What Do You Need To Buy For A New Puppy
Even if you plan to take your puppy to grooming appointments, you should have basic grooming products at home. Dog-friendly shampoo, a comb, a brush, nail clippers and styptic powder are essential tools to have on hand. When bathing your puppy at home, always use a shampoo designed specifically for dogs. Never use human shampoo on your puppy.
what do you need to buy for a new puppy
QUICK UPDATE: We are only recommending one product (our favorite) per category. It was difficult to always pick the best/favorite so please do your own due diligence and find what works best for your puppy
If you never had a puppy then get ready for some unwanted chewing of among other things furniture, clothes, shoes, hands, and feet. A good dog chew will help redirect this unwanted behavior until your puppy matures and sheds his puppy teeth. Our favorite dog chew for both our puppies and older dogs are Bully Sticks
Guess what? Your puppy is going to have accidents in the house. Even if you stick to a strict potty training schedule there will always be a miscue. Never fear Rocco & Roxie makes a great stain & odor remover that we use with our puppies.
When we brought home Elsa her breeder gave us a basket full of puppy products. One essential product we originally did not have on our new puppy checklist was pumpkin. If your dog never has an upset stomach or loose stool then she will most likely not need pumpkin as a supplement. On the other hand, if your puppy has mushy poop then Weruva Pumpkin Patch Up is a godsend as it helps make for more solid poopies.
Our second Guide puppy Derby had several accidents on the car ride home and made a little mess on the seats and floor mats. Ever since then we always have rags on hand to keep the car and all areas of the house clean of puppy pee, poop, and vomit.
QUICK TIP: Be careful with a travel kennel especially if your puppy is not yet crate trained because they may decide to chew through the mesh lining destroying your expensive investment.
Learn everything you can before, during, and after bringing home your puppy. We have stacks of books on training puppies, dogs, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, and every bit of information we can get to learn how to have a better relationship with our dogs and puppies.
We did our due diligence and researched many different pet insurance companies and narrowed our search down to Healthy Paws. Why? Our close friends rang up bills of over $50K for their current puppy. If not for Healthy Paws they would not have been able to afford the bills and the puppy would have been put down.
For our Golden Retriever and Labrador Retriever puppies, we use a 36-inch Midwest Life Stages Dog Crate. The Midwest crates come with a wire divider that allows you to resize the crate as your puppy grows.
As service dog puppy raisers we follow the rules the school has laid out for new puppies for decades. When it comes to the first week the service dog school asks us to take it easy and let our puppies get used to their new home.
Colby Morita has been raising and training guide and service dog puppies for over 13 years. He has puppy graduates from Guide Dogs of America, Tender Loving Canine Assistance Dogs, Cascade Service Dogs, and Canine Support Teams. Colby has been writing to the PuppyInTraining.com blog and sharing his puppy training tips from his experiences since 2007. Follow his puppy adventures at Facebook YouTube Twitter Pinterest
Play is not just for fun. Providing your puppy with opportunities to engage in different types of play, individually, with other animals, and with people, will help develop motor, social and problem-solving skills, and strengthen bonds.
It is essential to ensure that your puppy is microchipped, wears a collar with a tag, and is registered with your local council. Talk to your vet to organise desexing and preventative health care (e.g. vaccination, worming, external parasite control).
A water bowl should hold enough water that you need to refill it only every 24 to 36 hours. Since dogs drink 20 to 40 milliliters of water per pound of body weight, a 10-pound dog should do okay with a 20-ounce bowl, while a 20-pound dog needs a 40-ounce bowl. In our own homes, we like the colorful Loving Pets Bella Bowls Pet Bowl, which is dishwasher-safe. It comes in three sizes, for small or large dogs, and it has a removable, no-skid bottom.
Crate training is an effective way to help your puppy feel secure in their new home and prevent accidents, and your puppy's crate should be big enough for them to stand up and turn around, but not so spacious that they have room to go to the bathroom.
Just like bringing home a new baby, the first night with a new puppy can be rough. Set yourself up for the best night possible for both you and your furry friend by doing a few things before and after you get your puppy home!
Start by introducing your older dog to your new puppy in a more neutral location like a yard or anteroom. Let them sniff and smell each other as this is the best way for them to get an idea of the other one and their intention. Keep your big dog on a leash so you can easily move him away if he starts to pick a fight or get aggressive toward your new puppy.
Bringing a new Labrador puppy home is both exciting and terrifying. Puppies are so cute; you cannot help but fall in love with them immediately. Then you get them home and realize just how much work they are! Like human babies, Lab puppies require 24-hour care for those first few weeks. And, also like human babies, there are numerous supplies and essentials you will need to raise your puppy into a loving, responsible dog. So, what do you need to buy for your new Lab puppy?
A crate is essential for every dog owner. It is infinitely harder to house break a puppy without a crate, and a crate will also allow you to have a few minutes or a few hours of time where you do not have to watch every move your puppy makes.
I recommend that you start with a small, puppy sized crate. This is important because a small crate will keep your pup from moving around a lot and make it more unlikely that he/she will have an accident in the crate. The larger the crate, and the more the puppy can move around inside the crate, the more likely they will have an accident in the crate. For obvious reasons, you want to avoid these accidents.
Additionally, the crate should feel like a den for your puppy and dens are small spaces where a dog can feel safe and comfortable. Put a small hand towel in the crate to absorb any accidents and keep a bottle of Angry Orange Pet Odor Eliminator or other cleaner nearby.
Puppy crates can be found online, in big-box stores or pet stores. Plastic crates are best for puppies since they contain any messes and are easy to wash out. I do not recommend metal or fence crates because they do not allow dogs privacy and a place to escape that plastic ones do. Your goal should be to teach you puppy that his/her crate is a good, safe place for them to sleep or get away. Learn how to do that here.
Of course, your puppy will need food, and you should give this some thought before you bring your puppy home. If your breeder feeds a quality food, it is often helpful to continue that food. Your puppy will be adjusting to a lot of things that first few weeks and a new food is just another stress for them. Often breeders will send you home with a small bag of food, but that will not last long so if you can have an extra bag already at home you will be prepared.
Puppies naturally move their dish around as they are eating, especially if the dish has a flat bottom that easily pushes around the floor. We have found that dishes with a non-slip bottom can help so that your puppy is not chasing around his food dish.
It is vitally important that your puppy have access to clean water for drinking. Again, your puppy will not care what type of water dish you have, but only that he/she has one. With the puppies we raise, we have found that it can be challenging to keep a small water dish full, so we prefer to use these 2-gallon water dishes. They are easy to fill and allow us to only have to fill them a couple times a week instead of several times a day.
While your puppy is unlikely to run off during the first few days after you bring him/her home, as he/she gains confidence puppies tend to range more and more. We suggest that you introduce a lead to your puppy as they start to grow in confidence and walk further from you when outside.
There are two great reasons to do this early on. First it teaches your puppy how to handle the pressure of not being able to go wherever they want whenever they want. And it keeps your puppy from developing a habit of running away from you.
A Flexi-lead works especially well if you want to give your puppy a little more freedom to go do his potty business but still keep control. Just hook the lead to his/her nylon collar for now, but as your pup grows, you will want to introduce a chain collar.
Puppies need toys. If you do not give them toys that they CAN chew and play with, they will chew on your sofa leg, or a book or a blanket or anything else they can find. So, purchase some good durable puppy chew toys. But watch your pup carefully. As they get older and stronger, they will be able to rip apart cloth toys and ingest them. Or they will chew rubber toys into small pieces and eat them. When your pup gets strong enough to destroy toys, it is time to take away the puppy toys and give them only dog toys designed for older, larger dogs or quality rawhides that they can chew that will not cause digestive problems.
If your plan is for your Labrador puppy to become a hunting or competition dog, you should have a puppy sized bumper. You can start working on retrieving with your new pup within a few days of bringing him/her home. Learn more about teaching your puppy to fetch in this post.
I recommend that you section off a small portion of your home and not let your puppy have full run of the entire house. It is vital that you are carefully watching your puppy when he/she is out of his/her crate. If you are trying to housebreak your puppy, he/she must not be unsupervised. Learn more about housebreaking your Lab puppy in this post. 041b061a72