Completely Mutz has moved... moving with an anxious dog
Trudi Sheridan 
Moving house or other life change, if you have a nervous or anxious dog it can affect them. This Blog's about my recent experience moving house
Completely Mutz Has Moved!
After 22 years living in the same house in North Devon, we’ve finally moved house and location. We’re now in Ceredigion, in south west Wales!
For the past six years I’d been looking for some outside space for my training business and for my own two boys, Reggie and Teddy.
With land in North Devon carrying a premium price I failed miserably to find either a small paddock to buy or to rent, pretty crazy when you look at the amount of local privately owned fields… but there you go.
I realised I’d need to find a house with a very large garden or paddock of my own to realise my dream.
So here we are!
Moving house with two dogs…
After my moving experience I thought I’d share it in this latest Blog update.
It might be a house move or some other big life change, if you have a nervous or anxious dog it can affect them so my little experience might help people think about how we can keep life a little more stress free for our dogs.
First of all I am no expert in moving house.
This is my own personal experience of moving with Reggie and Teddy and trying to keep everything as stress free as possible.
Years past I travelled back and forward between different rented places in France and the UK with my husband Rog and our two previous dogs Midge and Casper. Midge and Casper had been acclimatised to this from a really young age.
We were really lucky that they had no issues with travelling or stopping the night in hotels or dossing on friends floors.
They slept for hours at a time in vans, minibuses, trains, cable cars, ski buses, cramped boot space in a car. They were even used to customs guys poking around in their kennel or beds searching for drugs or illegal immigrants!
Travelling with them was so easy and we took it all for granted.
These days we have two dogs with various challenges.
Teddy is anxious in new situations,
Reggie is an anxious traveller.
Both have a history of separation issues.
The idea of moving house with Teddy in particular was pretty daunting.
Teddy likes calm and familiar routine. How he was going to manage with his world turned upside down was worrying me. His behaviour can be quite challenging when his environment changes.
Type ‘How to move house with your dog’ into any search engine and the advice seems to be to book your dog into kennels, or to have them stay with friends and family.
Unfortunately not an option for either Teddy or Reggie.
Reggie doesn’t travel well. Teddy’s prone to travel sickness.
A 4.5 hour journey from North Devon to our new home in Wales was a big deal.
Something else for me to worry about.
Lessen the Stress…
They say that moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do and I’d totally agree. I never want to do it again!
However, being aware of this was really useful in helping me think about how to keep the move as stress free as I could for both me, Rog, Reggie and Teddy.
Knowing how our own stress can impact on our dogs it was important for me to carefully plan the move.
Here’s my tips on how to move house with a nervous or anxious dog…
Early Planning
I started planning the move 2 years ago when we first put the house on the market. Control freak?
I made a list of all the things I’d need on moving day.
The most important things on my list (apart from Reggie and Teddy) were their beds, their foodbowls, food, a bottle of water and their water bowl, any favourite throws or cushions, Kongs and lickimats, ginger biscuits for travelling, dog towels, leads, harnesses, muzzles, spare crate mats and bedding just in case of puke incident, roll of black bin bags.
Good job I have a van.
I’d planned to book slots at our favourite local secure field for moving out day, giving the removal guys a dog free environment in which to get everything out of the house.
Trixie Paws secure dog walking field at Buckland Brewer
I thought it would be less stress for them and less stress for my two boys.
I also planned the logistics of moving out of one place and into another, with a 4.5 hour journey in between.
I made a list of secure dog walking fields en route and looked at how quickly the slots got booked up so I wouldn’t be caught out last minute.
The Secure Dog Fields Map (britishdogfields.com)
I planned to have a half way stop at my parents in Bristol and take the boys to a secure field for a half hour run to break up the journey.
I planned feeding schedules and dog food.
Reggie and Teddy are on a Naked Dog raw diet and we would need to defrost the freezer two days before moving.
We later discovered that we had to have the house rewired, another stress, electricians arriving the day after we moved in so I wasn’t sure when I’d have a freezer up and running.
I bought in two weeks worth of their favourite wet Forthglade food so I knew where it was and had no last minute buying panic! The “OMG we forgot to buy the Forthglade!!”
I even wrote in the calendar which days I’d stop feeding raw and which days they’d have Forthglade.
This may sound a bit OTT but it turned out to be really useful with everything else that was going on and going wrong! The dogs got fed.
Once we’d decided on a location to move to, I’d researched local vets and written down details of address and phone number.
Lessen the Stress.
Start packing early
I started packing three months before we moved.
Reggie and Teddy got used to a gradual diminishing of familiar objects and a gradual increase of large cardboard boxes.
I was able to label and inventory what I was packing which made that part of the move a lot less stressful for me. I felt organised!
Lessen the Stress.
Find a good removal company who are great with dogs!
We were really lucky in finding the perfect removal company. I contacted a few and arranged for two to come to visit and discuss the move.
One was awful, the other was brilliant.
I explained right from the get go about Reggie and Teddy and the worries and concerns that I had.
We found a brilliant removal company.
We went with Qubik Space, Ian Mannix was absolutely brilliant, I can’t recommend him enough. He was so proactive and came up with so many great suggestions that I stopped worrying immediately.
Qubik-Space | Removal Company in North Devon (qubikspace.co.uk)
As we were moving 4.5 hours away Ian arranged to move us over 2 days.
Day 1 we’d move everything out of the house and he’d store it overnight. Ian would leave us with the bare minimum… mattress on the floor for us, luxury dog beds and all their blankets for Reggie and Teddy, kettle, TV… then arrive early the next morning to pack the rest and set off to our new home.
Ian was totally understanding and so helpful in planning around our two boys. He met them a number of times before the move, and having five large dogs himself he understood my concerns and was really proactive in coming up with great solutions!!
It made a massive difference to me knowing we were in such safe hands.
Lessen the Stress!
Don’t wash the dog bedding
I’d planned to wash the dog bedding the day before the move… then had a rethink. I figured that smelly bedding would be more familiar for the boys and help them relax in the new house. So that was one less job to do!
Take old rugs or a bits of old carpet if you can
We took old rugs and mats, bits of old carpet to lay down in the new house so the boys had some familiar scents. You can chuck them out once you don’t need them any more.
When you’re packing to move it’s tempting to chuck out old rugs and bits of carpet you find in the loft… don’t!!
Keep them and take them with you. It might help your dog.
Make sure all the dog stuff is in the van with me and not packed on removal can
I had a labelling system for all the boxes, furniture, the tonnes of stuff that we were moving.
If it was important and it was stuff we needed on the day it had an orange label.
If it was important dog stuff that needed to be in my van it was in a box or bag which had an orange label and a pawprint label.
That way I knew I had their beds, their food, their bowls, their Kongs and lickimats, their leads, harnesses, collars, muzzles, dog towels and it wouldn’t end up in the removal van by mistake.
Be prepared to change plans – have a Plan B
If anything was going to mess up the plan I knew it would be dog related!
I was right.
Our great plan for me to book the secure field for three slots so I could be well out of the way with the boys while the removal team were moving everything out of the house had to change when Teddy needed a minor operation at the vet the day before.
Yes… the day before moving out and two days before moving to Wales. Great timing.
He’d be sedated and bandaged. He’d need to rest up post op and not be charging around a field.
Panicked phone call to Ian. No worries. Again, I can’t recommend this guy enough.
I arranged with Ian that I’d stay in one room with the two boys, so the loading up team could work with all doors and the gates open.
I had lick mats, Kongs, liver cake all at the ready. It worked really well.
We arranged short breaks where the gates could be closed for Reggie and Teddy to run around outside and go for a wee, play with the removal guys.
Moving In day…
On moving in day I drove with the boys to my parents in Bristol, a really convenient half way point, where we could stay until we got the phone call to say completion had taken place, keys had been collected and Rog and the removal team were able to get in and start unpacking.
This turned out to be a great plan. Completion and key handover took hours and hours of waiting around, phone calls to and from solicitors, driving around trying to find a mobile signal to phone solicitors.
Rog and the removal guys were getting all the stress while me, Reggie and Teddy chilled out in the garden at mum and dad’s!
Set the beds up as soon as you arrive at the new house.
On arrival at the new place we had a dedicated room where I would chill out with the boys.
Their beds had travelled with me in my van, so we were able to set those up straight away in the new room.
Again, lick mats, Kongs, liver cake provided a great way to keep them entertained while the removal team were working and it worked really well.
Some other things to add to the list…
Remember to change your dog’s microchip details
Before moving I searched around for the user ids and passwords for my dogs’ microchip registration. Both Reggie and Teddy are registered with different companies.
Tip… do this now, even if you have no intention of moving house ever. If your dogs are microchipped make sure you know which company and check the login details. Often we have our dogs or puppies microchipped and then never have to think about it again. Until we do…
If you change any details, like your address details be prepared to have to pay for this.
Both companies charged me £10.
Change address details on your dog’s collar tag.
Get the new collar tags well before the move. I use the silicone band silent tags so I ordered new ones with the new address a few weeks before the move.
Silicone Tag Collection | Tagiffany
I decided to splash out on new silicone bands rather than just buying the metal tag and was glad I did as Teddy’s old band broke a few days before moving day!
Put the new tags somewhere safe in the stuff that you’ll be carrying with you on moving day. Don’t pack them away! I popped mine in my handbag so I knew where they were and was able to put them on the collars on moving in day.
Ok I may have control issues!!
Seriously though, there is so much when moving house that you have absolutely no control over, it was good to feel that at least with Reggie and Teddy I had a plan.
Change of address for your pet insurance
Remember to change address details with your pet insurance company.
When you move there seems to be a huge amount of admin to do along with everything else. Pet insurance is an easy one to forget.
Research and write down vet details, addresses for the new location
As we were moving 4.5 hours away I’d located a couple of vets in our new local area and written these details down. I did this a couple of months before we moved.
Again it’s one of those things you may need in an emergency and having details already written down will help.
As Teddy needed a follow up after the minor op the day before we moved this proved very useful!
Now We Are Here!
We’ve been in our new place for three months now and I’m so happy to report that Reggie and Teddy settled in really quickly.
They were brilliant throughout the whole move and they absolutely love the new house and all the space they have outside.
I’m looking forward to getting back to work once we’ve securely fenced the field and created some indoor training space in one of the stables in order for me to work with clients and their dogs.
In the meantime I’ve started volunteering at a local rescue centre and meeting new dogs looking for their forever home.
I’ve met a beautiful boy, a bully breed called Simba and his special person, volunteer Jenny. You can read all about Simba here and follow his adventures on Facebook and Instagram.
Simba (@simbasadventuresoutofkennels) • Instagram photos and videos
I’m also spending a lot of time playing and training with Reggie and Teddy in our own lovely field.
Hoping life is good with everyone
Have Fun Training!
Trudi
Completely Mutz