Moving is harder on dogs than people tend to expect. The house smells wrong, the walk is unfamiliar, and the humans are stressed and busy. Here is the practical order to do things in if you have just landed in Easton.
Week one: the boring essentials
Find a vet and register before you need one. Do not wait for the first emergency. Registering takes ten minutes when nothing is wrong and is a nightmare when something is.
Get your records transferred. Ask your old practice to send vaccination history to the new one. You will need it for daycare, boarding, groomers and anywhere else that takes dogs in a group.
Check your rabies tag is current. Pennsylvania requires it, and moving is exactly when people discover theirs lapsed.
Update the microchip. The chip is useless if it points at your old address. It is a five-minute job on the chip company's website and it is the single most valuable thing on this list.
Week two: work out the walks
Easton is unusually good for this. The Karl Stirner Arts Trail follows the Bushkill Creek and is paved, flat and leashed. Hugh Moore Park has a canal towpath and a dog park split by dog size. Up on College Hill the streets are quiet and steep enough to actually tire a dog out.
Try all three in the first fortnight. Dogs settle faster when the new routine has some shape to it, and you will find out quickly which one your dog likes.
Week three: the thing people leave too late
If both adults in the house work outside it, you need a plan for the day before you need it, not after your dog has eaten a door frame.
A dog who has just moved is more likely to be anxious alone, not less. The house is unfamiliar, so the noises are unfamiliar, and there is no established routine to fall back on. A new job plus a new house plus nine hours alone is a lot to ask in the same month.
Options, roughly in order of cost:
- A midday walker, if the problem is bladder and boredom rather than distress
- Daycare two or three days a week, if the problem is energy and loneliness
- Daycare every weekday, if you have a young working breed and no yard
Whatever you pick, sort it in the first month. The habits a dog forms in a new house in the first few weeks are the ones you live with.
What to ask a daycare when you are new in town
You have no local reputation to go on and no friend to ask yet, so ask directly:
- Where do the dogs actually spend the day, and how much space is there?
- How many dogs are in a group?
- Who is watching them?
- Where do boarding dogs sleep?
- What happens if my dog does not settle?
And go and look. Any place worth using will let you walk round with your dog before you book. Ours is free and takes half an hour. Some places near here charge $25 for it, which is worth knowing when you are comparing.
Give it longer than you think
Most dogs take a few weeks to properly settle after a move, and some take a couple of months. Clinginess, a bit of regression on house training, barking at sounds that will later be background noise. All normal, all usually temporary.
What helps is routine: same walk times, same feeding times, same bed in the same corner. What does not help is a different arrangement every day while you work out what you are doing.
If you want to look at the yard
We are on College Hill, about five minutes from most of the city. Half an acre, fully fenced, with a koi pond and paddling pools in summer. Daycare is $40 a day, boarding is $50 a night, and the tour is free.
Call (484) 714-6624 or use the contact page. Bring the dog.