Bringing home a new puppy is extremely similar to bringing home a baby. That is why, today, I have decided to create a checklist that will help you prepare for that first day when you introduce your puppy to their brand new home.
Puppy Proofing the House:
- Ensure that any wires in your house are out of the puppy’s reach.
- Make sure there are not small objects lying around the house that your puppy could choke on.
- Put shoes and any other items that you don’t want the puppy chewing on out of their reach.
Supplies You’ll Need:
- If you have decided to crate train your puppy (which I would highly recommend as this is the best potty training method that I have found), then you will need to find a crate that will fit your puppy when they are all grown up. If you get a crate that fits your puppy right at this moment you will have to keep upgrading as you puppy keeps getting bigger, which can happen extremely fast!
- Whether you decide to feed your dog holistic dog food or commercial dog food, you should figure out what type of meat is in the food the puppy has been eating so far (you should be able to ask the adoption agency or breeder this question) and you will want to get a dog food that has that some meat type in it so your puppy will not get sick because of a sudden change in diet. If you want to transition them onto a different food, buy a little bag of the similar food they have been eating and mix a little of the new food into the old food so your puppy’s digestive system can get used to the change.
- Make sure you have a collar and leash ready to go.
- You might want to look into puppy training pads if you will not be using a crate to potty train your dog.
- Some sort of urine/odor eliminator to clean up after your dog if they end up having accidents in the house (which they most likely will at first unless by some amazing miracle they are already potty trained when you bring them home).
- Get your puppy some toys to play with, but make sure they are small enough that they can fit in their mouth, but not small enough for them to swallow and choke on.
- Get some ear plugs for yourself to block out the heart wrenching howling/yelping/crying/barking that WILL occur whenever you put your puppy in their crate (this is especially useful if you put your puppy in the crate at night while your trying to sleep).
- Make sure you gather as much patience as you can, and be as consistent as possible in your training efforts. Your puppy will test the limits, but with A LOT of patience and a lots of repetition you’re puppy will soon be a well behaved adult dog.
- If you live with other people, make sure you tell them what the puppy’s rules are and make them promise to be consist ant in enforcing the rules that you have laid out. It only takes one person to let the puppy get away with everything to ruin all the hard work you have put into training your dog.
- Be prepared for a lot of howling, braking, and crying from your puppy.
- It is important to understand that puppies memory’s are short, so if your dog does something bad, it will only work to reprimand them DURING the bad act, not afterwords, because they won’t understand why they are being punished. This applies to good behavior as well, you need to praise your dog right in the middle of the good behavior they are displaying and then giving them a treat as soon as they do something good.
Be committed to what you are trying to accomplish, i.e. turning your puppy into a well behaved dog. There will be times when you are ready to throw in the towel, but just stick with it and I promise you will be so glad you did. This had time will only last about a year and then you will have a best friend for many years to come.
