GUIDE TO THE FIRST COUPLE WEEKS WITH A LAB RESCUE DOG
Congratulations on adopting a
rescued
A. Important Documents & Contact
Information:
When you pick up your
1. A
check for $275.00 made payable to Lab Rescue of N.C., Inc. and;
2. A signed Adoption Agreement; and
3. An e-mail to adoption@labrescuenc.org with
your name, address,
telephone number, and the name of the dog that you adopted (the
name of the dog in foster care, not what
you choose to call him or her). This bit of information is critical to keep all
of our volunteers in the loop on the status of a dog and for us to keep our
paperwork in order. We have found that
waiting for receipt of the Adoption Agreement is too much of a delay.
NOTE: We
ask your Labrador’s foster home to send the Adoption Agreement and check as
soon as possible to Lab Rescue of NC,
Inc. (or
You should
receive from
1. A copy of your dog’s medical records documenting the veterinary treatment he or she received while in our care; and
2. Microchip registration information (if possible, we microchip all dogs upon intake). We are listed as the owner in case the dog is ever lost or stolen; we are happy to have you listed as an alternate contact.
3. The date the dog last received Heartworm Preventative and flea/tick medication. Heartworm preventative must be given every month of the year for the rest of the dog’s life, so it is critical to know when the next does is due.
4. A rabies tag, or at least the contact information to the vet that can provide certification.
5. The name of the food your dog has been eating (more on that later).
Again, if you have
any questions or concerns about your
B.
The Key
to Making your New Lab’s Transition Easier:
ROUTINE.
Your new dog will likely be a little stressed the first few days in your home. Depending on his or her age and activity level, such stress can manifest itself through in a variety of ways, including: panting, pacing, difficulty settling, loss of appetite, housebreaking accidents, and wanting to be near you at all times. Rest assured that any of these behaviors should quickly diminish by establishing a good routine on which your dog can depend.
What do we mean by routine?
For the first couple weeks, be sure to take the dog out to potty
frequently and at regular intervals, feed him or her at the same time each day,
and try to schedule exercise around the same time each day. An example good initial routine would
be: Wake up, go out to potty/exercise
(we highly recommend some morning exercise if you are adopting a puppy or
adolescent Labrador that will be home alone the rest of the day), you eat
breakfast, dog eats breakfast, out to potty again, you go to work. When you come home from work, dog goes out to
potty again again/exercise, you eat, he or she eats, more potty time, settle
into your evening and then one last potty before bedtime. Dogs love routine. Routines are particularly helpful to a
re-homed dog to give the dog some reassurance.
You will be amazed how quickly your new dog picks up the routine.
1.
Housetraining
Be sure to ask your dog’s foster parent(s) about any housetraining issues before you take the dog home. Because your new lab will be stressed, you should be prepared for one or two slip-ups despite the fact that the dog is housetrained. The best way to prevent any accidents is to pretend the dog is not housetrained for the first few days and, therefore, taking him or her out a lot! A few tips:
A. Don’t expect your new friend to know that when you open the door
to the backyard, it is a potty break. Go out with him or her every time for the first couple days—and don’t stand on the deck or patio. Follow him or her around the yard a bit at a distance. Take a few small dog biscuits with you in your pocket (try to not let the dog know you’ve got them), and when the dog goes potty, immediately praise him or her and give a treat—i.e., reward immediately for pottying outdoors. This will work the best in the morning or after you have been gone from home for awhile—and presumably you know the dog really needs to “go.”
B. You can easily and quickly put pottying “on command.” When you let your dog out in the morning or after work (when you are sure he or she needs to “go”), take him or her to a spot in the yard that he or she has used before and say “Go Potty!” (or any other command—I used “Hurry Up!”). And soon as he or she does, praise and give a treat. Do this for a few weeks (it doesn’t have to be every time), and you now have a dog that knows what “Go Potty” means. Very convenient to get a dog to relieve him or herself BEFORE entering Petsmart, the vet’s office, someone else’s home, etc…
C. For the first couple days/week, know where your dog is when indoors. If you can see the dog, you can stop an accident when you see it starting. It is fine to use a loud voice to stop the dog, but then immediately take him or her outside, and praise him or her for completing the task outside—again, this means you need to go with him or her! J
D. Correcting a dog for a housetraining accident after the fact is pointless. Dogs learn nothing by rubbing their nose in anything they’ve left for you in the house while your were gone other than to be afraid of you. Again, prevention is key. It is likewise not helpful to physically punish a dog for a housebreaking accident (whether you catch the dog in the act or find it later)—you only make the dog afraid of you rather than teach it anything productive about housetraining.
E. Except for in the middle of the night if they are not feeling well, my dogs do not “ask” to go out to potty, so don’t be surprised if your dog doesn’t either. Many times the dog just gets used to the routine you provide—he or she knows he or she regularly gets a minimum of 5 opportunities a day and adjusts (first thing in the morning, after breakfast, when you get home for lunch and/ or after work, after dinner, before bedtime). Again, the dog picks up the routine, so you just need to be consistent.
2. Feeding
All Labs love to eat. It just might take a stressed lab a few days to remember that! We highly recommend that you feed the same food that your lab’s foster home did for a couple of days to a week. You can change the food, just mix in whatever the foster home gave for a bit.
A.
We highly
recommend that you feed your
B.
Put the food
bowl down for 10 minutes, and then pick it up
(assuming the dog isn’t eating at that moment!). Don’t leave
food in the bowl all day: (1) you can’t keep track of changes in
appetite; (2) if you have more than one dog, you don’t know who
eating what; and (3) it is never wise to leave a bowl of food down
if children or any stranger to the
dog could be visiting. Again, dogs love routine. Your rescue lab may miss a meal or two the
first week, but in the long run, he or she will appreciate knowing when and how
much he or she eats. IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE DOG, PLEASE MAKE
SURE THAT EACH DOG HAS SOME PERSONAL SPACE DURING MEALS AND DO NOT ALLOW EITHER
DOG TO HASSLE THE OTHER WHILE EATING.
C. Feed a high-quality food. As a general rule, the dog food that
you buy in a grocery store is junk food for canines (with the
exception of IAMS which is now available in some supermarkets).
If budgetary concerns are truly an issue, Pedigree is an OK food.
We generally
recommend PRO-PLAN or NUTRO NATURAL
CHOICE (not Nutro Max). Your dog’s long-term health will be
better on a good quality kibble.
3.
Exercise
Most labs love to play and to go for walks. There is a lot of truth to the adage that a tired dog is a good dog—or at least one that won’t be chewing your belongings when you leave him!
A. As a rule of thumb, plan on dedicating an hour a day to exercising a Lab under 3 years old. A brisk walk for a mile or so and a lot of fetching or other real “panting” type play is key. You will find that your young friend just hears—eh, listens—better when he or she is tired. If you want to do any training, try not to do it with a lab that is full of energy. You’ll both end up frustrated. We also highly recommend that you take your new buddy, whatever his or her age, to an obedience class or two. Even if you have leash-trained a dog before, a class gives you an opportunity to work around other dogs, which will be highly distracting and therefore great practice. Find a class that uses positive reinforcement (food rewards), but wait about a month or so to begin training. Have a sense of humor your first couple of classes—your lab will likely be pretty excited to be around other dogs.
B.
Leash-walking. My guess is that your new Lab will need some
help in this area. As big dogs, Labs
tend to pull if not trained. Thankfully, they are, as a breed, pretty easy to
train not to pull. We recommend either a
Gentle Leader or Halti (both head harnesses that look like horse bridles) or a
prong collar. We NEVER recommend a choke
chain, metal or nylon. If you have any
questions regarding training a dog to walk on lead, please contact
C. Good Books on Training.
· Second-Hand Dog, Carol Lea Benjamin
Great book about rescue dogs, easy to read and entertaining. However, we don’t recommend using the collar
she suggests and we think it is nuts not to use food to train a
· The Culture Clash, Jean Donaldson
This is a more advanced training book, although it is not a hard read at all.
· Any book by Dr. Ian Dunbar
C. Where Your Lab Wants to Sleep and
Spend His/Her Alone Time.
Dogs are pack animals; they are not genetically wired to spend most of their day alone. Thankfully for us, most can adapt to it fairly well. Keep in mind, though, that many a behavior problem starts by asking a dog to spend too much time by him or herself without enough exercise. There’s a ton of information about separation anxiety floating around, but most dogs just need exercise and routine to avoid it. Now, for the first couple days, you may think your lab has separation anxiety because he or she is very stressed when not with/near you—this acute stress period almost always disappears within a few days and with a good routine.
1. Where
to Have Your Lab Sleep.
We highly recommend that you have your dog sleep in your bedroom (it is up to you whether you provide a dog bed or simply make room on your bed—mine prefer their dog beds, and frankly there isn’t enough room for two 80lb dogs and two adults). There are several advantages to this arrangement—first, if you close your door or simply lay a cheap baby gate across the door way, you know where your dog is all night and, more importantly, your dog can let you know if a GI bug suddenly hits him. Second, we are all busier than we’d like. If you are gone for some or most of the day, sharing your room with your dog allows him or her to get the “pack” time while you are snoozing.
An adolescent lab may require a crate for the first couple of nights to a week. Again, put the crate in your room and once the dog has “slept through” a couple of nights, replace the crate with a dog bed. Don’t put the dog bed in the crate—he or she will likely just chew it, particularly if hot. A small blanket might be nice, though, to make the crate a little comfy (and a quiet toy or two). Most LRNC dogs, particularly the adolescents, have been exposed to crates. If your dog protests, contact us. And try to avoid EVER letting a barking dog out of a crate (assuming you are very confident that the dog doesn’t need to potty). There is no reason to have an adult dog sleep in a crate indefinitely—and a dog bed with the capacity to stretch out is preferable.
2. Where
To Have Your Dog Spend His/Her Alone Time.
I am sure we’d all love to spend all day every day with our dogs, but alas most of us need to work. And most of us can’t take our dogs to work. So, here are a couple of tips for making your inevitable departure easier on your dog.
For an adult dog (over 3 years old), create a dog-proofed area in part of the house where you spend time. Kitchens are often a good choice—just make sure any food is out of reach (remember their sniffers are much more sensitive than ours). Garages and unfinished basements are NOT good choices—climate control can be a problem, chemicals of any sort in the garage are a real hazard, and the dog knows that he or she isn’t in the “house.” A dog bed, some water, toys, and a rubber “kong” (available at Petsmart) stuffed with peanut butter are the basics. Baby gates are very inexpensive means of creating a dog-proofed space, and many dogs over 2 or 3 won’t even try to jump them. It depends on the dog, but gates may provide you a nice alternative to a crate for an older dog. Try out the space before you leave for 8-10 hours! Go run a short errand over a weekend. Also, if at all possible, have someone visit the dog mid-day if you are gone for whole day for the first week or so.
For a young
dog, you may want to start with a crate—but only if you will not be gone for
more than 8 consecutive hours. Crating a
young dog all day has definite drawbacks—there’s a ton of pent-up energy when
you get home. Again, place the crate in a location where you or the family
spends time—somewhere familiar and comfortable to the dog. The
goal should always be to wean the dog from the crate as he or she matures—a
five-year old lab that’s been in the home for a couple years hopefully has run
of the house or at least a couple rooms.
If you need any more information on
crating, alone time, or nighttime issues, please contact Kristin Major at kristinmajor@cox.net or adoption@labrescuenc.org.
THANKS FOR ADOPTING A RESCUED