The EDTUK Rescue Guide – Digital Download
Helping rescue dogs feel safe, understood, and ready to thrive.
The EDTUK Rescue Guide is a comprehensive, trauma-informed digital resource designed to support both you and your rescue dog during the critical settling and adjustment period.
Rescue dogs do not arrive as blank slates. They arrive with learning histories, emotional experiences, and coping strategies shaped by past environments, stress, and change. This guide helps you understand what behaviour is normal for rescue dogs, why challenges may appear after adoption, and how to support your dog as they decompress, build trust, and regain emotional stability.
Rather than focusing on obedience or quick fixes, this guide prioritises emotional safety, nervous system regulation, and realistic expectations — the foundations required for learning and long-term wellbeing.
Inside the guide, you’ll learn:
What to expect in the early days, weeks, and months after adoption
Why behaviour may change as your dog starts to feel safer
How stress and trauma affect learning, behaviour, and emotional regulation
The science behind the 3-days, 3-weeks, 3-months framework
How to support decompression, rest, and recovery
Understanding shutdown, fear responses, and survival behaviours
Gentle socialisation and enrichment for rescue dogs
How to train without pressure, punishment, or overwhelm
Common rescue dog myths — and the evidence-based facts
This guide is designed to be read in short sections, revisited when reassurance is needed, and used alongside real life. There are no rigid timelines, no expectations to “fix” behaviour quickly, and no judgement.
What’s included:
A 50+ page, science-led rescue support guide
Trauma-informed, welfare-focused training principles
Practical strategies you can apply immediately
Reassurance for common rescue challenges
A calm, ethical, reward-based approach
Format: Digital PDF download
Suitable for: Newly adopted rescue dogs, long-term rescues, overseas dogs, and sensitive dogs
Training style: Reward-based, trauma-informed, force-free