Rescue Dogs

I get a lot of calls about “rescue” dogs with problem behaviors. I listen to stories about the dog’s history and why it acts this way, usually some previous trauma guessed at or known. But when I visit the dog in its new home, most often I find that the problem -- what's happening right now --  is that the dog doesn’t feel safe. The observable behavior is the dog’s response to its understanding of the current situation.

Without a doubt, your dog’s understanding of the world has been shaped by prior experience, but your dog isn’t ruminating over what happened to it last week, last month, or last year. Dogs don’t work that way. For the dog, it’s always “now,” and there is a lot of learning to be done in a new home. A new home is challenging for any dog; it needs time to become accustomed to the new smells, sounds, people, routines, and rules.

We’re going to assume that the human understands the necessity for food, water, adequate shelter, veterinary care, exercise, play, and plenty of rest. What may not be so immediately obvious is a dog’s need for structure and how the dog comes to understand acceptance into the new family.

A secure place in the new family does not happen by coddling, soothing, or reassuring a dog (this is a topic in itself) and it doesn’t happen by making excuses for the dog. Assuming that the basic needs are being met, the most reliable way to help a dog feel safe in a new home is to keep the dog’s world relatively small at first, do not give it free run of the house or the property, establish simple routines, and start basic obedience training immediately.

We refer to dogs as “pack” animals in the sense that they have evolved to live in a small group organized around collective survival. Your family is the dog’s pack now, even if it’s just you and the dog. To feel safe, your dog needs to feel accepted. Because dogs have no concept of equal, they do not understand that they have been accepted into a pack until they know where in the pack order they fit. In their mind, either they make the rules or you do, either they have preferred access to resources, or you do. We don’t want dogs making the rules, and we definitely do not want them enforcing their own rules.

Dogs feel safe when they:

• understand boundaries in every sense of the word

• understand the routines of their new home

• have a place of their own which is not exposed (bed, crate, a “den” of some sort)

• know the rules and are able to follow them

• understand your communication

• are able to communicate their needs to you

• trust that you will meet those needs

• understand what is acceptable and appropriate behavior

• can use that behavior to control outcomes and get what they need

For the well-being of your dog, it is of the utmost importance that you are a firm, clear, fair, and benevolent leader, and that the dog is always subordinate to you. From the moment your dog comes into its new home, providing appropriate structure and gentle, patient, consistent discipline is the first step in helping your dog feel safe.

When your behavior makes sense to the dog and the outcome of your interactions are predictable, then the dog begins to have expectations of you. This can be as simple as feeding at the same time and in the same way every day. When you fulfill those expectations, the dog begins to trust you.

And what has to happen for you to trust the dog in return? For most people, this means that the dog behaves in a predictable, appropriate manner.

Along with providing the essentials, the best gift you can give your dog is obedience training.