Spend some time researching the various shelters from where you can adopt a dog. Talk to the volunteers to understand what formalities they follow while giving up a dog for adoption. Discuss your situation at home, lifestyle and personality with the adoption team. Also, choose a reputed veterinarian close to your home.
Before bringing the dog home, meet her, take her for a walk, play with her or offer her treats if she is friendly. Once she’s comfortable with you, take your family to visit her. Make sure all family members agree with your decision. Once you have decided on the dog, cooperate with the animal welfare organisation for house visits and other formalities.
Once the dog is ready to be brought home, prepare all family members for the event. Make sure everyone is very calm and behaves pleasantly to the dog. Do not give too much attention on the first day. Let the dog absorb the environment. You can bring her blanket or bed from the shelter to make her feel at home. Do not invite guests to come and visit her during the initial days. Excitement and chaos will increase the dog’s stress levels and will delay the process of her settling down.
If you have adopted a puppy, spend some time in toilet-training her. Create a schedule including meal times, play time and walks so she starts to anticipate the activities in the house. If you’ve adopted an adult dog, the animal welfare volunteer would have discussed her daily schedule with you, so try to stick to it as much as possible in the first few days. For example, if the dog is fed home-cooked food and taken for walks twice a day, stick to it. If you want to shift to commercial food, talk to your vet and do it in phases. Within a few days, your dog will fit in and welcome you with tail wags! You can start socialising the dog with your friends and relatives. Keep your vet informed of the dog’s health at all times.
To watch a rescued dog blossom into a healthy and a confident dog is the real reward of adoption. The joy that these dogs bring into our lives is incomparable to the initial work that we put in to help them settle down. Last but not the least, spay or neuter your dog to prevent over-population. Happy adoptions!
(The writer is a canine behaviour consultant and founder of Confident Dogs. She can be reached at nivedita@confidentdogs.com)
