Moving With Your Dog

With my recent move, I have learned quite a bit about the stress this big change can put on your pets. My husband and I just moved from Florida to Richmond , Virginia, specifically the Church Hill area.  We have a seven year old Beagle who in her seven years has moved over ten times (my husband got her as a freshman in college and she has seen it all) However given our old dog’s infinite amount of wisdom, she still needs to be looked after because let’s face it, moving is stressful for everyone including our pets. We also recently just rescued Axel, our 8 month old Boxer, Rhodesian Ridgeback, and Pitbull mix. Who truly knows what his background is with moving, but I doubt he has ever made a trip as long as the one to Richmond.  Luckily we have a strong, trusting relationship with our dogs, which makes this huge transition much easier for everyone.

A solid foundation of basic obedience training will really help your dog cope with big changes in your lives. It is very important for your dog to understand he can trust you. With our dogs, when we started packing up our home, boxes and tape and bubble wrap all over the house, stress levels began to rise. With our Milli, she became more aggressive towards the puppy and much more territorial. Luckily she has been crate trained and feels very comfortable in her crate. We have never used it as a place to send her if she misbehaves. It has always been a safe space for her. It is important to keep the bedding in your dogs crate clean, and right before a move is not the best time to introduce a new bed or blanket. Also we made sure she had her favorite toy to cuddle with at all times. We also made sure to keep her daily routine the same. We always feed and walk her at the same times each day, so, as difficult as it may be with a big move on the horizon, it is important to be consistent. This helps keep your dog healthy and happy.

Now with Axel being a Boxer, Rhodesian Ridgeback and Pitbull mix, his temperament is completely different. Also considering he has no idea what is going on AND he is a puppy, our approach had to be different. The problems we saw with him actually started with going potty in the house. Axe was potty trained pretty quickly after we got him, but for some reason, once everything started being packed up, he started digressing.  As i mentioned before, since he was a rescue, we really had no idea what his background was. As challenging as it was, we stayed patient and continued with his potty and crate training like we did with him initially. We started at square one. Once we became consistent again, he fell right back into his normal routine.

Another huge part of keeping our dogs happy during our move was keeping them very active. We spent time at the dog park, the beach, and even just playing fetch in the backyard. The important part was engagement. A tired dog is a happy dog. I also continued with training Axel with our program. Setting 15-20 minutes aside a couple of times a day kept the dogs happy and for the most part, stress free. Come to find out, playing with our dogs actually made our move a little more fun for us, too!

Bottom line- moving is stressful, especially with pets. The most important thing to remember is to stay engaged with your dog. Having a solid dog training foundation, especially crate training will alleviate that stress because your dog trusts you and believes you will take care of him or her.

To find out how we handled the long car ride from Florida to Richmond, check out my next blog post where I will give you some tips on how to make travelling with your dog more fun for everyone.