Your Adopted Dog
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Congratulations on the addition to your family!
Dogs find their way into shelters and rescue agencies for a number of reasons. It is rarely dog’s fault!
- She may have gotten lost and was never found by her original owner
- His owner may have come upon economic difficulties and could no longer afford to continue care
- Her owner may have died or been placed in a nursing care facility
- His owner didn’t do their research and selected the wrong breed for their family, or didn’t know how to train the dog correct behaviors for their household.
Now that you have adopted your dog, do some research!
- Find out about the behaviors of the breed you’ve just invited into your home
- Call a veterinarian for an appointment. Many veterinarians offer a first visit free if the dog has been adopted from a rescue agency.
- Learn about dog behavior and dog training. Read a book from our reviews library!
You’ve brought your adopted dog home…now what?
- Take time to “introduce the new dog to your other pets”:
- Establish a routine with a feeding schedule and a training program. You can start with our Basic FUNdamentals and follow up with Home Training and Tricks course
- Establish rules – decide which behaviors are acceptable and which are not. Make sure everyone in the house agrees and remains consistent
Begin Training!
Your dog may already know some basic commands. If they received their training at their adoption agency, ask them which commands your dog already knows. If the training is unknown, you may need to experiment with the words. You can always re-teach a new command word by following the methods in our video courses. If your dog already knows the behavior, they will pick it up quickly.
Start with the Basic FUNdamentals and follow up with Puppy FUNdamentals if your dog is under one year old. Once your dog has completed the basics, you can try any of the FUNdamentals courses.
About the Author
Suzy has had dogs as companions for over 30 years. She trained her own dog, Kalee, in agility and has just begun rally. Kalee competed and earned titles in UKC, NADAC and USDAA agility before retiring in 2007. Suzy is a children’s librarian, educating children since 1999 and adults since 1995, and is beginning her own education in behavioral science.