Training
Boxes in the hall, new smells, new neighbours, strange footsteps on the stairs. Most dogs settle into a new home within a few weeks, faster if you prepare them early.
You move in three weeks. The first boxes have appeared in the hall, and your dog sniffs each one in turn, then lies down by the front door and will not take his eyes off you. Or you moved four days ago, and the dog who used to sleep like a log all night now wanders from room to room, barks at every footstep on the stairs and has wet the new rug. For a dog, moving means that everything that smelled and sounded familiar disappears in a single day. Most dogs still settle within a few weeks, and faster if you get things ready in advance. Below is the order we do things in, from the first boxes to the end of the first month in the new place.
Pack a bit at a time. A few boxes a day rather than the whole house in one weekend. Dogs pick up on every change around them, and the last-minute rush unsettles them far more than the boxes do.
His things go in a box last. Bed, bowls, favourite toys and blanket stay unwashed and unpacked until the final day. Their smell is what turns a strange room into somewhere familiar.
Start the new routine in the old house. If he will sleep in a different room or go out at different times after the move, make the change now, while the rest of his life is still the one he knows.
Update his details. Your new address and phone number on the microchip, your number on the tag on his collar. Find a vet in the new area ahead of time and note down a 24-hour clinic. If you are moving abroad, look into the rules early: pet passport, rabies vaccination, sometimes blood tests or treatments with strict deadlines.
Walks round the new neighbourhood. If you can, take him there a few times before the move for slow walks where he gets to sniff everything. That way he knows the streets before he lives on them.
Moving day is risky for very practical reasons. Doors stand open for hours, strangers carry furniture in and out, and nobody has time to keep an eye on the dog. Dogs very often go missing on exactly this day.
Start with one room. Before you give him the run of the place, go round it yourself: windows, balcony, fence, gaps under the fence, toxic plants in the garden, electrical cables. Then take him in on lead and let him sniff at his own pace, room by room. The first night he sleeps in his old, unwashed bed in a quiet corner.
Same food, same times. This is not the moment to change his diet. Walks and meals stay at the old times as far as you can manage. Bedtime too.
On lead, even in the garden. In the first couple of weeks plenty of dogs try to leave, some of them heading back to the old house. Go out into the garden with him for the first few days, until you are sure the fence holds.
Sniffing walks. Long line, slow pace. In the first week stick to the same few routes. He builds his map of the neighbourhood with his nose: where the other dogs live, which way the park is, what the street smells like. A walk where he can sniff as much as he likes settles him better than a long, brisk one.
Short absences to begin with. A dog who was happy alone in the old house may not be in the new one. Start by leaving for a few minutes with something good to chew, and build up gradually. If you can, film him the first few times.
New noises. The lift, the neighbours, the intercom, the trams. When he barks at them, do not tell him off. Go and have a look yourself, then call him over. When he comes, praise him and give him a tasty treat. For sounds that come up often, help him connect them with something nice: the intercom buzzes, a bit of cheese drops.
Puppies. They adapt most easily, but house training can slip for a few days. Take him out often, at the same times, to the same spot in the garden or on the pavement, and make a happy fuss of him every time he goes there. A move is also a good chance for him to meet new people and places, with an eye on his vaccinations.
Adolescents. Lots of energy, not much patience. Young dogs are the most likely to bolt in the first weeks and to chew things when left alone somewhere new. Give them extra exercise and extra nose games in the days after the move.
Adults. Most settle within one to three weeks. Dogs who were easily worried before need longer and a tighter routine. For a recently adopted dog, a move can feel like yet another loss. In the first days he needs calm, a fixed timetable and as few people in the house as possible.
Older dogs. An old dog, especially one whose sight or hearing is going, gets around by the map in his head: he knows where the door is, where the stairs are, where his bowl lives. In the new house keep the furniture in place, put mats on the stairs and on slippery tiles, leave a small light on at night, and put his bowl and bed where he can find them easily. In dogs with an ageing brain, a move sometimes brings out signs that had been hidden until then. If he seems disoriented, tell your vet.
Changing everything at once. New house, new food, new bed, a new timetable, maybe a new puppy in the same month. He is left with nothing familiar to hold on to.
Washing everything before the move. It is tempting to arrive clean. But the blanket that smells of home is the most comforting thing you can give him.
Freedom on day one. The dog let loose in the garden the day after the move finds the gap under the fence before you do.
Telling him off for accidents. Weeing indoors after a move usually comes from stress, or from marking, never from spite. Telling him off only adds to the stress. Clean up with an enzyme cleaner, which gets rid of the smell, and go back to frequent trips outside.
Eight hours at the office from the second day. If you can, take a few days off, or ask someone to pop in at lunchtime during the first week.
Forgetting the microchip. A lost dog whose chip leads to the old address and a dead phone number is a very hard dog to get home.
Nearly every dog is unsettled for the first few days. After one to three weeks life usually finds its rhythm again. Anxious dogs, older dogs and recently adopted dogs may need a month or two.
The good signs arrive one at a time. He sleeps deeply, on his back or stretched out, not curled up tight with his ears pricked. He eats normally. He stops following you from room to room. He barks less and less at footsteps on the stairs. On walks he stops at his favourite corners of his own accord. He can stay calm on his own for a few hours.
| Period | What to focus on |
|---|---|
| Days 1–3 | Safety (doors, fence, lead), his old bed, the old timetable, short sniffing walks |
| First week | The same routes, short absences that get longer, praise for staying calm at noises |
| Weeks 2–3 | New routes, more time alone, gradual freedom in the garden |
| After a month | If he still is not sleeping, eating or coping alone, get help |
A trainer who works with rewards can help you set up the new routine and deal with whatever the move has brought to the surface, whether that is barking at the neighbours or being left alone.
What dog owners search for most often on the internet about this problem, with the short answer.
For most dogs, between one and three weeks. The first days are usually unsettled: he wanders round the house, barks at new noises, sleeps less. Anxious dogs, older dogs and recently adopted dogs may need a month or two. An unchanged routine, his old bed and walks where he can sniff to his heart's content shorten that a great deal.
Usually stress, or marking the new place. Spite has nothing to do with it. Go back to frequent trips out at the same times, make a fuss of him outside when he finishes, and clean up with an enzyme cleaner, which removes the smell. Do not tell him off. If it is no better after two weeks, or he goes little and often, see your vet.
The safest option is for him to stay with a friend he knows or at kennels he has used before. If he stays with you, keep him in a closed room with his bed and water and tape a big sign on the door. On moving day the doors are open for hours, and that is exactly when dogs go missing.
Because he does not know yet what is normal there: the lift, the neighbours and the intercom are all new. Do not tell him off. Go and look yourself, call him over and, when he comes, praise him and give him a tasty treat. Sounds that come up often can be linked with something nice. The barking usually drops off within two or three weeks.
The address and phone number held by the database the chip is registered with, plus the tag on his collar. Do it before the move, because the first weeks are when dogs most often run off, some of them back towards the old house. If you are moving abroad, check the entry rules for dogs well ahead.
They often come together: the same causes, plans that complement each other.
He howls from the first minute and only goes quiet when you walk back in. That is panic, and panic is worked in seconds at first, not in hours of 'getting used to it'.
Out in the road five minutes after you go inside. Running off is a safety problem first and a behaviour problem second, and you deal with them in that order.
The chip is the size of a grain of rice and has no GPS. It only gets a lost dog home if its number leads, on the database, to the phone you use today.
Under the bed, behind the washing machine, behind the sofa. A hiding dog is saying either I'm scared or it hurts, and from outside the two look the same.
In Puppy Class and the basic obedience course these exercises are worked in a group, with real distractions and feedback at every step.