Helping Your Pets Adjust to a New Home

Once you take up residence in your new home, however, it's important to start developing ground rules for every member of the household, people and pets alike. Don't give in to the temptation to let you dogs, cats, or other pets run rampant when you first move into the house. It's actually very important to ease your dog into the new house and yard slowly, to avoid sensory overload and bad behavior.

Just like people, animals can get really stressed out by change. Think about what life was like for your pet in the old house. When deciding the best way to introduce your pets to their new home, it's important to consider their individual personalities and the relationships that exist among them.

Dogs, for example, tend to be pack animals with a very distinct pecking order among the ranks. It's likely that each of your dogs had favorite spots in the yard or house that were truly "theirs". Chances are, the alpha dog chose his or her spot first, and the others chose what was left. While this may seem a bit unfair to you, that is the way things are done in the canine world.

In the new home, however, every spot is fair game for each animal in the group. If you have more than dog they may start to compete with each other for favorite spots in the new home. The more assertive animals in the group are likely to resort to bullying the others to lay claim to what they perceive as prime real estate.

This bad behavior can all be avoiding if you simply let the pack leader into the new home first, so that he or can lay claim to the territory that will eventually become his or hers anyway. This can prevent unnecessary growling, fighting, and destructive behavior. By letting the alpha dog into your new home first to scout out the area, you can make the transition go more smoothly for each pet and the human members of your family.

Cats are less likely to bully each other than dogs, but there is still a natural order among feline pets. As with dogs, it's generally better to introduce them to the new home slowly, and one at a time. When you get a sense of which parts of the new home are the most appealing to your feline companions, this can help you decide where to position litter boxes, food and water dishes, and the toys your cats enjoy playing with.

By taking proactive steps to help your pets adjust to living in their new home from the very first day you take up residence, you can be assured that the move will involve as little stress and trauma as possible.