In a video that has captivated millions on social media, a 2-year-old border collie mix rescue wasted no time to bond with her new owner, who had just adopted her from a local shelter to give her the life she's always dreamed of.
The heartwarming clip shared on TikTok on May 15 under the username @chardyshardy, shows the pup, Charli, lounging on the couch with her new mom, resting her head on her chest, and holding her hands with her paws, while wiggling her tail like she's the happiest dog alive.
"POV [point of view]: you just brought home your new dog from the shelter," the poster writes in the clip. "We don't deserve dogs," she continues in the caption.
While each dog is different, and their bonding times can very depending on their history and personality, studies suggest that dogs who are rescued from shelters tend to bond with their new owners quickly.
For some dogs it only takes a few days to warm up to their new humans, however others may take several months to learn how to trust again and form a meaningful bond. Their level of stress and socialization also influence their timings.
Annie Grossman, a certified professional dog trainer and owner at School For The Dogs, told Newsweek that owners can facilitate bonding by giving dogs what they need to feel safe.
"That may mean starting with the assumption that they are likely to think everything in our human world is suspicious at the start," Grossman said.
"I think we have to focus on how dogs are feeling before we can work on getting them to behave the way we want them to behave, and the best way to set the stage for good behavior is creating a sense that they are in a world where they are safe and protected without having to resort to using their own natural defenses."
Grossman said that because dogs learn by association, a big part of welcoming a new dog of any age into your home is to help them make associations with all the things they're going to need to know about in their lives with you.
"The sound of the coffee grinder, the treadmill, the kids on scooters outside, etc. The more you can do to help create good associations with these kinds of stimuli, the more likely you are to have a dog who isn't going to spook and go into fight or flight mode when the UPS driver comes down the driveway," she said.
"You can pair novel experiences with good stuff like treats. This is essentially what 'socializing' a dog is all about. But while you are going through this process of pairing X-potentially scary thing with Y-yummy thing, you are also creating an associating with YOU as you are the one delivering the rewards.
"In turn, as your stock goes up, your very presence will be a comfort when new things are around, thanks to that rich history of reinforcement being paired with you. And that is a lot of what 'bonding' is all about."
The video quickly went viral on social media and it has so far received over 2.1 million views and 505,700 likes on TikTok.
One user, Abbey Stafford, said in the comments: "Mom, tell me again the story about how you picked me."
Jennifer Molyet wrote: "From one border collie mom to another.... She will have you trained in no time."
Nunyafukinbiz0 added: "She keeps touching you to assure herself that you are real."
Newsweek reached out to @chardyshardy for comment via TikTok comments. We could not verify the details of the case.
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