Bringing your rescue dog home
Every dog deserves kindness and a chance. These free, positive reinforcement and force-free resources guide you and your newly adopted dog through the early days and beyond — at your dog's pace.
Preparing for your rescue dog
Set up a calm, safe space before your dog arrives — a quiet resting spot, food and water, a leash and harness, and a plan for the first quiet days.
The first 24–72 hours
Give your dog time to decompress. Keep things quiet, let them approach you, and resist the urge to introduce everything at once.
The first week
Begin gentle, choice-based routines. Hand-feeding, short calm sessions, and letting your dog learn the rhythms of your home.
The first 30 days
Introduce simple foundations like name recognition, settling on a mat, and gentle handling — always at your dog's pace.
Building trust and confidence
Use positive reinforcement to grow confidence in new places, with new people, and around gentle novelty. Celebrate small wins.
Introducing other pets
Slow, supported introductions with safe spaces and choice for every animal. Parallel walks and scent swap before any face-to-face meeting.
Separation and alone-time foundations
Build alone-time gently from day one. Short absences, a safe rest area, and never pushing past your dog's comfort.
Understanding stress and decompression
Learn to read your dog's body language. Recognize comfortable, uncertain and distressed signals, and know when to pause or stop.
Lifelong learning and positive reinforcement
Keep training kind, force-free and fun for life. Move through the rescue program stages, then grow into the full curriculum.
Start training with your rescue dog today
The Rescue Dog program is free and walks you through settling in, trust and confidence — one calm step at a time.
Go to the Rescue Dog programRescue partners can share this page with adopters. Looking for a rescue? Visit our Registered Rescue Partner Directory.