Silly Shepherds · About a 7-minute read
Three days. Three weeks. Three months.
The “3-3-3 rule” is a rough way of describing how a rescue dog may settle into a new home. Around those first three weeks, familiar routines may start making more sense.
It is no fixed timetable.
But honestly? With Odin, some of it feels familiar.
Week three begins on day seventeen.
Odin still has a slight limp. He is on his prescribed medication, and he clearly has more spark than he did a few days earlier.
We keep working on the everyday basics.
🐾 The Dog Dryer — A New Chapter
Day seventeen.
Wet dogs need drying.
Zara stands happily while we work from front to back with the grooming dryer.
Odin?
He wants absolutely nothing to do with it.
We try cautiously, keeping his leash short and directing the airflow away from his head, working around his back and underneath his body.
He stays put.
He is not happy about it, but he stays.
Standing still is what I can observe. It does not necessarily mean he is comfortable.
By day twenty-two, he stays again.
Still no airflow near his head. Elsewhere, he tolerates more than before.
A little progress.
Something we still need to take slowly.
🐾 Zara — A Quieter Change
Something is becoming more noticeable this week.
Zara is changing too.
More often, she walks the way Ayla used to: well behind me, quietly reading the neighborhood news with her nose.
Sniffing everything.
If I do not call her regularly, she falls farther behind than I would like.
She seems less alert and more interested in doing her own thing.
I wonder how much is connected to her recent heat cycle. How much is the weather.
And how much is having Odin around.
Sometimes it feels as though she watches him test a boundary and thinks: well, if he can…
That is my interpretation, of course.
Back on day sixteen, with the temperature down to about 75°F (24°C), she held her own during play with Odin and clearly enjoyed the chasing game.
Week three reminds me that the energy is still there.
It just does not appear in quite the same way every day.
🐾 Garry, Charlie, and New Encounters
This week brings more time with dogs Odin has already met, along with some new encounters.
Garry is at the dog field on days twenty and twenty-four.
He is very clear about his boundaries.
Odin rushes toward him like a rocket. Garry is startled, and a snap follows.
Odin does not retaliate.
He looks around. Watches. Circles.
He still needs to learn that not every dog appreciates that kind of entrance.
Garry makes his feelings clear.
These encounters give us plenty to notice, especially about how Odin approaches other dogs. His enthusiasm can be overwhelming, and being there to supervise does not make a rushed greeting risk-free.
Charlie is going better too.
He is our neighbor’s intact male, a dog who does not readily move aside for another dog.
With both dogs on leash, we walk calmly alongside each other.
A small step.
But a real one.
🐾 Training — Repetition and Small Breakthroughs
Sitting is becoming more familiar.
At traffic lights. Before the leash goes on. At the gate to the dog field.
He sits.
People who notice often respond warmly.
That feels like a little reward for me too.
On day twenty, we stop by the utility cabinet where Zara usually puts her front paws up so I can attach her leash easily.
Odin watches her.
Then does the same.
Without me asking.
Those little moments.
At the traffic lights, they are now both beginning to sit without a separate prompt.
Ten days earlier, that would have been hard to imagine.
Outside, we are still using a choke chain when Odin reacts strongly to another dog.
I find myself using fewer corrections. Sometimes, even the sound seems enough to draw his attention back.
That is what I observed at the time. It does not tell us, by itself, how he feels about the other dog or the equipment.
My goal remains for him not to need it.
🐾 The Badger — Day Fourteen, Still on His Mind
A quick return to day fourteen.
Because this deserves a mention.
We found ourselves about sixteen feet (five meters) from a large badger.
Zara stayed where she was.
Odin immediately wanted to chase it.
I filmed the encounter.
In week three, he keeps checking the bushes during our late evening outings.
As though he expects the badger to be waiting there.
That encounter seems to have stayed with him.
Honestly, it has stayed with me too.
🐾 Three Weeks — Where We Stand
From day one to day twenty-four.
From a rope leash to a proper, wide collar.
From that frightening reaction to the Labrador to calmly passing a white Shepherd and a Belgian Malinois.
He follows me around all day.
When I go to the bathroom, he waits outside the door.
In the evening, he settles beside me on his own blanket.
After a correction, he often seeks contact — a stroke, a moment of reassurance.
I read that as looking for approval, though I cannot know exactly what it means to him.
What I do know is that he keeps seeking me out.
I am seeing more of the dog beneath those difficult first encounters.
A dog learning our routines.
A dog finding his place.
And an owner learning along with him.
More next week.
We are only just getting started.
Follow Odin’s diary on the website, and find more from our life with the dogs on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
🐕 Our Dog. Our Experience.
This is our honest diary of a dog getting a second chance and an owner learning along the way. It records the breakthroughs, the mistakes, and the choices we made. It is a personal account, not a training guide.
Week by week. Step by step.
