Bringing a new dog into your home is an exciting time, but it can also be an adjustment for everyone involved. At Mikaela’s Mutt Motel, our goal is to set up both our dogs and their future families for success. Our dedicated fosters work hard to prepare each “Mutt” for a smooth transition into their forever home.

It’s important to remember that no one should expect to adopt a fully trained dog. While our fosters introduce the Mutts to key skills they’ll need to thrive in a new environment, they’re still adapting. You’ll need to continue working with your Mutt to establish a routine and clear boundaries in their new home.

Our fosters introduce the Mutts to key skills that they’ll need to thrive in a new environment. This includes:
• House training: We work on establishing a consistent potty routine.
• Leash training: We help the Mutts get comfortable with a leash and walking politely.
• Crate training: We teach them to view their crate as a safe and comfortable space.
• Basic commands: We introduce fundamental commands like sit, stay, and come to help with communication and build a strong bond.

We do our best to give our Mutts a solid foundation, but the journey doesn’t end there! You can help your new dog continue to learn and grow by spending a few minutes each day on training. Just a short, fun session can make a huge difference.

Here are a few tips to make training sessions successful:

• Keep it brief: Short sessions (5-10 minutes) prevent your Mutt from getting bored or overwhelmed.
• Exercise first: A tired dog is a focused dog! Taking your Mutt for a walk or playing a game of fetch before training can help them concentrate better.
• Make it fun: Use positive reinforcement like treats, praise, and toys to keep your Mutt engaged and motivated.

By consistently reinforcing these skills, you’re not just training your dog— you’re building a deeper bond and helping them become a happy, confident member of your family.

When you adopt a dog, you are not test-driving a car. We do not know what they have been through in their lives. Many of them have been through hell and back, and they deserve all of the love, care, and patience in the world.

They enter a new car and go to a new home with new people, new smells, new sounds, new animals, and a new routine.

It is scary. It is stressful. It takes them MONTHS to truly understand that they are safe with you. Imagine being picked up by a stranger who is WAY bigger than you, entering their home, and learning a whole new life. It takes time to adjust.

When you adopt from Mikaela’s Mutt Motel, we tell you absolutely everything that we know about the dog. There are no secrets. However, how they act with us and how they act with you may differ (especially at first).

If you are having any issues or concerns, please let us know and we will be happy to help! It is incredibly frustrating to have dogs returned within a few days or weeks of adoption, knowing that there is no way that dog got a fair chance in their new home.

Imagine being abused or neglected and ending up behind bars, good people finally coming along to save you and nurture you back to health, and then (what you believe) is your forever family taking you home. You are scared and confused, you don’t trust anyone yet, and everything is scary. Instead of having patience with you, your new family just returns you.

It is devastating, confusing, and heartbreaking. Have patience and give them a chance.

This seems to be a problem across rescues everywhere. Some people today want instant gratification and instant results. That is impossible with animals. Please do not apply to adopt a dog if you are not willing and able to give them a fair chance!