A dog that moves house loses, all at once, the smells, people and timetable it knew. In the first days it may be restless, eat less or relieve itself indoors, even if it was already house-trained.
What helps most at this stage is predictability: knowing when it eats, when it goes out, where it rests and what it may or may not do. That only exists if it is decided before the dog arrives.
Before the arrival
Agree with everyone in the house who does what, so the rules are the same for all:
- who walks the dog and at what times;
- who feeds it and how much;
- who handles training and vet visits;
- whether it may get on the sofa or the bed, and which rooms it may go into.
A rule that changes with the person cannot be learnt.
Set up a quiet resting place, away from the front door, corridors and busy areas. That is where the dog will sleep and retreat when it is tired or unsure, so it should always be available and never used as a punishment.
Have ready the bed, bowls for water and food, a lead and a collar or harness with an ID tag. The tag should carry your contact: a microchip needs a reader, while a tag lets whoever finds the dog reach you at once.
Check the house at the dog's height:
- electric cables and chargers out of reach or protected;
- medicines, cleaning products and the bin shut away;
- balconies, gates and fences with no gaps it could get through;
- shoes, socks, children's toys and other small objects put away, because they can be chewed or swallowed;
- foods that are toxic to dogs out of reach, including those left on tables and worktops: chocolate, grapes and raisins, onion, garlic and anything with xylitol, such as sugar-free gum and sweets.
The first day
On arrival, show the dog the water and its resting place and let it explore the house calmly, one room at a time and always with someone nearby. Do not force contact: let it come to people.
Keep the first hours quiet. Visitors, long walks and intense activity should wait a few days, until the dog knows the house and the people it lives with. If there are children, always supervise contact.
Watch whether it drinks, eats and relieves itself. A dog often eats less on the first day; if the refusal continues, see the warning signs at the end of this guide.
The first days
Give it the same food it was eating before, in the same amount, and ask whoever hands it over which one. If you want to change it, do so gradually, mixing the new with the old over about a week, to avoid digestive problems.
Keep fixed times for going out. An adult dog can have accidents indoors in the first days, even if it was house-trained. Do not punish it: go out more often and praise it when it relieves itself outside.
Let it sleep without waking it, and keep children and visitors from disturbing it in its resting place. A tired dog with broken sleep settles worse, above all a puppy.
Give it chew toys, sturdy and the right size so they cannot be swallowed. Chewing is a need, particularly in puppies while their teeth change, and a toy of its own spares furniture and shoes.
Puppies
A puppy learns very quickly what is normal, and the first months of life are when that learning is easiest. That is the time for it to meet, in a controlled way, what it will come across throughout its life:
- people of different ages;
- the sounds of the house and the street;
- different surfaces, such as grass, tiles or grates;
- cars, bicycles and public transport;
- everyday situations, such as a visitor at home or a trip to the vet.
Before the vaccination course is complete, ask the vet how to do this socialisation safely. Do not take the puppy to parks or places with unknown dogs until the vet confirms it is safe.
To teach it where to relieve itself, take it to the right place after eating, after sleeping and after playing, and praise it the moment it gets it right. Clean up accidents without punishment: punishing does not teach it where to go.
If there is already another dog
The introduction is done in steps, and each one moves on only when the one before went without tension:
- Initial separation: in the first days, keep the dogs in separate parts of the house.
- Scent swapping: swap blankets or beds between them, so they know each other by smell before they meet.
- A meeting on neutral ground: somewhere neither dog sees as its own, each on its own lead with its own person, starting with a walk side by side at a comfortable distance.
- Supervision: at home, always supervise time together until there is mutual trust, meaning both eat, rest and play near each other without tension.
A relaxed body, sniffing the ground and invitations to play are signs you can move on. Separate them and go back a step if either goes stiff, stares, growls or raises the hair along its back.
Each dog should have its own resources: food, water, bed, toys and resting place. Feed them in separate places, so neither has to compete for what is its own.
Health and legal duties in Portugal
Book a vet appointment for the first days and take the health booklet. The vet assesses its general condition, checks the microchip and sets the vaccination and parasite plan for the dog's age, size, history and health. With a puppy, it is also the vet who says when the vaccination course is complete.
In Portugal, the dog must be microchipped and registered with SIAC, the national companion animal register. The transfer of keeper must be reported to SIAC within 15 days, with the consent of both the previous and the new keeper. Agree this with whoever hands the dog over before you take it home.
Rabies vaccination is compulsory for dogs from three months of age.
Warning signs
Contact a vet if the dog:
- persistently refuses food or water;
- vomits or has diarrhoea;
- is lethargic and does not react to its surroundings;
- shows signs of pain, such as yelping when touched, limping or staying hunched and still;
- has difficulty breathing;
- has eaten, or may have eaten, something toxic. In that case, do not wait for symptoms.
A dog that tries to vomit without bringing anything up and has a swelling belly needs to be seen immediately, even out of hours: these are signs of gastric torsion, more common in large, deep-chested dogs.