Moving House With Pets: A Timeline

Moving is stressful for animals because the entire scent map of their world disappears at once. Most of the problems — cats that vanish, dogs that regress on house-training — are avoidable with a bit of sequencing.

Before the move

• Update the microchip registry and collar tag with the new address and confirm your number. Do this a week early, not after.
• Get vet records, repeat medication and a copy of vaccination history if you are changing practice. Find and phone a new vet before you need one.
• Keep carriers and crates out for weeks beforehand with bedding inside so they are furniture rather than a threat.
• Do not wash all their bedding just before the move — you want their smell to travel with them.

On the day

Put the animals in one closed room with a sign on the door, or better, at a friend's house or a kennel for the day. Open doors and removalists are how pets escape. Feed a small meal, and expect the cat to hide.

Move them yourself in a secure carrier, last thing, rather than with the removal van.

At the new house

Set up one room first — their bed, bowls, litter tray, familiar smelling items — and put them in it while everything else happens. Let them come out on their own terms.

Cats need confining

This is the part people get wrong. Keep a cat indoors for at least two to three weeks before letting it outside — some experts say longer. Cats navigate by scent and territory, and one released too soon will head back toward the old house, sometimes across roads and long distances. When you do let them out, do it before a meal so they are hungry, go with them, and stay for short supervised trips at first.

Some people rub butter on the paws or carry the cat around the boundary. The evidence for that is thin; the evidence for confinement is strong.

Dogs settle faster but still regress

Expect some house-training accidents and some clinginess for a fortnight. Keep the routine — same walk times, same feed times — because routine is the one familiar thing you can give them. Walk the new neighbourhood on lead repeatedly so the map builds. Check the new fence and gate thoroughly on day one.

Both species

Synthetic pheromone diffusers help some animals. Do not introduce them to every new neighbour and their dog in the first week. And give it a month before you conclude anything about how they are coping.