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On arrival day, everyone means well. It is often the day habits get set that have to be undone later.
1. The welcoming party can wait
Friends and family want to meet the newcomer, often the same evening. This is the day to say no.
An animal working out a new home, new smells and new noises has no spare attention for three more visitors. On day one the aim is not that it meets people. The aim is that it learns this place asks nothing of it.
Visits start again when it comes to you of its own accord, not when your diary allows.
2. The full tour of the house teaches it nothing
Opening every door on day one comes from a good place. The result is an animal that has seen a lot of space and remembered none of it.
One room is enough at the start: water, a bed, somewhere to hide. The rest opens up room by room, once the previous one has become dull.
This holds for a kitten and for a ten-year-old dog alike. Age changes the pace, not the principle.
3. Pulling it out of its hiding place removes the one thing it has
Under a bed, behind the sofa, inside the carrier left open: the hiding place is not a problem to solve. It is the answer the animal found on its own.
Dragging it out turns the only safe spot in the house into the place where it gets fetched. You lose that shelter, and another one has to be built somewhere else.
Put water and food within reach without crowding it. Sit in the room and get on with something else. It is slow, and it is the faster version.
4. A missed meal on day one does not read like a missed meal later
Plenty of animals eat little or nothing on the day they arrive. Stress closes the appetite, and pushing does not reopen it.
Keep the same food it was getting before, even if you plan to change it. A new diet and a new home on the same day makes two changes at once.
If the refusal settles in over several days, with cats in particular, it stops being a matter of patience and becomes a matter for a vet.
5. The arrival bath is not urgent
An animal coming out of a shelter sometimes carries the smell of where it has been. Wanting to wash it is understandable, and on day one it is almost always the wrong call.
A bath holds the animal still, soaks it, makes noise and forces contact. That is precisely what an animal that does not know you yet cannot absorb.
A short brush, if it accepts one, does part of the job without the cost. The bath waits until it lets you touch it without stiffening.
6. The first outing is not a walk
On day one, a dog going out is not there to discover the neighbourhood. It is there to relieve itself and come back in.
Check the harness or collar before you open the door: two fingers should slide between the strap and the neck, no more, no less. Day-one escapes often start there.
Long walks, meetings with other dogs and the park come later. An animal lost on day one is the one incident you cannot take back.
7. Day one tells you nothing about its character
The placid animal of the first evening can turn lively in week two. The dog glued to you may take its distance. The invisible cat may end up on your lap.
What you see on day one is an animal shut down or wound up, not a temperament.
Write down what you notice and draw no conclusions. The decisions that matter, training, food, where the bed goes, are made better once it is itself again.