Please tell me about settling in your rescue dog

[InterruptingGiraffe]

DDog arrived this week and we are settling in. Our first dog. She's 2, has been in a home so not coming from kennels, but she had lots of dogs there.

She's friendly with us, clean in the house, has been fine about me leaving to do school run, settled in her crate nicely overnight.

She has seemed a bit subdued today. We're taking it slow with going out and I think she is probably a bit bored. But we were advised not to overstimulate her too quickly.

I'd love to hear stories about rescue dogs settling in. Top tips. Happy endings. Funny things. Whatever you have. We are so enormously happy to have her and she is absolutely lush. But it is rather daunting!

Good luck with the behaviourist Sleigh. My boys have been great with the dog and have made some progress, but we don't feel we can trust him fully around them. And I guess we have to listen to what he might be trying to tell us.
Here's hoping all our poor little friends find happiness wherever they may end up.

How has it been Sleights?

Ddog is going back today

Our environment is too stressful for her and she treats one of our dc like they're her puppy. I'm worried she'll bite - which wouldn't be her fault as she's too over simulated.

When it's just me and her - you can see her untense now but she's so aggressive towards visitors and certain passers-by.

In the right setting, she'd be such a wonderful pet. She needs a lot of time to get trained out of being a protector, no young children to mother and protect and a less built up area I think. I'm really sad about it. I feel like we've let her down.

Dh is so upset - kids less so as they are afraid of her.

This is a timely thread for me as our rescue dog arrives next Saturday. She is also coming from Eastern Europe. She's approx 9 months old and has been living in the rescue centre's kennels for the last 3 months or so, before which she was living on the streets. We've discussed long and hard with the rescue about our family situation ( two teenage boys, but one has severe learning difficulties and is pretty noisy at times with jerky movements). After going through the many dogs on their books we chose one who is described as calm, intelligent and very affectionate. Videos bear this out. The rescue centre are well aware of DS and his behaviours and seem confident that this dog will be OK. But obviously we haven't met her yet and I'm aware it's a huge risk. We've planned carefully for her arrival - she'll have a crate in a room that leads off our kitchen and has a door to the garden, but we'll also use a stair gate on the opening into the kitchen. So she will feel part of things but also safe. Have done lots of reading and the rescue people provide good back up. Am excited but also terribly nervous!

Good luck Sprog, it's finding the right qualities and seeing a video must help.

Our rescue centre have been brilliant. At the end of the phone whenever we needed to. Talking through with us what we can do or ultimately can't do. They said this is why there's a trial as they assess the dogs but you never know how they'll fit within a family. They love all their dogs (it's not a multinational) and don't want them in homes where it's not a good fit.

We're going to take a breather for a few weeks I think and try again towards the summer holidays. I think we'll look at younger dogs (advised by the rescue) as although I wanted to give an older dog a home, our environment/lifestyle isn't suitable at the moment.

Thanks roundtable. I'm hoping that because she's a younger dog she'll not have developed as many issues. In the video she looks quite passive and eager to please, which I think may be an advantage when training, but also quite submissive.

Behaviourist coming on Weds now.
Going ok. Still having to go through a huge pantomime for any visitor to the house but we've had no more barking or growling.
I'm just in a holding pattern with her so nothing gets worse before the behaviourist gets here.

She seems a bit more relaxed with strangers out and about. It's weird, some people she's all over and wants to snuggle up to, while others get the stink eye and she keeps her distance. I can't work out what's causing it.

The poor stinkeye people are doing nothing differently and the next time she meets them she's all friendly. Also, people she loves one day get the cold shoulder the next.

Baffled.

I think you've done the right thing by DDog roundtable.
Ours is different in that she's brilliant around my DCs, even seems to have a special bond with the 'spirited' one!

I'd be doing things very differently if that wasn't the case.

I'm also reassured by how quickly she's stopped the barking and lunging (with me managing her). If It's not hugely entrenched, I'm hoping we can help her feel happy with visitors quite quickly.

sprog Very exciting! She sounds lovely & the rescue sound great too.
Ours is very young and was very submissive & eager to please too. It's only now she feels secure enough to show us her true feelings that we're seeing these behaviours.

Not saying the same will happen to you at all, but very submissive dogs can often be a bit fearful which you need to watch out for.
Just makes you wonder what's happened to them in the past to make them so worried

Yes I did wonder about the fearfulness. In a couple of the videos she's panting a lot and her body language is sometimes very low - head down, tail down etc.

Hopefully it'll work out Sleighs.

Chunks, how are you getting on?

The behaviourist has sent a lovely couple of messages, confirming we've made the right decision. He also said that for every wrong fit, there are probably 10 dogs that are a good fit so do not give up on rescued dogs! So hope for everyone

I'm sorry things haven't worked out roundtable. But you are doing the right thing. And the rescue now know more about the dog to find a home that is a better fit, so it's a step towards a happier ending.

I felt so awful about sending ours back too though, so I know how hard it is.

Good luck everyone else. I hope it goes well. Sprog it might be helpful if you slowly introduce your dog to the whole house. So keep in one area for a while. I think ours was intimidated by how open plan we are and just never felt safe anywhere. If you start small it might help with nerves.

That's a good idea.

Thought I'd update the thread.

So the first dog went back (we still visit her!) and they've changed the criteria for rehoming. I really hope she finds her forever home.

We tried again - it ended up not being a few weeks gap but almost immediately. The behaviourist''s knowledge was invaluable. We spent a long time watching the litter that had just been brought into the rescue centre from another one. Then took one of them out for a little walk. Then watched the body language again.

She's been here nearly 5 weeks now and she's settled in beautifully. I feel nervous putting that down in writing incase I jinx it but she's really blossomed. She's responded to training well, we can walk her off lead and her recall is good although she gets distracted when sniffing so there can be a 5-10 second delay.

She gets on well with other family member's dogs. She can be a pickle as all puppies can be. She is approaching 6 months so I'm very aware that we haven't reached adolescence yet!

So don't give up everyone