The first week after adopting a rescue dog can feel strange in ways people don’t always expect, many owners imagine the moment their dog walks through the door as the start of everything falling into place, in reality, the early days are usually much quieter and slower than that.

For the dog, nothing about the new environment is familiar. The smells are different. The layout of the house is different. Even the sounds of everyday life can be completely new. When you’re adopting a rescue dog, the first seven days are often about the dog simply working out where they are and what life in this place might look like.

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Evenings are supposed to be the quiet part of the day,  people sit down, the house slows down, and most dogs curl up somewhere comfortable, but that isn’t always what happens.

Some dogs seem to wake up when everyone else is trying to relax. They wander around the house, drop toys on the floor, climb onto furniture and jump off again a few minutes later.

If your dog won’t settle at night, you’re not the only one dealing with it. It’s one of the most common things owners mention when they start looking for help with behaviour.

The tricky part is that the cause isn’t always obvious in the moment. Usually the explanation sits somewhere earlier in the day.

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Living in a multi-dog home can be brilliant. There’s company, play, and shared routines, but it can also be noisy, messy, and occasionally tense, even dogs that are friendly on walks can struggle when they share the same space every day.

If you’ve got a multi-dog home and things feel a bit strained at times, that doesn’t automatically mean the dogs dislike each other. It usually means the household setup needs a bit more structure, or the dogs need more space than they’re currently getting. Small adjustments can make a big difference. Dogs are pack animals and a pack needs rules and boundarie.s If a few random dogs were to get together in the wild, it would take no time for those dogs to form a pack with a leader 

In the more common one-dog household, you, the owner, should still be in charge, but with multiple dogs, it is absolutely essential, or chaos can develop.

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Redirected aggression in dogs can take owners by surprise. Your dog reacts to a trigger in the environment, like another dog, wildlife, or a sudden noise, and then turns and snaps at the lead, a person, or another dog nearby, it can feel completely out of character.

This isn’t about the dog trying to attack someone or something. Instead, it’s the result of pent-up frustration that manifests in an emotional, aggressive outburst. Read on to learn more about redirected aggression in dogs and about the best steps for managing it. 

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