Article updated on 16/01/24
Moving can not only be stressful for you, but can also be incredibly stressful for your pets.
If you’re planning a move, you might be worried about how this will impact your dog, and what you can do to help them settle into a new home.
To ensure that your move goes as smoothly as possible, there are a few things that you can do to help your dog settle into a new home to make sure that they don’t become stressed.
To help your dog settle into a new home, you should:
- Encourage them to exert energy
- Ensure that you maintain a routine
- Make time for them
- Create a safe space
- Use positive reinforcement regularly
1. Encourage Them To Exert Energy
There’s no denying that you’re going to be busy unpacking your belongings and figuring out the best storage solution when you first move into a new home.
That said, to prevent your dog feeling unsettled in their new environment, you need to ensure that they’re exerting enough energy throughout the day.
While your dog’s breed will determine how much exercise they need, generally speaking you’ll need to make time for ‘1-2 hours of exercise per day’ and sometimes as much as 2 or more hours of exercise.
It’s important that you don’t allow your dog’s exercise time to decrease during an unsettling time such as moving house, as encouraging them to exert energy will ‘reduce stress levels and…relieve symptoms of anxiety’.
After all, there’s a reason why tired dogs get into less trouble!
It’s important that you don’t allow your dog’s exercise time to decrease during an unsettling time such as moving house.
2. Ensure That You Maintain A Routine
To help your dog settle into a new home, you also need to ensure that you maintain their routine when moving house.
While moving house can disrupt your routine with unpacking and everything else that you need to organise, it’s essential that you maintain some normalcy for your dog to prevent them feeling overwhelmed and neglected.
To maintain their routine, be sure to keep their walk times and feeding times the same as you did in their old house, and make sure that you’re incorporating plenty of play-time into their day to keep them mentally stimulated.
Maintaining your dog’s routine will help them to feel as normal as possible, despite being in an unfamiliar environment.
3. Make Time For Them
To help your pet settle into their new home, you’ll also need to ensure that you make time for them.
While this might sound simple, if you go from giving your pet plenty of time and attention, to then nothing at all during the moving process, they will undoubtedly feel neglected.
Neglect has the potential to damage a dog’s trust in its owners, and this can lead to an array of bad behaviours if your dog is stressed during the moving process.
Pets can’t understand in the same way that humans can, and they need to feel loved to feel safe in their new environment.
That said, you should always make your pets a priority by making quality time for them during and following the move.
It’s essential that you maintain some normalcy for your dog by maintaining their routine to prevent them from feeling overwhelmed or neglected.
4. Create A Safe Space
Last, but not least, you need to make sure that you create a safe space to help your dog settle into a new home.
Considering you’re moving them to a new and unfamiliar environment, it’s natural for your dog to feel a little unsettled in the beginning. Making them a safe space where their bed and toys belong right away can help to combat this during the busy move.
Your dog’s bed will smell familiar to them despite being in a new home, and ensuring that they’ve got somewhere to go when they’re feeling lost can help to keep them happy.
What definitely won’t help your dog to settle in is you being impatient with them for feeling needier than usual, as this could lead to you damaging your trust with them.
That said, give them time, plenty of love, and allow them to explore and adapt to the new home one day at a time.
How To Ensure Your Dogs Are Safe During The Move
Shut Them Away Somewhere Safe
If you’re using a professional removal company, then lots of people are going to be coming in and out of your house.
As lots of dogs can get nervous around new people, it’s best to keep your dog shut away somewhere safe.
This will not only ensure that your dog is as happy as they can be with unfamiliar people in their home, but will also make it easier for the removal company to get the job done safely and efficiently.
When moving your dog to a new and unfamiliar environment, it’s essential to have patience with them whilst they explore and get used to their new home.
Put Them In A Kennel For The Duration Of The Move
Another, and most ideal option, is to put your dog in a kennel for the duration of the move.
Whilst this is an additional cost to you, it helps to keep your dog safe and out of the way whilst the removal company is doing the heavy lifting and moving boxes.
Once you are fully moved in, you can introduce your dog to their new home and get back to enjoying your daily routine with them.
5. Use positive reinforcement regularly
Using common and recognisable positive reinforcement techniques that your dog will recognise can go a long way in reducing their anxiety when settling into a new home,
Some of the most common and effective positive reinforcement techniques that our customers have used include:
- Treats to encourage good behaviour
- Verbal praise following good behaviour
- Giving or playing with a toy
- Playing a game
- Petting and hugging
By using these positive displays of affection and rewarding your dog you not only encourage good behaviour, but you will help them warm to their new environment and associate it with positive and happy emotions.
How Can We Help
We hope that our guide on how to help dogs settle into a new home helps your beloved pets after your move.
At Falconers we use meticulous moving techniques, passed down and perfected through generations for over 132 years, to ensure your goods are moved with expert precision and kept in perfect condition.
To learn more about our removals services or purpose-built storage facilities, contact Nathan, or send us an email at info@falconerremovals.co.uk. For more expert advice on how to pack, move and store your belongings — or other FAQs on how removals work — check out our blog page.
Written by Jemima Thomas for Falconer Removals & Storage.
