Imagine you’ve just moved into a new home. You’re unfamiliar with the layout; the walls creak with the passing wind; you haven’t quite figured out the ideal temperature setting for your water; It would likely take a few restless nights to get settled in. That’s exactly how your new pet might feel. They’re suddenly surrounded by unfamiliar sights, smells, and sounds, and it takes time to feel safe and secure.

The Rule of Threes
Every pet is different, but a helpful guideline to keep in mind is The Rule of Threes:

• 3 Days to decompress and begin to relax in their new environment.
• 3 Weeks to start showing their true personality.
• 3 Months to feel truly at home and comfortable with their routine.

Some pets may adjust faster, while others might take more time, and that’s perfectly okay!

How can you help them adjust? Here are a few tips or tricks that we recommend:

Let Them Set the Tone
Give your new pet the space they need to adjust on their terms. Start by setting up a decompression area:

• For cats, confine them to a single room with food, water, a litter box, and cozy bedding. As they grow more confident, you can slowly expand their access to other areas.
• For dogs, designate a quiet, low-traffic area with a bed or crate where they can retreat when they feel overwhelmed.

Avoid pushing for attention—allow them to come to you when they’re ready. This approach builds trust and helps them feel more in control.

Establish a Schedule
Having a routine is important for new pets. This provides them with an easy understanding of how the house operates and what they can expect.

Consistency brings comfort. Create a predictable daily routine:

• Feed your pet at the same time each day.
• Keep potty breaks and walks consistent.
• Stick to familiar walking routes to avoid overstimulation while they adjust to their new surroundings.
• Take your new dog out for potty breaks often. This will help them recognize which door to use and help you get accustomed to their bathroom habits.

Contact with other pets
If you already have pets at home, don’t rush the introduction. Sudden meetings can be stressful and may lead to tension or fear. Use slow, gradual introductions to help everyone feel safe and respected. Our adoption counselors can provide personalized tips to help you every step of the way!

Things to Avoid
Until you’re more familiar with your pet’s personality and preferred schedule, there are a few things you may want to consider slowly introducing.

Avoid taking your new dog to parks, pet stores, and other high-traffic locations (unless it’s your veterinarian). Instead, use this time to work on training, so that you both feel more confident and at ease with each other. Keep interactions with new people to a minimum, so that you and your new pet can focus on building relationships within your household. Once comfortable, you can slowly begin to introduce new people and places.

Take all the time your pet needs to get used to your house, your friends and family, and any other animals in their life. If you have any questions, we can help!

Body Language
Being able to read your pet’s body language can help you know when they’re feeling overwhelmed:

• Dogs: lip licking, yawning, panting, turning away, or a tucked tail.
• Cats: hiding, flicking their tail, flattened ears, or hissing.

As you get to know your pet, you’ll start to recognize their unique communication style—and be better equipped to help them feel comfortable.

Every animal deserves time, patience, and compassion as they transition into a new life. Whether it’s your first pet or you’ve had multiple animals, Lollypop Farm is here to support you. Our adoption counselors can provide tips and help you develop a plan, so you and your new pet can start your journey together on the right paw.

The post Decompression: Getting your new pet settled into your home appeared first on Lollypop Farm.

In preparation for Dog Bite Prevention Week, which runs from April 7-13, the students’ lessons focused on how dogs feel, reading dog body language, and safe ways to interact with dogs. Humane Education staff helped the students create posters and videos to educate our community about Dog Bite Prevention.

Here is some of their incredible work:

Three people to ask to pet a dog
Learn who you should ask before you pet a dog to keep yourself safe.

Be a tree
Learn how you should stand to make yourself less scary to a new dog you encounter.

How to pet a dog
Learn how to pet a dog. Don’t be too rough or they may get upset.

Some of the kids made posters to help teach about dog safety.

Since Lollypop Farm’s founding in 1873 education has been a pillar of the organization’s mission. One of the icons that many Rochesterians will remember is Ray Naramore, a retired teacher and Executive Director at Lollypop Farm. Naramore began to focus efforts at Lollypop Farm on promoting kindness to animals in the 1950s. Humane Education promotes kindness, develops empathy, and cultivates compassion toward animals, people, and the natural world. Through Humane Education, Lollypop Farm empowers individuals to gain the knowledge and tools to make informed, socially responsible choices to better the lives of animals in our community.

Under New York State Education Law, Humane Education is a requirement for elementary grade school students (Section 809). Through numerous partnerships, such as School 19, Lollypop Farm Humane Educators are helping to bring Humane Education to area schools. For more information on programs offered at local schools for the 2024-2025 school year, visit our Humane Education pages.

The post Dog Bite Prevention Week: Collaborating with Schools to Spread the Word appeared first on Lollypop Farm.

Foster teams provided restful recovery to 1,807 animals in 2023!
The majority of pets that come to Lollypop Farm need veterinary care, behavioral support, and time to grow or heal. Depending on their needs, they may receive months of care before they can be made available for adoption. The foster care program provides the opportunity to rest and recover in a loving environment.

Here is an amazing foster “tail” from foster care volunteer Jill Gress:
“A plea went out to the foster group looking for those “experienced “ with feral kittens to help socialize. I hadn’t done this before, but with all the training I have had, I wanted to give them a chance. They were about three months old when I picked them up. They were terrified, hissing and swatting. Their world had turned upside down, so it was easy to understand. It took quite a few days before they would let me touch them. Eventually, they realized I was the food lady and would eat from my hands and let me touch them. They went from climbing up the window blinds to laying in my lap to snuggling in a bed with their new owners who sent a picture.”

Interested in making a resolution to start fostering in 2024? Learn more here.

The Animal Emergency Response Team
With an increase in the number of large animal intakes and hoarding cases, the Lollypop Farm Animal Emergency Response Team (AERT) was officially established in 2023. The Animal Emergency Response Team is dispatched to rescue animals from crisis or hazardous conditions created by natural disasters, animal abuse, hoarding, neglect, and other emergencies. With specialized training, the team ensures that all operations are conducted safely, humanely, and with minimal stress to the pets involved.

In October 2023, the team took part in training for disaster response and emergency sheltering by Code 3 Associates. The Animal Emergency Response Team is committed to the safety of all animals and people involved when disaster strikes.

AERT was ready in September when a total of 209 cats were seized from a house in Gates. In desperate need of veterinary care and proper food and water, the Animal Emergency Response Team brought the cats to Lollypop Farm. The majority of the cats have since found loving homes thanks to the support of community members like you.

Pet Food Pantry – Keeping families together
In 2023, the Lollypop Farm Pet Pantry distributed 29,264 pounds of pet food! Thanks to the efforts of donors like you, pet food was brought to local food pantries and given out to families during this challenging economic time.

The Pet Food Dump, our holiday pet food drive sponsored with help from Dump Guru, accounted for 5,898 pounds of food in December. Thanks to generous donations from our community to the Pet Food Pantry, families were able to keep their pets in loving homes despite the added economic pressures of the holiday season.

Humane Education Team at School 19
2023 brought fun and learning to the Dr. Charles T. Lunsford School 19 students, a part of the Rochester City School District. Through the RedRover Readers program, students read along with stories of how to care for pets and how pets communicate their feelings, then discussed the stories. They even created the perfect habitats for hamsters after reading the story “Jeannie Houdini: A Hamster’s Tale” through drawings! Stories from Gryphon Press are used in the program to help celebrate the human-animal bond and to give kids fun examples for learning.

The fun continues for the kids in 2024, and they recently got to meet two new friends. Pet Assisted Therapy dogs Melinda, Finley, and Harvey came for a visit in early January, which was a big hit with the kids!

The Klingenstein Veterinary Clinic
In a time of veterinary crisis, the amazing team at the Klingestein Veterinary Clinic has done amazing work to help numerous pets not only at Lollypop Farm but for community pets as well.
9,131 surgeries were performed in 2023, including surgeries for Lollypop Farm pets like dentals, and spay and neuter surgeries for community pets through the Spay/Neuter Incentive Program (S.N.I.P.).

Lollypop Farm Breaks Ground!
The Kindness for All Kind campaign kicked off this summer with a Groundbreaking next to Elmer! Kindness for All Kind is a $ 20-million-dollar regeneration project that will transform Lollypop Farm into one of the country’s foremost community-based animal welfare and education centers.

The Karpus Family Foundation Learning Center will feature classrooms, educational exhibits, and an inviting learning, advocacy, and growth atmosphere. Education is the best way to prevent animal cruelty; therefore, this Center will be a haven for fostering empathy, compassion, and the humane treatment of animals and each other in our community.

A new Farmyard area will expand pasture size to improve animal habitats, provide an isolation area for animals needing time or rehabilitation, and provide more species-specific needs than ever before.

Other infrastructure changes will include an expanded dog kennel area, a storage area for Pet Food Pantry supplies and other needs, and a more easily accessible donations area. Learn more here.

Happy Tails!
Rocky caught the attention of so many social media followers this year with the sad picture taken after a sleepover return. Rocky held his face down low, dejected that his chance at a home didn’t work out. But there was hope! Thanks to the efforts of thousands in our community, Rocky was able to find a family who came all the way from Buffalo just to adopt this sweet 3-year-old boy.

But he wasn’t the only one to find a new home! 4,198 pets found their way into loving homes last year.

2023 was truly an amazing year, full of Happy Tails of fostering, adoptions, and keeping families together! We are excited to see what this new year will bring and the lives we will change in collaboration with you and our community.

The post You Made Incredible Things Happen in 2023 appeared first on Lollypop Farm.

Communicate with your guests.
Is your dog an energetic puppy that you are trying to teach not to jump? Does your dog take every opportunity to find or eat food they shouldn’t? Does your cat need to be behind a gate when people come in through the front door so they don’t sneak out?

You know your pet best, so make sure to communicate with your guests, too! Whatever your rules are for your pet, communication will ensure not only that your pet is happy but also that they don’t do something potentially dangerous. For example, if your pet has an especially sensitive stomach, let your guests know that they should not feed any table scraps.

Body Language
Pay close attention to your pet during a holiday gathering to ensure that they are not feeling stressed. Stress can lead even the best pets to behave in ways you wouldn’t expect, like nipping or biting. Even if your pet normally enjoys the company of others does not mean they will enjoy a noisy party. If they start to show signs of stress, take them out of the situation to calm down, like going for a walk or into a separate room. (see “safe space” below!)

Here are some great charts to help you see the body language you may have missed.

Safe Space
Setting up a safe space for your pet to go during gatherings is a great way to help your pet. Safe spaces allow your pet to remove themselves from a stressful situation. In some cases, they may feel better being in that separate room during the whole party. In other cases, they may simply wish for a place to retreat from the crowd.

Cats: Set up a comfortable space with their food, litter box, water, and hiding places. Oftentimes, a bedroom upstairs, away from all the party commotion, is the perfect spot for your feline friend. Consider playing soft music to help alleviate stress caused by the noise of the party. Many cats are lost each year when they slip through an open door, so keeping them in a room with a closed door can help prevent a lost pet.

Dogs: Set up a room or provide a crate for your dog. Consider a space behind a closed door if your dog is not social. If they enjoy meeting new people, you can just give them a place they may come and go from. Gates are also a great way to keep dogs away from open doors or outside of the kitchen with all that tempting food.

Small pets: If you have a pet that is in an enclosure, you can simply move that enclosure to another room.

For any pet, keep plenty of toys and treats around to help distract them and keep them calm. Frozen peanut butter kongs for dogs, treat mazes and cat nip for kitties, and plenty of exercise wheels for small friends are fun and keep them happy!

Loud Noises and Kids
Whether your pet is familiar with children or not, make sure parents and children coming into your home know how to properly greet your pet. They should also be made aware of rules like not touching a pet’s food or other high-reward items. Pets and children should always be supervised by a responsible adult. When children play, it can be loud and stressful for your pet. If children are being too rough, consider moving your pet to a different room to avoid stress.

Loud noises, especially party poppers or other noisemakers, are often scary for pets. If your pet is especially fearful of loud noises, avoid party favors like these. Make sure your pet has access to their safe space to get away from the noise.

Animal Visitors
A friend or family member may want to bring their pet over during the holidays. Even if your pet enjoys the company of other animals under normal circumstances, this can still result in a highly stressful situation for both pets involved.

When you consider that your home is your dog’s territory, bringing in another dog, while they are already stressed, may seem threatening to them. They experience more inclination to guard desirable items or be less tolerant of the other animal. Some pets also don’t enjoy having another pet around, so bringing another pet into their home may never be an option, and that’s ok.

If you need to introduce your dog to another dog, the best way to introduce animals to one another is with slow introductions. Have them meet before a party environment and on neutral ground, such as a park. If the meeting doesn’t go well there, there is a good chance that a meeting at the house won’t work either.

Toxins
There may be foods like chocolate, garlic, onions, or bones that a pet can get into at a holiday gathering. Keep your garbage closed or in an area that your pets can’t access. Also, consider keeping them out of the kitchen or dining room where possible with gates or barriers; they won’t get into things if they can’t enter the room!

Holiday plants can be beautiful, but some are toxic to your pets, like poinsettias, holly, and tree preservatives. Look up any plants before bringing them into your home.

You can visit the ASPCA’s poison control center if you are concerned that your pet has gotten into something they shouldn’t or if you want to make sure that holiday bouquet is okay for your furry friends!

Watch our holiday video for more information!

The post The Keys to a No-Stress Holiday (at least for the pets) appeared first on Lollypop Farm.