Bringing Your New Pet Home: Read Here for 5 Tips to Introduce Your Pet to Its’ New Forever Home

How do you introduce a pet to its' new forever home?

So you’ve just adopted an animal from the Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter! How exciting! Now comes the fun part, introducing your lovely pet to its’ new forever home. You may have prepared and bought some lovely new beds and plenty of food and treats, but here are 5 tips to make sure that your pet can easily transition into its’ new home as if it has lived there all of its’ life!

1 – Prepare your home – Preparation is key, while you might have bought some bedding for you pet, it’s important to make sure that your house has a place that your pet can call its’ own, this can be a crate, a bed or any space where your pet can have privacy while it gains confidence. Make sure you also have a selection of toys and the necessary food for your pet too and be sure to cover any potential hazards in the house!

2 – Keep walks short – If your new pet is a dog, it is important to familiarise them with the surrounding area as well as getting used to its new home. For the first few days, it would be wise to keep all walks you take with your dog to a short time and to a small area, such as around the block. This will give your new friend plenty of time to get used to the area.

3 – Introduce your pet to its’ new family – When introducing your pet to members of the family, pick an environment that is controlled and calm, such as your living room. let the pet meet family members one at a time and make sure that it is done at whatever pace it feels comfortable and allow it to sniff around and investigate freely.

4 – Plan for supervision – If you are busy with work or have other time commitments, you could ask friends or family who you trust and have introduced to the pet to aid you in supervision. It is important that these people are made aware of what you expect of them in terms of respecting the pet’s personal space, socialising with it and anything else you deem necessary. Cats are usually okay with being left alone when you are out however, in the short term, it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to plan for supervision if it’s available.

5 – Be patient – The most important tip for introducing your pet to its new home is to be patient and to offer it encouragement whenever it may be struggling. It is crucial for you to not get angry with your or it could break the level of trust it has in you. Whether it be toilet accidents or a misunderstanding of where it will sleep or eat, there will be a time where mistakes will be made and this is completely normal! But it is up to you to teach your pet all of this at its own pace and in a friendly manner. The key to teaching a pet these things is reinforcing and rewarding good behaviour with incentives such as treats or toys. This is especially true with dogs.

For more tips and news of the Shelter, click here