Brand new rescue pup won’t leave his bed

[ChelseaEnslow]

Hi folks 

I have a brand new rescue pup. For context, this is night number two and we arrived home around midnight yesterday. He is 8months old and had a very stressful experience getting to us (international rescue, plane delays, etc.) we knew he was a bit on the nervous side already and this seems to really have stressed him! He is very sweet, is now eating food and drinking water. He seems to very slowly be getting used to me as the “treat dispenser”. The trick is... he is very difficult to move. Once in motion he will go outside to pee and seems nervous but enjoys sniffing around. But I can’t seem to get him to move in the first place (out of his bed). I’ve tried lines of treats, higher value treats, and gentle tugs with a harness to no avail. I think the treats may be being less successful as I’ve been using them a lot to show him I’m a friend and to coax him to eat kibble, as when he arrived he hadn’t eaten anything for over a day. I’ve resorted to picking him up to get him moving to simply go pee outside... but I don’t think he enjoys the pickups and I don’t want him to be scared of me. He’s also not small to pick up! No signs of aggression at all, he’s very gentle just very scared. I’m sure he’ll get over this hump soon I want to help him be as happy as possible given the circumstances.

any advice appreciated!

 

thanks

 

Chelsea 

[ChelseaEnslow]

Ive also noticed that each time is getting better and I don’t have to carry him as far now. He doesn’t seem overly scared of me and seems to prefer taking kibble and treats from my hand than from the ground. So maybe I’m being an overly nervous new pup parent haha. Anyways, any advice still appreciated. 

[Adrienne]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums!

I agree with you, he sounds stressed and likely all this travel has had an impact on him. Most likely he got used to being in his travel crate and felt protected in it, and now that he is a new place he just shuts down and wants to feel safe. Eating food and drinking water though is already a good step forward so it seems like he is slowly coming around. 

As to what to do, I have a few ideas, but they may or may not work depending on how your home is structured, noise levels etc. 

-One option that comes to mind is once he's up and moving, to place his bed near the door, so that when you open it, he can see you go outside and may feel more intent to follow you. This may or may not work well depending on whether the area nearby the door is noisy or the door opening may scare him. It may help though if he needs to walk a distance to go outside and he is scared of walking across the room if there are things he may be scared of (like large furniture, a fridge that makes noise). On top of this, seeing outside from his bed may entice him more to get up if he has been showing signs of enjoying to sniff around the yard. 

-If you need to pick him up, you can find this helpful, although I prefer a dog to walk on his own as much as it can be avoided, but this can help create positive associations: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/the-importance-of-picking-up-small-dogs-and-puppies-safely/

He may also benefit from getting used to touch: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/exercises-to-teach-puppies-to-tolerate-touch/

-Here is a general guide for fearful dogs: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/helping-fearful-rescue-dog/

-If he' scared of some noises, this can help too: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/

If you need to use treats, split them in several small pieces and give one piece for behavior to reinforce rather than giving a whole one at once. I can easily get 10-12 pieces out of a regular soft treat which means I can use significantly less while still reaping the benefits. If he eats his kibble and likes it, you can use that too. 

 

[ChelseaEnslow]

Thanks so much! We just had a mini breakthrough where He got out of the bed on his own for some treats. 🙂 
 

we will try moving him into the living room which I think will help us implement that first idea. He’s in the basement with me now as it’s quiet and away from our cats. But it is a long scary walk to any outdoor doors. Since We did do a cat dog introduction and it went well, I think he will be okay around the cats in the living room now (supervised of course). 

[Adrienne]

That's great to hear! 

You will find some info on cat chasing in the below thread if, once he's more at ease in the home, he may think about chasing the cats. Hopefully though you won't need it:

 

[ChelseaEnslow]

Update: he’s doing great! He didn’t love the living room and went back to the basement but we still progressed and no longer need pick ups to get outside (I found a wet food he LOVES and will do anything for, including go into the scary upstairs and outside world!) 
 

So far he is awesome with the cats! He sniffs them, wags, play bows. They like/tolerate him but don’t really want to play so I think it’s time for a puppy play date for him! :)

 

thanks so much for the advice! 

[Adrienne]

Glad to hear!

Thanks for the update!

Feel free to post here if you have any other questions.

Best,

Adrienne