Moving To A New Home & Why It Might Cause Your Dog Stress (Part 2)

As stated in Part 1 of this series, when you move to a new home, you are changing everything in life your dog has come to feel certain and comfortable about.

Dogs like their “routines”, and will need your patience and understanding to feel safe and secure while undergoing this a major life change. An adult dog may deal with the move a little better than a puppy, and the following tips will help any dog survive the ordeal of moving with less anxiety.

1. Play soothing music while you are packing up your household belongings, coming in and going out of the home more often, handling frequent phone calls, and delegating tasks to family and friends who are helping with the move. All of this new and bustling activity is very confusing for your dog. Playing some soft relaxing music, like classical, will have a calming affect on everyone in the home, and your dog will sense the calm.

2. Keep your dog out in the home while you are packing. Some people put their dog in their crate, or outside in the backyard, and this will make your dog feel stressed and disconnected from everyone. Try including your dog with the activities and let her run around and see what’s going on. Stop occasionally and pet her so she still feels part of the family, even though everyone is busy.

3. Take your dog to the new home with the family when you make trips there. The dog is seeing changes in the old home as things get moved out, and it will help for her to gradually see familiar objects in the new home before you move in there completely.

It will help lessen the stress of the new home if your dog can “visit” it while you are moving boxes there. This will help your dog get comfortable with all the changes taking place and she will slowly get comfortable with making the new house her home.