Willow having some adjustment issues

Dog's new home

willowchow

When she first came to live with us it took her a good month to adjust and eat well.

Barring the introduction suggested in the previous post, which is the perfect idea (but you said you're already in the place), I imagine it's going to take her the same amount of time or more to adjust to this new place. I would make as many positive associations to this new place for her as possible. Try giving her something new and delicious like pig ears, bones or some other tasty long term treat.

Most important is YOUR attitude and how you feel about the new place. I'd say laugh a lot, sing, dance through the rooms and  play with Willow and make this new place so cool to her that she wants to be here. Put your stress on the back burner and associate the new home with "happy, playful, joyful, strong mom" (I'm assuming you're female)

And do not feed or coddle her insecurities. Don't ever moon, feel sorry for or otherwise nourish the way she's feeling. If she's down, don't even pet her. Ignore it. Always be up and happy (not overly-excited, but "up";). And when she is "up", praise her, pet her and love her!

And give her time. Good luck and I'd be interested to hear how it goes for her.

willowchow

She's a very anxious dog to begin with.  When she first came to live with us it took her a good month to adjust and eat well.

Lori

I would give Willow the time to adjust and work things out on her own. I would accentuate the comfort things that were brought over from the old home.  I would definitely use my relationship to comfort her during this time, more interaction, more play.  I would try and keep the furniture arrangement as close as possible to the old.  I would do short walks and gradually increase the distance. 

Both dogs were really thrown off their games when we moved at first. It actually sparked a couple of pretty bad fights between them. It took about a month for them to start getting in to the new routine, and get out of their grumpy funks. I think it just takes some time and understanding. 

don't pamper willow too much. and don't feel sorry for her funk... she'll move out of it in due time.

just move forward and willow will follow. if you worry about willows funk, then all that negative energy will be felt by willow as well.

Hi, again.  Thanks for all the advice.  We did bring her over here several times over last month before we moved in.  And, she seemed to really be fine with everything. 

Anyway, I will take all the advice given and put it to good use.  We played with her favorite blinking red ball last night.  It was after midnight but WHO CARES we are in our own home!!!  No family downstairs to worry about. 

I'm off today and the rest of the weekend so she won't be alone again now until Monday.  I'm not sure if that is going to be a good thing for her or not. 

We hiked today and she's eating well too. So, let's hope she keeps it up. 

I'm doing everything possible to not let her crash.  She lost a lot of weight when she moved in with us and was very anxious and just a mess.

Chows apparently don't do well with change at all.  A guy on the chow board was posting about how when he rehomed his chow the chow died on the way to the new home!!  So emotional for such stoic dogs. 

Thanks!!

Cressida--I'm sure you've hit the nail on the head with the routine thing.  I'm not even in a routine yet so I'm sure she's picking up on that too.  She's really into her structure. 

I don't have any suggestions but a short story.

Last week we were having the interior of our house painted.  Our living room has a L shape to it and River's crate is in the L portion - his crate has been in the same spot since he was a pup, 4 years now.  Since the painters were going to need to get behind his crate to spackle and paint while we were at work I deceided to move Riv's crate into my bedroom for the day.  WELL...   I put him in the crate (his crate) and when I walked out he panicked, crying and whinning and shuffling around in the crate.  I decided to leave him there for a few minutes and see if would calm down and he didn't.  Now remind you this is home, he sleeps in our bedroom sometime and it isn't a strange place but he stressed about it.  So..  I dragged the big old crate out of my bedroom and decided to put it on the opposite wall of where it normally is, which would place him against my sliding glass door that he looks out all day long.  I figured he would be alright, same place just a different angle.  Do you know he stressed on that too?  He wasn't as stressed but he whinned and complained and didn't settle down for 20 minutes - he lived through it but he didn't like it.  Just goes to show you how out of sorts a dog can get with sudden change.  Anyway, I am sure she will come around but it may take time for her to love the new house as much as you do. 

The closest situation I can come to is when I brought our rescue home to our house, it took her 2 weeks to start feeling comfortable in our house with our family and a good month to really feel at home and part of the family.

 AND..  CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NEW HOME.

 Lori, congrats on the new home.  *Doin' the happy dance for you and Willow* 

Don't worry, I get the same "funk" from my guys whenever I buy a new vehicle - they are very leery of just jumping in.  I mean, they know that trucks take them places, and they know that one couldn't possibly belong to us 'cuz it smells different.  But, after a few weeks, they are riding like happy little campers again.  She'll be fine as long as you maintain your other normal routines, and act as if all is well.  Ignore funk, reward non-funk.

Kenya is also a very anxious, discerning dog.  What worked best for her (suggested by the person I got her from) was basically ignoring her, not really giving her much attention, and letting her "come out" on her own.  Routine was also a big deal (meals, walks, potty, going out for training...).  We also avoided overstimulation.  I didn't do a lot of toys or play or intense training for a long time.  I kind of waited for her to show me what she was comfortable with.  I know you've already had Willow for a while, so this may not apply, but I've had Kenya for 4 months as of Tuesday and just in the past week will I say she is out of her shell.  She is finally eating well, being more assertive and confident with play and toys, getting intense about training, and just completely going for broke when I turn her loose in the yard, just running and running and running in the snow.  I am just now seeing the "high energy, intense drive, motivated, working bred" dog I was give 4 months ago.

Thank you very much for the congratulations on our new home.  We are all very excited.  This will be a much more comfortable life for all of us. 

We will be keeping all the advice here and will most likely incorporate all of it in some way or another. 

She's acting much more aggressive over the past couple of days too.  (fear aggressive) 

 Congrats on the new place!!!!!!

What helps Rascal best when we're moving (sadly, it's been pretty often for us this last year) is establishing a strong schedule. Maybe it's just him, but Rascal *hates* unpredictable things and *LOVES* when he's "in on" what's going on and knows what's happening. For him, using cue words to tell him what we're about to do ("go out" "upstairs" "downstairs" "go for a walk" "dinner" etc.) really relaxes him and makes him happy. I think it kind of gives him a "common thread" of nice, stable things that haven't changed even though the geography did. Having his "pillow" (his mesh carrier, his favorite place) for him to hide out in also helped a ton. I'm assuming Willow has a crate or a pillow or something? Maybe you can dedicate a little corner of the new place to be "her space" so she can just kind of chill there whenever she gets freaked out?

Rascal also gets more snappy when he's in a new place, for fairly obvious reasons. Helping him feel more secure with routine and "personal space" seems to really help him. 

I get in a funk when moving, too, I understand Willow's antsiness. Hope she's feeling more comfortable soon :) 

I think some dogs just have a hard time to such a big change. It is one of the most stressful times for people so imagine for a dog who cannot understand why. We moved from Minnesota to South Dakota when our first cairn was 6 yrs. old.  He was quite stressed at first; he even broke out with a skin allergy and I got to know a vet pretty quick.  It took about a month before he was totally non stressed.  Then when he was 12 yrs. old we moved to Texas.  That was extremely hard on him.  He could not deal with the heat, got fleas (for the first time in his life) and had extreme flea allergy, and a UTI.  Again I got to know a new vet quickly.  I still feel bad because I do not think he ever really got back to his old self.  He died at age 14.  I know he missed really cold weather.  When it got cold (for here) he would perk up and sniff like he was just waiting for snow which of course did not happen.

Since you are in the same area Willow should be OK.  Previous posters have given great suggestions.  Give Willow time.  I think the older a dog is the harder it can be on some of them. 

Thanks guys for the kind words and advice for me! 

Willow is doing well today--of course, we are all home.  We have tried to get our routine back to some sort of normal over this weekend.  DH went back to work tonight--he plays in a band on weekends--he hasn't done that in over two weeks.  So, she's familiar with tonight being just her and I.  She also did our normal Saturday routine with me today--again, a first in a few weeks. 

She's eating well.  But, I'm being very generous with good stuff she doesn't always get.  And, she's on the couch as we speak---which is MY spot.  Where do I go, HER bed, WTH????

LOL, thanks again. 

Lori