# Adoption Transition



## BeagleBoogie92 (5 mo ago)

About a week ago, my family adopted what we thought was a beagle puppy from a local rescue. After receiving his medical records, we found that our new puppy, Tommy, is in fact nearly five years old. Truthfully, this is only concerning to us because he’s only been with the rescue for a month.
Tommy is an excessively frightened dog, who jumps at the smallest noises and only finds comfort laying in our bed. I want to find a way to encourage him to explore and get used to the normal traffic and sounds of everyday life in our home.
Tommy is not particularly food-oriented, nor does he have any inclination toward playfulness, which has made any attempts to coax him out of hiding an exercise in futility. If anyone has any wisdom to share regarding how we might help ease his transition, I would greatly appreciate it.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

The number one thing I would recommend is patience. It can take months for a newly adopted dog to get comfortable. And some would argue that a dog that is genetically predisposed toward anxiety will never be totally comfortable.

We had a lab/weim cross that was anxious and neurotic her entire life. She was three months old when we got her and we have no reason to think she was ever mistreated. She was sweet and affectionate, but frightened by the oddest things.

Now we have a young rescue who is very hand shy. After several weeks with a good foster and five weeks with us, he is getting better, but he still has a long road ahead.

Patience.


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