Help them feel safe (Picture: Getty)
When adopting a rescue animal, there’s a lot to consider before you’ve earned their trust.
If your pet has been abused, abandoned or misused by its previous owners, you have to keep in mind they will be feeling ‘a lot of emotions’, as one dog expert put it.
In a TikTok that’s gained more than 1.7million likes, animal behaviourist Savanna Palmer explains the ‘333 rule’ and how it can help your new furry friend settle in.
The rule goes like this: they need three days to decompress, three weeks to learn your routine, and three months to start to feel at home.
Best started as soon as you adopt your pet, the theory allows space and understanding for any fear and anxiety they may be experiencing.
‘They can feel anger. They can feel sadness. They can grieve. And we should allow them to feel those feelings,’ Savanna’s video advises.
Depending on what they’ve experienced before, these things can take more time, but the 333 rule gives a rough guide of what to expect.
It’s all about patience and not rushing things from day one.
In the comments, people shared their own pet adoption stories. One person added: ‘I love the 3 3 3 as a baseline. Please remember that every animal is deferent and it can just as easily be 30 60 90, and that is completely ok.’
Another wrote: ‘We adopted the sweetest senior about a year ago – the first three months, she was biting us and was hard to handle. After three months, she was a completely different girl. Definitely give them time.’
Someone else said: ‘They don’t know why they were abandoned or if the next person will hurt them.
‘They deserve so much better and it’s so upsetting how there’s such an increase in these sweet souls getting abused, abandoned and neglected.’
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It’s all about patience.