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Building a Home

How did your older pets adjust to your new house?

15 years ago

We have a 12 year old schnauzer/poodle mix. The house we live in now has been his house for his whole life.

How did your pets do after the move.

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Comments (14)

allison0704
15 years ago
When we moved several years ago, we had five cats ranging from 2 year old to 10 years old. They all freaked for several days. The dogs were 2 and 6 years old. The youngest one knew what "we're going to the lake" meant, so he was used to coming out. The older dog never had a problem. Seemed happier here than in our last home (where we were for 20+ years) right away.

Maybe you could take your dog to the new house several times to see the inside and the yard before you move. Good luck!
ilmbg
15 years ago
If the dog tends to have a calm manner at your current house, he will probably do just fine.
Hopfully you will take some of your upholstered furniture- which will have a heavy familiar smell- to the new home. Don't wash his bed before you go to the new house- let him have his 'stinky' bed for awhile, as familiar smells are comforting. Keep your same routine- same feeding, outsie, walks- don't let unpacking get you off schedule- animals don't like to have their schedules changed.
I have moved many times, as I worked for the government. I took the dogs and cat each time- nobody ever blinked twice.
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After our afghan irish setter cross died 24 years ago,we gave up on dogs for awhile.My DH would suggest one every now and again but I didnt ever ever want another dog, so he stopped bringing it up. Fast forward to a day I was walking my DD in K and son to school. Passed by a friends house and she had her old golden and another dog as well. She was trying to find a home for it, it was saved from an neglectful person and they had hoped to keep her but they didnt have a fenced yard. I petted the wet 15month old just bathed dog and said sit and the dog- Goldie sat. didnt know what kind of dog it was. I told her I would take her, and picked her up on my way home.I called my DH and told him and he didnt believe that I was alright in the head. I convinced him that I was indeed ok and there really was a dog here. He feel in love too and we later changed her name to Cody so she could start fresh. We called my friend to ask what kind of dog she was! LOL It took poor Cody months to ask to go outside. she never went inside, but I watched her and worked so she would finally ask.( she had her own room and was taken out by the maid and hooked up all day.)It took 6 months for her to not sit in one spot all day to learn that it was ok for her to walk around anywhere she wanted. It was hard to bring her in at night- she wanted to stay- she had never been outside after dark before. Cody was not a frisby , adventuring kind of dog,but she was the dog of our hearts and we gave her a great home and she came to be a part of our pack. we knew nothing about training dogs and it was horrible to be pulled down the street by her. She lived to be 11 and that was a sad sad day. 6 months later we all started talking about how we missed having a dog. and that our hearts were ready. so I secretly started a search for a golden retriever puppy. We had never had a puppy but have rescued many dogs and felt we werent ready for dealing with someone elses problems, and our kids have never had a puppy. In April I found a purebred litter at a farm waaaaaay waaaay out and my DH and I went to pick one out. Not a kennel I could't pay over $1400 for a golden so I was lucky to find this farm. There we were looking at a boy when the dad ran up and as he was the biggest Golden we had ever seen, we looked at each other and thought uh uh. So we just had to have the girl with the most red in her ears(Cody was a reddish golden) MY teen son melted when he saw the pup and my teen DD burst out into tears! We named her Bailey's Chance of Osborne, as Cody died too young of an aggressive cancer and had no chance of survival. We started training and learned how to make her a well trained socialised dog( we learned a lot) My DH started agitating for another dog and I thought he was nuts. One year later: After her club field hockey practice one Saturday in April,My DD and I stopped off at a garden center and a woman walked by with a fuzz ball on a lead. We immediately got on the floor with the puppy and asked how old. she said 10 weeks and he is for sale and they had one more at home.($200) I wish you had seen my DDs face when I asked for her phone number!! Later that day, we packed up Bailey and went to see about a puppy. The one that she had with her in the store followed Bailey everywhere but the other was too busy digging holes. We took a look at the parents- both regular size so we brought him home. And named him Cooper.And he grew into the biggest golden a slim 104lbs! LOL And of course Pics are not in order. Cooper on graduation day from advanced training, Bailey and Cooper sleeping soon after we brought him home. And Cooper on the second day at home,before he was named.
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brutuses
15 years ago
Have you been bringing him to visit the work site? I realize with his age he might now be up to the trip. If he is, then bring him every chance you get.

We haven't moved into our house yet, but I've been bringing the dogs to visit often. At first Brutus wanted to lift his leg on everything in the house because of course he didn't know this was our house. LOL Now that he's been corrected and we go all the time, he stopped that behavior. I think he knows now it's ours so he doesn't need to "mark" it. However, when we do move in, I plan on keeping a very close eye on him the first few days just to make sure he knows he's home. I think he'll realize that when he sees the cats there. It's the cats who will be most upset as they hate change.
ellied
Original Author
15 years ago
We have taken him to the house a few times. We also have a 2 year old female schnauzer but being so young I'm not too worried about her. I too fear the leg lifting. We are taking most of our current furniture which he will recognize as "his".
cork2win
15 years ago
Our dog goes to the new house with us every time we go. I'd say if you can take your dog to "visit" a few times that might help, assuming you're close enough to do that. Otherwise keep as many things familiar as possible, including schedule.

Like others, it's the cats I'm worried about. Although I'm hoping they'll love all the new windows so much they won't care it's a new house. We're using the move as an opportunity to hopefully reestablish some harmony among our cats. We have an older cat and a young one and the old one hates the young one and attacks her every chance she gets. We're going to take the young one to the new house first and let her establish herself, then bring the old one and hope maybe with the young one being in the house first she'll back off a little.
kats
15 years ago
It took us 3 years to build our home and almost every visit our "girls" came with us. Since we only lived 6 miles from the new house we went often. When we moved we took very little of our old furniture but did take the dog beds and of course their toys. When we moved our golden "Bree" acted like this place had always been home. But...the doxy... "Emma" had a terrible time (translates to WE had a terrible time). This was a dog that NEVER wet in the house...ever. But once we got to the new home she did it not once but a couple of times. So...she got a 2 day grate refresher course. She LOVED her grate when she was little so doing this again seemed to bring her back to her normal calm and she has been fine ever since.
blindstar
15 years ago
We have 13 year old puli. We took her to the new place at every opportunity. We moved one of her crates there and started feeding her there as soon as possible. She is partially blind and the biggest challenge was for her to learn where stuff was. She did not seem to have any problems adjusting.
chisue
15 years ago
If your dog still has sight it will be easier. Our third Westie was blind and deaf in the last years of his life. I'm afraid he would have had a difficult time finding his way around a new house. Although dogs have great 'noses', he also had some nasal tumors that interfered with his ability to smell. (Until the day he didn't eat or want to go 'walkies', he seemed content. He was just shy of 17 when he showed pain and we said, "Goodbye until the Rainbow Bridge.")
brutuses
15 years ago
cork, that's a great way to move the cats and hopefully shift the dominance issue.

My friend, who has a lot of cats, moved a couple of years ago and her cats took to the new house very well. The new house was spacious with lots of windows and they all took to it like it was a new adventure.
cork2win
15 years ago
thanks brutuses... I know you work a lot with pets and I'm glad you think this may actually work. I get so tired of them fighting all the time!!

If nothing else, this house is bigger than our current one so maybe they can both just stake out their own areas and not see each other very often!
sdlacrow
15 years ago
We have had two moves with our cats (15,14,14,12) and one of those has a "very low stress tolerance" in other words is a bit neurotic. With both moves I've given the cats a mild sedative/antianxiety medication for the first 12-36 hours (depending on the cat) and kept them confined to smaller areas of the house until they seem adjusted then let them gradually explore more areas. This process took different amounts of time per cat. The oldest "kid" only took a couple days to get used to the new place each time, the middle two about a week, and my nervous nellie about 3 weeks. Our move is anticipated to be next summer (start construction this fall) and I just hope all the furry kids are still with us since they are all getting up there in age. My real kids (10 and 6) are a little stressed about changing schools and losing any of the pets will be very hard on them. The dogs have only been in the current house but they both adapt pretty easily to new situations--going with us camping, visiting friends and families houses without stress so I'm not too worried about them. Cats are much more territorial creatures than dogs are and have a harder time adjusting to moves in general--but it really depends on the temperament of the individual pet.

Cork--anti-anxiety meds (Xanax works well in cats-talk to your vet to see if it's appropriate for yours) might be a good idea for your kids if they have some aggression issues between them. If they don't get along very well it might be a good idea to keep them in separate areas for a while (1-2 weeks) until they are both relaxed in the new environment. More space will probably help also. Another idea is to have at least two or three litterboxes (general rule is 1 more box than cats) and maybe put them in different areas of the house. Potty areas are important territorial areas and it sometimes helps to have separate areas for this too--they may both use both boxes but the spacial separation sometimes helps. Kitties are complicated--that's what I love about them. Dogs are much more interactive and will follow directions--that's what I love about them. I'm a veterinarian--working emergency medicine now, but did a lot of behavioral consulting when I was in general practice. I wanted to add that so you would know I wasn't just randomly giving advice and drug suggestions :)
ajpl
15 years ago
In the past, any time I moved I included the dogs in the excitement and they did well. The cat was less excited by the idea and I always took him to my Mom's for a "vacation" until the new house was settled. I got the cat in college and he survived 5 moves before we built this house.

This time we suspected we had mice in the new house while we were building so my DH moved the cat down to the building site about 2 months before we moved in against my better judgement. He looked after the cat everyday while we was working on the job site and the cat visited with the various trades people during their breaks. He LOVED it! Now that we're in the house and the dogs are in the cat seems to be the king of the castle. At the old house he was always slinking around trying to stay under the dogs' radar.

The dogs went to the job site most days with DH and were pretty used to the place by the time moving day came. They loved the exictement of the trucks and people helping us move and seem happy and content to be there.
emmachas_gw Shaffer
15 years ago
I was so worried about our 12 year old dog when we had to move into a temporary home while we rebuild. To confuse her even more, the new house will be built next door to the one she grew old in. 3-4 times a week I drive her to the old neighborhood for her walks. Amazingly, she immediately understood that the her former home was no longer hers. Instead of running to the back porch for a rest as she always did after our walks, she, without coaxing, runs to the vacant lot for her rest.
She seems to be adjusting better than we are! Not bad for a shelter rescued mutt.
weed30 St. Louis
15 years ago
Your dog will do fine! I moved with two dogs who had only known one home. They were 11 and 13. They didn't miss a beat, and the 11 year old, (now 14), is a skittish "no changes" kind of dog.

I did not wash any of my bedding the week before I moved, and for a week after. The furniture also smelled like "home" to them, I would think.
I was initially a little surprised at how well they did, but decided that to them, "home" was wherever Mom was!

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