I really love this blog, your answers are always so cool! (I’m the anon who asked about raising a Bulbasaur.) Anyways~ My growlithe recently evolved into an Arcanine. He’s surprised to find he’s much bigger, so he can’t jump onto people, and he can barely fit on his favorite couch; and, Arcanine is much harder to walk with now since he’s so big. He accidentally hit my Bulbasaur a bit to rough during one of their sparring matches. Have any ideas on how to get Arcanine adjusted to his new size?

Thank you! I’m glad to hear that your bulbasaur is doing well—or I presume as such, at least.

In any case, regarding your arcanine, that can be rather tricky. Some arcanine only need a few days to get used to their new forms; others are a little bit … difficult to teach. If your arcanine is of exceptional intelligence, then all you may need to do is give him space—literally. Putting him in the backyard and allowing him to run about may help him adjust by way of giving him plenty of opportunity to stretch, exercise, and understand his body.

If your arcanine is not quite as quick-witted, however, then I would still recommend allowing him in your backyard, but I would also recommend spending as much time with him as possible. Play fetch or other physical-based games so he can understand himself in comparison to you. The more he sees how small you are, the more likely he’ll begin to grasp that he’s not quite as small as he used to be. It’s also worth it to bring him to a battlefield and train with him a bit more often for the same principle: the more he’s allowed to stretch out and use his newly strengthened abilities, the quicker he will come to knowing his own strength.

Of course, I would not recommend allowing him to play with your other pokémon until he begins to understand his new form, but it may help to have them present and provide him with support—the extra two examples for how much larger he’s gotten may reinforce his sense of self.

In short, it will take patience, like most things related to raising pokémon tend to do. However, the more time you spend focusing on training him to recognize his size in relation to the world around him, the easier it will be. It might just take a few concrete examples and physical interactions for him to get it.