My parents have moved home and taken the dog but I can't remember how they went about settling the dog in.

We are in the process of moving home, I am cleaning and decorating the house. I take Duke with me about once a week to let him get use to the new surroundings and smells etc..

I have a football at the house and I always spend a bit of time playing with him. He doesn't seemed settled he is constantly exploring, not sure if that's because I am busy. I am going to take a a chew treat for him tomorrow.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I think on the whole, unlike cat, dogs are usually pretty settled as long as they are with their owners. Even more so when they are surrounded by familiar furniture, and it's great you've taken him to the new house already for a look around too.

Our dogs have been to stay in various holiday accommodations and there's never been a problem, it really seems as though they are just happy wherever we are.

My dog went from living with me, to kennels for a week, to a 24 hr flight, to quarantine for 10 days, to my new home. It took her a few days to really settle but she was fine

If you're worried you could try the DAP products or rescue remedy to help calm him

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I moved to NI from the mainland in November. Kilo is pretty sensitive to environmental changes and some of the things I did were:

Get hubby to plug in a DAP diffuser about 3 days before we arrived (he was here already)

Put a DAP collar on Kilo several weeks in advance

Use rescue remedy

Have hubby sort the rooms that Kilo would have access to as much as possible before our arrival so that there were familiar objects and smells and nothing would be moved around too much afterwards (apart from sofa delivery!)

When we got here, Kilo stayed in the car for 5 minutes as we put all his bedding, toys and bowls in place

Went for a short walk around before we entered the house, so he had had a chance to relax a little after the journey

Kept visitors to a minimum initially as he was unsettled by them

Took him out in the car on a new walk most days so he had a chance to destress and relax away from the new place


He was pretty unsettled for a few days in terms of reacting to most things - people, sounds, sights, dogs etc. That stopped fairly rapidly and then he just started to settle until he was back to himself after 2 - 3 weeks.

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Funny you should say that; Kilo has been on holiday with me 3 - 4 times and settled fine in holiday accommodation but he was unsettled with a house move - he knew something was different!

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when we moved it took Trouble about 2 weeks to get used to the new sounds and neighbours and things, we only moved around the corner so the common was the same but the walk there was different and it took a bit for her to walk nicely for that but then if we got by car for a few days she's a nightmare when we walk again because everything has changed. we got her bed down straight away and put her toys all over the place so she knew it was her house and this was where we were going to be from now on but it did take a little bit of time, was just trying to keep everything normal for her really

even now Trouble hates boxes being brought in and out in case we might move again, it was quite traumatic for us all tbh

When we moved we brought the dogs through to the garden with their toy box and a tripe stick each. they settled on the patio munching and playing for a while while we set a few things up in the house. of course their beds were put in the corner, unwashed, so they still smelt familiar.

They both settled in really well to be honest.

We are hoping to move again in a couple of years and will pretty much do the same again, only this time with 3 dogs instead of 2

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Kilo went to dog daycare on the day all our stuff went so as not to upset him too much, plus he would have been a hinderance!! Then we stayed in an empty house for a fortnight which was fun before we came over.

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I had been bringing mine here before we moved in, brought their bed and some toys.

Had people they know look after them on actual moving day to reduce their stress and make sure they didnt escape or get injured.

Made sure their things were unpacked and most things we would need so that we weren't rooting around in boxes confusing them, but they were OK really, took a few days for them to get back to complete normal and I was in and out of hospital loads cause my daughter was there so I'd say my dogs did pretty well!

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