Post adoption guide

Published: Bangalore Mirror Bureau | May 26th, 2015

Have you made up your mind to get home a dog? Well, then there is something you need to know about moves – dog’s find moves very stressful. Your home may be the most loving home in the world. But your new dog has no way of knowing that. Moving to a new family is so unnatural for a dog that stress hormones – adrenalin and cortisol will be coursing through your dog’s body. You will need to give it some time to leave your dog’s system. During this period you also need to be aware of what to expect. So let’s do a quick run through of what happens when your dog is stressed.

Stress hormones interfere with digestion. So it’s very common for dogs who have just relocated to have digestive trouble. The dog may vomit, have loosies or constipation. Her appetite may be quite poor. There may be acidity and vomiting of frothy bile. Curd rice is soul food for a stressed dog. 

Curds helps sooth the stomach and the rice is a binder for the stools. Carbs also calm dogs down.

Stress also creates a water imbalance in the body. We often sweat when stressed. Dogs don’t sweat. They pee instead. So a stressed dog will pee often and in unusual places. Don’t get upset if your new dog is peeing in odd places. It’s just stress and it will change. Continue taking the dog for toilet breaks after naps and meals.

Stress increases neo-peptides, which reduces immunity. Such dogs may get allergies and infections frequently. Improve a dog’s nutrition and rest. Health will automatically improve.

Stress increases sexual hormones as well. This applies to spayed and neutered dogs too. This can result in irritable dogs and mounting. Mounting is often mistaken for dominance. But if your dog is mounting with no intent to copulate, then it has something to do with heightened stress hormones.

Under the influence of stress hormones oxygen and blood sugar is redirected to the muscles, leaving little behind for the brain. This results in poor ability to learn. This means that a newly adopted dog should not be put in obedience classes. Such dogs need time to relax and recoup. Relaxed dogs are much better students.

In situations of sustained stress the brain cells can start getting damaged. These cells can regenerate as health improves and stress reduces. However while there is damage sustained the social ability of the brain is the first to suffer. So the dog may be asocial to people or dogs or both, depending on the dog’s history.

Stressed dogs can also be hyper vigilant, hyper active and bark a lot. All of this is part of a move and yes moves are indeed quite a burden on dogs. However the good news is that dogs are masters at coping. Given the right environment they quickly cope.

As eager as most of us are to help our new dog settle in, we need to hold back our urge to give the new dog a cuddle and instead give the dog space. Stressed dogs need nothing more than space. While good food and comfortable beds are important, space and time are the key things that is often easy to forget. A good rule of thumb will be to not approach your dog but to let her approach you. Try not to start rushing off to vets, trainers and socialization sessions. Avoid inviting people to see the dog. Lead a low key life for a while. It’s a lifetime of fun ahead of you. Give your dog a few weeks to get used to a life altering change, because that’s exactly what it is.

Stressed Dog? Where's the proof?

I wrote this post when I was in Kongsberg. I sat in the cold cottage and reminisced over warm Mandal and the people with the warm hearts who hosted me. I was learning a lot in Kongsberg as well and had to write out my lessons from Mandal before I forgot them. But I had to wait all this time to get the necessary permissions. So here is my long overdue recap of Mandal.

My learning was largely in two main areas:

1. Insights into running a boarding facility. Here is a rather elaborate post on the subject.
2. The Pulse Project

In this post, I will focus on The Pulse Project. Being an engineer, this project fascinated me the most! A lot of what I have been learning from Turid has struck me as true at a very intuitive level. But the Pulse Project put so much of it down in hard cold numbers. In my mind, this is one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal to understand our animals and do right by them. It is the closest I have seen to an “idiot proof” method to understand what our dogs are feeling. And I got information about it directly from the horses mouth – Agnes, my host in Mandal and lady behind this project. She and her husband Geir gave me a very enthusiastic demonstration of the project.

At the crux of it, the project, through some smartly pieced together equipment, measures the pulse of a dog, as the dog goes about doing normal stuff. It can be quite addictive. The most intriguing observations:  Touch a dog and it's pulse shoots up. Yup...that's right! Get the dog to concentrate on something and pulse plummets. And not just a simple drop - we saw close to a 65% drop!!!

To understand what a high pulse does to a dog, we could try it on ourselves. Often times, when I am at the gym, doing cardio, I watch my pulse closely. As my heart rate increases by 70% of normal, I can barely hold it there for a few seconds. I let myself to cool down again, and try exercising harder to increase my heart rate again. It’s exhausting. I am able to repeat this 5 to 6 times and then I am really burnt out.

Several every day activities bump the pulse of a dog up to almost double. That is 100% increase. This spike happens not 5 – 6 times a day, but perhaps even 50 – 60 times a day! Obviously, such frequent spikes in heart rate cannot be good for any living being, let alone the furry cuddly little puppy that we love so much, right?

I suggest a simple exercise. I have a list of activities that spike up a dogs heart rate. Try to calculate how many times a day your dog is subjected to these. And I warn you- the list WILL shock you.

• Walk straight up towards a dog

• Bend over a dog, like when petting or putting on a leash or removing a leash

• Commands / Requests (however you do it, when you ask them to do it)

• Playing fetch
• Playing tug
• Waking up a sleeping dog
• Petting an excited dog
• Talking to an excited dog

If we think about it, that’s a lot! Yeah…our dogs really are very sensitive creatures. And the most shocking of all: It's really really hard, if not impossible to guess how stressed a dog really is. Dogs are surprisingly stoic.

Does this mean we completely distance ourselves from our dogs? The short answer is, absolutely NO! I have gone through quite a transformation in the short time I have been here, constantly learning to be more “polite” and it does not feel like I am any less affectionate to the dogs at all. My dogs often walk up to me and ask to be petted. That's perfectly fine. But I’d think twice about waking a sleeping dog or petting a resting dog, or calling my dog. Here are some suggestions on more “polite” alternatives. By being “polite” I still get to interact with my dogs, but in a way that they appreciate it, rather than just tolerate it.

Actions that Increase Pulse	Alternatives
Walk straight up towards a dog	Walk in a curve towards a dog
Bend over a dog	Kneel next to a dog
Commands / Requests (however you do it, when you ask them to do it)	Give them an opportunity to use their own brains and figure things out
Playing fetch or tug	Nosework / brainwork

In essence, it’s all about the attitude. It's a little less of "me boss, you dog" attitude and more of "we are both adults, we are friends" attitude. You would not really command your friends all the time, ask them to drop whatever they are doing and come to you all the time, insist on hugging them all the time, waking them up when they are sleeping etc...right? Acknowledging dogs as adults makes it the transformation easy. Just requires us to make a slight adjustment in our perspective and approach.

Of course, they are adults with a lovely sense of humor and quite in touch with their inner puppy. So we don’t have to fear a dour boring adult and think we need to talk to them as if we were in a board room. Nope! We are talking of a fun, happy, jovial, childish adult, who is immensely fun to be with and we can have lots of fun as well. Just respect canine language a bit and things will be balmy!

So...the good and the bad news. The bad news: There is FAR too much we do on an every day basis that is driving the average pulse way above average in dogs. Good news: This project helps us identify all that we are doing and can be doing and helps us make better decisions for our dogs.

If anyone is interested in working on the pulse of their dog, to identify how stressed their dog is and what are stress reducing activities on their dogs, please do send me a message.

And last but not the least, a word of caution. As with most powerful tools, this too can be misused, knowingly or unknowingly. Agnes, the person behind the project is an extra ordinary woman, who takes utmost caution to ensure that the dog is not put under duress just for the sake of study. Such precaution is without doubt mandatory in a project like this. As the project draws more interest, it becomes mandatory that this aspect is kept as top priority at all times.

Here is a sample video from The Pulse Project that shows the effect on the pulse of the dog. In the first part of the video, the dog starts getting very worked up about someone in the other end of the room. Notice how much the dogs pulse goes up. Then the instructor does something that is seemingly benign. She deploys a technique called "Splitting", where she stands between the dog and the source of stress for the dog. And....well....watch for yourself. Happy stress free bonding with your dogs :)

After Adoption - A guide to help pet-parents deal with their newly adopted dog

Adoption is stressful.
This was Tigger before she came to us.
Notice the fear and anxiety in her eyes
Photo by Ramya Reddy

Congratulations! You have a new family member. Adopting a dog is a great decision. However, your new dog has most likely been in a very high stress environment. The move to your home is also stressful for your dog. Adrenaline is coursing through his/her body and can pose some challenges. But don’t worry. You and your dog will learn to cope. There are several guides on what to buy and how to puppy proof your house etc….This guide is not going to cover those issues. This guide is aimed solely at the emotional aspect of the adoption and how to help your new dog deal with the emotional roller-coaster ride that he has been put on, by being moved from one place to another.

First things first:

1. Understand what stress hormones can do to your dog
2. Give your dog space and time to settle down in this new home

Once your dog has calmed down, the effects of stress hormones should automatically come down and you will be well on your way to a happy canine family.

What can stress hormones do to your dog?
Stress hormones damage brain cells. This in turn reduces your dogs ability to be social with dogs & humans. Depending on your dogs memory, the asocial behavior might be directed towards dogs or humans or both. He is not being indifferent to you or your existing dogs. He just does not know how to cope at the moment. He needs time.

Adrenaline, interferes with digestion. Excess gastric juices are secreted resulting in a bad stomach, diarrhea, constipation and/or vomiting. This is not hard to imagine. In my case, I experience all of the above when I am nervous. Before an exam, I used to have a lot of acidity, I could be nauseous or not manage to get out of the toilet at all. Same with your new doggy. So bear with him. His stomach will settle down as he calms down.

Stress hormones increased sexual hormones too. Increase sexual hormones result in irritation or even anger. This could lead to growling, barking, fights etc…We all know that when we are irritable or angry, it’s best that we are left alone. Same with our dogs. Dogs with high level of sexual hormones will also mount.  This goes for spayed or neutered dogs as well as female dogs too. All dogs have some amount of hormones of opposite genders and even sterilized dogs will still have some residual hormones that are increased with stress. They are not trying to dominate anyone or anything. Your dog is merely stressed. So yelling at your dog in an attempt to dominate him will only worsen the situation by stressing him further.

High stress increases the Anti-Diuretic Hormone – the hormone that controls the water balance in our body. In humans we often see the effect of this manifest in excessive perspiration. In dogs, due to decreased perspiration, we see an alternate behavior – urination. This might result in urination inside the house, in what they consider safe spots etc…The dog is not marking territories. The dog is just dealing with increased ADH by peeing, just like you or I might have started sweating.

Stress hormones increase Neuro-peptides, which in turn weaken the immune system. When I was in college, I always experienced this. When I got too stressed due to exams, I would end up having a severe throat infection. Weak immune systems can cause infections and allergies in a dog. Pumping a dog with medication is not going to help much. What the dog really needs is rest and decrease in stress.

Another effect of stress is low blood sugar. Low blood sugar inhibits learning. The dog experiences a lack of concentration and a general inability to learn. Hence trying to teach a dog anything at this point is not only going to be futile but also frustrating for us and further stressful for the dog.  There will be lot of time for learning and training in the future. For now, it’s time to take it easy and just bond. 

In addition to all of the above a dog could exhibit hyper nervousness, hyper sensitivity to sound or touch, excessive barking and generally be hyper alert.

Now, that’s a long laundry list. The list is not here to scare new pet parents, but to let you know that these are normal. These don’t mean that your dog is sick or a bad dog. It simply means your dog is stressed and dealing with basic stress will address most, if not all problems.

What should you do?
Nothing! Just give your dog lots of space and time. Meet his basic needs – plenty of water and food. He is in a recovery phase and needs that nutrition.

He also needs lots of rest. Give him many cozy spots to sleep in, so that he has choices. Dogs are social sleepers. They can’t sleep alone and are in high alert mode if left alone. So ensure there is someone around, especially at night to give him the comfort and confidence to fall asleep. Our good old panacea of “curd rice” works wonders on dogs as well. Every noticed how hard it is to stay awake at work after a heavy South Indian meal. That’s the carb-crash. Carbs have similar effect on dogs. Combine that with the probiotic effects of curds and you have the perfect recovery-food for your pooch!

And don’t forget to provide plenty of reassurance. Talk to him in a calm voice from a distance. Tell him what a wonderful boy he is & that he is your miracle boy (or girl). The soothing calming tone will work wonders.
SPACE: DO NOT APPROACH HIM. LET HIM APPROACH YOU

Tuffy was one of the hardest cases we dealt with.
Her stress levels were so high that she refused to come inside the house.
She was most comfortable outside, in the garden.
All we did was to to keep our distance,
let her sleep and be there for her when she approached us
Photo by Ramya Reddy

What should you NOT do?
Don’t start training commands. Stress hormones reduce a dog's ability to learn. So let him heal first. As I mentioned earlier, there is enough time to train in the future

Contrary to popular belief, long walks & games like fetch or tug actually increase a dogs pulse, adding to stress. What your dog needs is rest and plenty of it. Let him sleep. Keep walks short.

Interaction with other dogs and new people can also be very stressful for dogs. While you might be dying to invite friends home to show your new dog, hold off for a bit. Let your dog first get comfortable with you. Don’t be in a big hurry to visit the vet either. If you have seen a dog at a vet, waiting with several other highly stressed dogs, you will understand how that can do no good to an already troubled dog. Unless he is severely sick, hold off on the vet visit or find a vet who does home visits. Yep, those do exist in Bangalore

Children perhaps like to be cuddled. But dogs are not children and they hate it! They tolerate it, but they don’t like it. Hugging or cuddling is the last thing your dog needs. You want to comfort your dog? Leave him alone. He will approach you when he is ready. Give him his space.

And last but not the least: DON’T APPROACH YOUR DOG. LET YORU DOG APPROACH YOU!

Tigger today - A naughty, impish little puppy
who is so happy at all times that
her constantly wagging tail is a mere blur in all pictures

(Another Turid Rugaas Lesson)