Day 17

Tuesday 27^th March

Another trip to the big park for Freya today. We met up with Jo, another behaviourist and her lovely senior girl Scottie. Scottie used to be Jo’s stooge dog helping nervous dogs overcome some of their anxieties. She is such a great communicator with other dogs and Freya learned so much from her.

Watching Scottie swim in the lake

We used a very long training lead this time and saw some lovely check ins from Freya. Using a long lead allows Freya to keep up with Scottie and provides lots of recall opportunities too! 😊

Then home for a well-earned rest.

Day 16

Tuesday 26^th March

Lots of moments together in the house, passing in the hall and doorways. Freya is still very nervous around doorways and has a habit of bolting through from one safe space to the other.

Jack and Freya have been sharing our bed at times, supervised of course.

Took Freya down to meet the rest of the family today, including grandchildren and their dog. Kira off lead and Freya on lead (too early to let her off yet). Lovely introductions, polite and calm although Freya did want to go chasing off after Kira to play.

Freya is nervous of new people but quickly came over to sniff everyone and say hi. 

We introduced her one person at a time, outside. Freya had the choice of jumping back into the car or coming over to sniff.  Giving dogs choices helps their confidence and before long she was sniffing everyone. Very relaxed around both grandchildren too so we all had a picnic together!

Afterwards we all went into the house, dogs, kids and adults!

25th March

Freya and Spudsy clip off lead on the patio. You can see Freya is a little unsure but is given every opportunity to move away. 

Spudsy couldn’t care less and is busy sniffing!

Brief periods of togetherness but always with the option to leave the room.

Jack chose to come in and lie on the floor, Spudsy took a little longer.

This happened next….

Jack then chose to jump up next to Freya, lovely polite behaviour and everyone very calm!

Two weeks on from the “overnight” stay!

Two weeks of having Freya here – this happened! All the gates are open and after a little hesitancy ………

You can see she is a little stressed, lots of panting and lip licking but after a short while, with every opportunity to go back to her safe space, this happened:

After a short while she relaxes and goes to sleep 😊

Because they have been able to get used to each other over a period of time, seeing another dog walking around is no big deal. They all ignore each other and settle in their own spaces. 

Stair gates are left open so that any of the dogs can move away to feel safe.

Spudsy was outside and Jack stayed on the spare bed. 

Days 11 & 12

After her busy day walking somewhere new and meeting new people and dogs we decided on a quiet day for Freya. Rest days for our dogs are essential and even more important for dogs that are stressed by various things.

Just one gate between the dogs now so plenty of opportunities to sniff each other and time for Freya to get used to being in other rooms. I think she is doing well at it!

A stroll down to the local park for Freya and some recall while on a very long lead.

Some really lovely connected walking now too. Notice how I just stand and wait until she is ready to move on. She heard a noise (flapping polythene) and wanted to check it out. It is so important to say nothing and let them be curious and learn. Lovely eye contact afterwards.

Someone clearly loves the sofa!

More tomorrow.......

Days 8, 9 and 10

Freya is beginning to settle into our daily routines. More of the same – careful management and calm. Only one stair gate between the dogs now and lots of sniffing.

We keep everything C A L M. Over-stimulation and over excitement can easily spill into snaps and frustrations.

Brief off lead meetings with Jack outside – lots of consensual sniffing of “bits”. Spudsy and Freya are regularly going out for toilets together now and pretty much ignore each other apart from the odd sniff.

It is essential to continue to take things slowly, even though all the signs are good. Much better to take longer than needed than rush and end up with grumbles.

Introductions to another female dog and a trip to a huge park for a walk. Freya clearly loves the water!  

I posted her interactions with Scottie the other day.

Freya’s lead walking is coming along nicely. We are using a shorter lead and getting some lovely loose lead work. She is beginning to sniff much more on her walks and has better body language as she becomes used to them.

Freya has already perfected the cute look!

Day 11 tomorrow.

Days 6 & 7

Still clean through the night and no destruction either. Freya is beginning to get into the routine of things and starting to relax.

When she first came, the moment you spoke to her she felt she had to get up and come over. Here is a short video clip where I speak to her over the stair gate. She remains lying down, wagging her tail. She is learning so much so quickly.

Spudsy and Freya have met off lead in the garden, both going out for pees. No image unfortunately as all eyes were on both dogs!

Lovely polite behaviour with lots of sniffing.

We continue the walks, using calm and quiet body language and lots of praise. We can now walk on a shorter lead and she is already learning to stop when I stop without needing a cue to Wait or Stay. She lip licks in this video clip but you can see her body language is improving as is her walking position.

We now have only one stair gate between the dogs with lots of sniffing and polite body language.  Freya is now enjoying hunting for treats too.

When introducing puzzle and enrichment games we need to make it easy for them to succeed so they will be encouraged to have a go. 

Day 8 to follow……..

Days 3, 4 and 5

Prior to bringing Freya home I had spent a number of sessions with her at kennels, which has helped hugely in providing her with a secure base. My partner also came up several times and spent time with her prior to bringing her home. Getting to know a new dog prior to bringing them home is essential.

We borrowed a huge crate to provide Freya with a comfortable safe space to go in the conservatory. At no time will the door be closed – it is purely to create a den area where she can go when she chooses.

The crate was a huge hit with Freya choosing to sleep and relax in there.

No destruction or toileting overnight and a much happier girl. 

She is really beginning to relax and actually played with a toy briefly.

We are starting to walk a little further, going to the local park with plenty of dog smells for her to investigate.  You can see from the following video clip, she is very nervous on pavement walks and prefers to walk in front while checking behind her. 

While she is not walking on a loose lead, she isn’t really pulling as such but being out in front makes it difficult to connect with her. However, if we use a shorter lead, she becomes much more stressed so for now, we let her have a longer lead. 

She has never experienced walks so will take time to settle and get used to them. Therefore, we must make sure they are positive, quiet and not too long.

You can see she is panting and lip licking, feeling rather uncomfortable. However, every time she turns to look at me, I give her praise.

Slightly better body language in the next video, when we arrived at the park but still very little sniffing.

Freya is very anxious about being in the rest of the house.  Having other dogs helps a little as she can see they are relaxed and enjoy lying on sofas and dog beds. 

Everything is new to her as she has never been inside a house, so we need to take things slowly, gradually expanding her world, one bit at a time. 

She comes in briefly to the lounge but pants heavily. 

We would normally suggest bringing the new dog in on lead but that is not an option with Freya as the lead can cause her stress.

Stair gates are left open so she can choose to go back to the conservatory, her safe space. She comes in for a couple of minutes affection and then takes herself out again. Baby steps!

Freya and the two staffies have been having brief sniffs through the stair gates, one staffie at a time, throughout each of the days. The rest of the time they continue to see each other from two stair gates away. 

Much better to takes things slowly than rush and end up with one of the dogs going over threshold.

Day 6 tomorrow.......

Day 2

When introducing new dogs, we would always suggest introducing them away from the home and on neutral territory, parallel walking while they get used to each other.  This avoids over the top greetings which can quickly turn into scuffles, allowing them time to get used to each other and also learn they do not have to engage. This has not been possible with Freya as she was so worried about being on lead.

Throughout her first day, during multiple trips to the garden we watched for toileting. Each time she eliminated it was followed by praise and the word “toilet”.

It is so important to keep their world small to avoid flooding them with too many new things. Now is not the time for visitors to come and meet the new dog or lots of long walks to new places. Freya needs to time adjust to being in a home rather than kennels or a garden. For a dog that has lived her life in a garden, she is adjusting really well.

Walks were kept short and positive, gradually expanding her world – she was not keen on harness and lead as had never been walked so it was important to ensure all experiences were positive.

The two stair gates between dogs remain so that all dogs can feel safe, choose whether to come forward or move away. For brief moments, individual dogs were allowed to come forward to the gate to sniff with her and then return behind a second gate.

As she found walks quite stressful, it was important to provide plenty of mental stimulation to tire that mind out and reduce her stress levels. Freya is not particularly motivated by food and has no interest or understanding of toys, making it quite difficult to offer things that she will engage with. We start off with really simple treat searches

We found grated cheese and chicken worked well! This girl has expensive taste!

We decided to leave a light on for the second night, all doors open with stair gates in place and a radio quietly playing in the background.

On the second morning, the conservatory was clean, and she quickly eliminated when let out into the garden - lots of praise for her. Minor chewing of the window boards was evident but nothing like the devastation from the night before!

Look out for Day 3 tomorrow……

Introducing a new dog to resident dogs

Being dog friendly and actually living with other dogs are two very different things. Meeting dogs while out walking or ignoring other dogs on walks does not necessarily mean they can live together.

Many of you will remember our gorgeous girl Tia passed away back in July last year. We miss her presence every single day, often shedding a few tears.

Rocky and Tia, both passed but never forgotten

We had no intention of adopting another dog............ and then I met Freya!

Over the next week or so we will be sharing the daily progress of Freya, coming to live with our two resident dogs.

Jack, Tia, Spudsy and Rocky

While they are dog tolerant and used to living with other dogs (and even foster dogs in the past) and Freya is dog friendly, this does not mean that dogs will automatically get on or be able to live in a house together, in close quarters.

If you are thinking of adopting another dog, please do get professional help to ensure they are set up to succeed.

The keys to a successful integration are patience and choices!

Use stair gates and safe spaces for all of the dogs, allowing them the choice to meet and greet or the choice to move away.

All three dogs have now successfully met, off lead in the garden and inside the house, through stair gates and up close and personal for brief moments. We are still managing them and taking things very slowly. 

Day 1 – Sunday 10^th March

Freya came to stay on 10^th March for an overnight stay ....... she is still here 😊. 

She has a troubled background, having lived outside for most of her life and is very fearful of people. Her choice is always flight, move away from the scary thing. However, she has resilience and over time, will come forward to meet people, in her own time, as long as she has the freedom to move away if she chooses.

Freya is scared of leads among other things and had never been walked so it was difficult to do introductions on lead as she quickly became frustrated. 

We did a few meet ups with our two on lead being fed chicken pate and in no time, they were ignoring Freya and looking for more chicken. I posted a couple of videos a while back of these introductions.

We set up a bed and comfortable space for her in our conservatory which has direct access to the garden.  

Rather than try to cuddle and stroke her and smother her with affection, we gave her space, taking her out regularly into the garden and then sitting a while in the conservatory with her.  We allowed her to approach us for affection, which she did, but would then take herself off to the bed.  

We had stair gates on three doorways, to allow the dogs to see each other from two gates away. All of the dogs could see each other if they chose or move away, with two gates in between. This helped them all feel safe.  

No problems at all during the day so we settled her down for the night….....

We awoke to a pacing dog, a pile of dog poo and many torn and chewed items, not limited to window boards and a desk! We quietly cleaned up, completely cleared the room and set up what remained of her bed. 

Look out for day two tomorrow………………….