Quick question for anyone that has experience...ive raised "normal" puppies, straight from breeder extremely young. But the rescue thing is a little different.
Do I need to wait for her to get fully acclimated to her new life before delving too much into training? We do make her sit, come, or lay down before we give her food or take her out or anything. But I didn't know if it was best to wait a bit to kick it up a notch. We have only had her since Saturday...
It all depends on her temperament, history, etc.
I got a rescue dog as well. She's about 1.5 years old and extremely timid (probably due to living on the streets with lots of other homeless dogs and being a small thing herself). She's a hunting dog right down to the core - very, very close to a Parson Russell terrier but now way to tell if she's purebred or not. In the house, she's lazy and just sleeps right next to me where I sit. Take her outside and she's like a totally different animal - she's super alert, got her nose to the ground nearly all the time, and got a hair trigger - launches through the air from dead-stop like a bottle rocket if she sees a bird or rabbit.
She's been pretty nervoius when I've been walking her down sidewalks with buses and cars and people with other dogs going by, but she's been getting more relaxed a little bit every day. I took her to the dog park twice and she's been terrified, but she has managed to build up the courage to greet a few other dogs out walking - though not most of them. From her lineage, she should be pretty much fearless but there is no way of knowing if she's been abused before.
She wasn't housebroken at all when she came to us already full grown, but she comes from the most intelligent (and stubborn) of all the dog lines and it took us just 5 days and there has been zero punishment involved.
Everybody asks me if she's a puppy, but she's actually right in line with a full grown female Parson Russell terrier - 5kg weight, 33cm tall, with long legs. I've only heard her let out two barks since I've known her, and those happened the first time I met her.