New rescue dog

[BuzzyBumbleBees]

We brought our rescue home this weekend. She is the perfect fit for our family. Has been great around the girls (14 months and 6.5).

She's settled well so far but we want to make sure we don't make any mistakes in introducing her to family life. Everyone here seems to have so much knowledge I'm wondering if there is any advice to make sure this transition is a smooth one for everyone?

Sounds like you’re doing it all right OP if she’s settled in so well. My best advice would be start as you mean to go on, if you don’t want her upstairs don’t let her upstairs, doing it for one night won’t help her. The other thing would be walks. I think people underestimate how much a long walk solves most issues, a tired dog is a happy dog. Providing she has no health issues of course.

Well done on your new family member!

Yes yes yes - i second tgat! A long walk - or 2 if you can manage that - really does resolve many issues. A tired dog wont get bored and chew thru stuff etc.

Brain training is as important as physical exercise in tiring a dog out - more walks just makes for more stamina.
Try scatter feeding/snuffle mats, Kings and long wobblers, and trick training.

The school run is 1.5mile round trip so she'll be doing that twice a day and we love walking at the weekend. She's a bit overweight so struggling a bit just now but that will hopefully improve with a bit of weight loss.

She settled absolutely fine in the kitchen last night so that's where she will sleep. We have a baby gate up anyway so she'll probably very rarely have the opportunity to get up the stairs.

Thanks

How trained is she? Maybe start doing a few training exercises in the house to exercise her brain (just a few mins to start with). I found with my dog the more training I do the better he generally responds/looks to me for input iykwim and I do feel it has strengthen the bond between us.

She has basic training. Will look at different easy going training methods to get her started.

@BuzzyBumbleBees a good recipe for liver cake is worth it's weight in gold. It's basically doggie crack and they will do anything for it.

Paw is quite a nice easy one to start off with, if she already knows sit. Have a look on YouTube- there are lots of step by step guides there

Plenty of tasty treats to be given regularly by you and anyone else that comes into the house. Regular walks and try as much as you can to let your dog make 'friends' outside. If there are any situations she is scared of, treat her like a baby, maybe pick her up (if possible) or walk very closely with her towards whatever it is she's scared of and reassure her (with a nice voice and some treats). Make sure she has her own place in the house where nobody else is allowed to go - her own space to chill out knowing she won't be bothered by anyone. It's probably the most important thing IMO and really lowers the risk of the dog becoming so mad/anxious that they have to mouth or growl at someone. If they have a safe place to go where they can just 'get away' from noise/people/lights etc they become so much calmer and easy going as they have a place to go to relax.

It sounds like you are doing a great job OP. Just focus on some more training and building up a trusting relationship and you will be best pals in no time