Welcome Home Info
Congrats on your new family member! / Info for the Transition
FOOD. Unless we give you different information, your dog was eating a high end, grain-free fish-based kibble at the Rescue Barn. LINK: Fromm’s is our go-to brand, but you can experiment with different brands depending on your budget. We strongly discourage chicken or turkey based foods as they tend to irritate skin allergies.
SUPPLEMENTS. Your dog probably got 3-4 pumps of fish oil on their food while at the Barn. It’s a great health booster and helps with beautiful coats! Grizzly Salmon Oil
PAYCHECK. Your dog was fed 2x daily, breakfast and dinner. (Young pups eat 3-4x a day) He or she was always asked to ‘work’ to get their meals using hand signs and verbal prompts for commands such as ‘Sit’ ‘Look’ and the all-important ‘Wait.’ Wait is a key skill that we recommend practicing and reinforcing as often as possible, especially for meals, treats, before exiting the crate and doors. Read: Nothing In Life is Free
STOMACH UPSET. The stress of the transition from Barn to your home may bring out diarrhea, so you may want to keep a couple cans of unsweetened pumpkin (link) ready. Scoop a few large tablespoons in with the meal, and your dog’s stool will firm up quickly. Please let us know if you see ongoing problems.
WORMS. Your dog received worm meds before leaving for home, so don’t be surprised if you see worms in their poop in the next week or two. That’s a good sign that the worm meds worked. If they don’t show up, that means the exodus happened while they were still at the Barn.
FLEA MEDS. We’re very conservative with flea meds and tend to only use them if a dog is clearly infested. Treating short haired dogs like Pit Bulls is easy with a bath. Long haired dogs like Huskies may need a topical treatment like Activyl if you find more than a couple of fleas. Remember to wash their bedding and vacuum to get them out of your house.
HEART WORM. We do not test our dogs for heart worm since it’s still (thankfully) rare in the Bay Area, but you may want to talk with your veterinarian to learn if they recommend heart worm prevention. This is especially important if you plan to travel with your dogs to parts of CA where heart worm is common.
SPAY/NEUTER. If your dog isn’t fixed yet and came home on a foster contract, we will stay in touch until it’s time to make a vet appt. BR will pay the bill and you’ll get adoption docs once the deed is done.
CATS? A how-to reminder for doing those structured, slow as molasses intros: CATS
TRAINING. Here’s a great how-to page for 1 – helping a rowdy dog transition into your home. You can modify the amount of time they spend in a crate or 2 – tie-down based on how well mannered they are when they go home (You can probably expect a few pee/poo accidents from your dog while they get it all figured out.) Feel free to ask us for feedback and advice – We’ve seen it all! 3 – Handling classes are free to you and run every other Saturday in San Leandro. See homework to get you ready.
1 – A New Dog in the House Hand-out
