It was necessary to keep them separated for several months, so that they would have time to come to know and tolerate each other before someone got hurt. I searched the Internet for help with my attack cat problem, but couldn’t find any, so I had to muddle through on my own.

If you already have animals in your home there will be an adjustment period, and it takes as long as it takes – you can’t really rush it. Your older dog will need to assert his need to have things his way, and this usually takes place without any actual fighting – but if both dogs have dominant personalities, or if the size difference is too great, you may need to keep them separated for a while to prevent bloodshed.

If you don’t already have a dog it may surprise you how much mud a small dog can track into your house, and you’ll want to do some rearranging so that there is an area, perhaps off the kitchen or on the back porch, where your dog’s dirty feet can have a chance to dry out before coming into the house.

You will naturally remember to remove the needlepoint pillow from your couch that your Great Aunt Margaret gave you just before she passed away. And you’ll keep your best shoes in the closet for a few weeks, just in case. You may find a few “accidents” on the floor while your new dog is still not sure he really lives there. And he may have shown you a place or two in the fence that needs to be mended.

Almost every dog expert you’ll talk to will agree that it’s best to start explaining your rules right from the start. If “getting on the furniture” is one of those things you wrote on your “absolutely can’t tolerate” list, then don’t allow your new dog on the couch the night he comes home, no matter how pitifully he looks at you with those big brown eyes.

Unless you brought home a true alpha, (and I sincerely hope you didn’t unless you’re a professional dog handler), your dog will appreciate knowing that someone other than him is the boss. You don’t have to be loud, abusive, or cruel to get that message across, but you will need to be compassionately firm and consistent.

Some acts of “disobedience” are simply a sign that the dog has had no prior training in that particular area, or that his previous owners had a different idea about what is acceptable and what is not. The company where I work puts all employees through a three-day team-building seminar, and the main message of the workshop is “assume innocence.” It simply means that you shouldn’t assume that your coworker made a mistake on purpose. The same thing should go for your new dog – it takes time for anyone to learn new rules and fit into a household.

Hopefully, within a few weeks it will seem like Roscoe or Fido has been in the family all his or her life. You’ll trust each other, love each other, and enjoy every minute you’re together.

What do you do if it doesn’t turn out this way? What if your new dog does some of those things on your “absolutely can’t tolerate” list that have nothing to do with training or experience? What if your dog snarls, snaps, growls, acts in a dominating, aggressive way towards strange men, children, or yourself, or even bites?

If you discover that your new dog’s temperament is unsound or unsafe, and you adopted the dog from an animal shelter, you can almost always take him back. If you found your dog in a private shelter or animal rescue organization that appears willing to take him back, but only to re-place him with another family, you may want to seek out the opinion of a professional dog handler. If the dog is truly unsafe, you would be doing the world a favor by having him put down, rather than inflict him on another unsuspecting family.

What if your dog has other unacceptable behaviors, such as chasing or harming your cats, digging too many holes in your yard, or removing all the stuffing from your couch, you don’t have the patience or experience to teach him to be civilized, and you don’t want to hire a professional trainer? You may still be able to return him and try again. You might want to ask the shelter or rescue organization if you can return the dog, and for what reasons, before you take him home.

Some breeders may also allow you to return a dog for behavioral problems, but even if they do they will want you to have made every effort to train the dog to your rules before you give up on him. Almost no private party sales can be returned, because most families only give up their pets if there is a very good reason. Nonetheless, if your new dog was a treasured pet they may want you to bring him back, rather than expose him to the trauma of a shelter.

In order to reduce the possibility of emotional trauma for yourself if the dog doesn’t work out, try to think of your first week with him as “dating” rather than as a “honeymoon.” The two of you should have a chance to find out if you should be housemates, and you should both have a right to change your mind and look for another option that makes a better fit. You should remember that if your dog is destructive, constantly barking, or driving you crazy in other ways it is probably because she’s bored out of her mind. You would both be better off if she lived in a more active household.

Hopefully, however, you’ve done your homework, your new dog’s personality, talents and temperament are a perfect match with your own, and a few weeks of settling in are enough to turn the two of you into an inseparable partnership. What can be more fulfilling than finding the perfect dog?