Moving the dog into his new home   

Most of our dogs, with very few exceptions, have spent their lives on the streets until our Hungarian, Serbian or Romanian animal welfare partners took them in. Some of them were rescued from extermination stations, where they were either brought after they were caught as strays, or were brought by their previous owners.

Only a few of them ever had a loving family, or had even seen a house from indoors, because in Hungary, Serbia and Romania, dogs are primarily kept as guard dogs that spend their lives outdoors, often chained. Hardly any of these dogs have ever experienced love or even kindness from a human being.

Now they are being sent out from the shelter on a long journey to an unknown destination, and will consequently be anxious and unsettled when they arrive to join your family. Therefore you should not expect too much from the dog in those first weeks, but rather support him with patience, sympathy and common sense.

Many aspects of a normal day will be new for your dog, including:

• sleeping in a house
• walking on smooth surfaces, such as parquet, tiles, etc.
• climbing stairs
• household noises (vacuum cleaner, coffee-maker, drier, etc.)
• wearing a harness or collar
• walking on a leash
• carrying out bodily functions while on a leash
• being alone
• riding in a car
• surrounding noises (city, traffic, etc.)
• learning and obeying commands (sit, stay, come…)

Some dogs manage to adjust to the above-listed points immediately from the beginning with no problem, others need more time to adapt to the new living arrangement.

This applies equally to young dogs as well as older dogs.

Please be patient and kind at the outset, because your dog is completely unaccustomed to the situation of being in a new family.
   

Before your new family member arrives, we recommend that you read the guidelines from our website, available under the following link:
www.animalcare-austria.at/de/ratgeber/ratgeber-hund