1. BABIES: First and foremost, get a mind set that you are bringing a baby home with you.  It’s not different than bringing a human baby home, except this one has fur, won’t learn to talk, and will grow up much faster!  Be prepared to teach them everything with patience and love.  Be prepared to be their forever, no matter what, family.

2. Vet visit: As soon as we set a date for you to bring your puppy home you need to contact your vet to set up the initial visit. At this visit your vet will check your puppy out and begin their shot regime. This is essential! Until your pup is completely vaccinated be sure not to ever let them on the ground anywhere an unvaccinated animal may have been as they can pick up Parvo from the ground.

3. Potty!! This is going to be your world for several months, so be prepared!

• • On the day you pick up your puppy we will review a  plan for potty on the way home! Please remember you should never let your puppy potty anywhere other possibly unvaccinated dogs have gone potty.
  • Before your puppy comes home you should have decided about potty time! Decide if you are going to use puppy pads or go outside. My Beagles exclusively go outside, while my much smaller Yorkies use a combination of both locations. As soon as you get home with your puppy – before ANYTHING else – take him/her to their potty spot. They won’t have any idea what to do, but as soon as they do something praise BIG with words, actions, hugs & treats if you want.
  • Puppies are babies and they don’t learn overnight.  You can expect potty training to take 4-7 months to be solid.  Be ready to be patient and remember, these are babies so fussing at them for accidents will only make a nervous, upset pup.  Just be calm and remember you have adopted a baby!
  • Buy pee pads!

4. Intro to home! Before your puppy comes home you need to prepare a few places:

• • Gate off any areas of your home you don’t want the puppy in (if your pup is small, pay attention to the gap between slats on your gate).
  • Within the gated area you are ok with your puppy being in, gate off a small pen or playpen area where the puppy can play or sleep.  You should add a whelping pad on the floor, bed, pee pad, right sized crate and water dish.
  • Cover any table or chair legs you don’t want chewed with fabric to save them from being chewed on teething puppies! You will need to keep them covered for 8-10 months.
  • Tie up any electrical cords.
  • Consider any areas of your floor you don’t want peed/pooped on and cover them with whelping pads (see Our Favorite Items page)

5. First, put the puppy into his/her small play area to let them explore.  Stay within their sight and provide encouragement for a short while. I’d say let the pup stay there for about 5-10 mins. Don’t let them cry at this point. They need to feel safe in this area. You can sit with them if they need it. Then, take them out, leaving the door to this area open, then let them explore the larger area for another 5-10 mins. If the pup potties in one of these areas just pick him/her up
and put them on the pee pad or take them outside and tell them to go potty. They probably won’t go again so quickly, but it’s the beginning of letting them hear the words – “We potty here”. Don’t yell or fuss at them – this is a long process! After the pup has explored both areas, time to potty again. Always go over the top with praise and treats when they do go; and be prepared, you won’t win this training for a while!

6. Introduce the pup to others in the house one at a time. The people need to be prepared to let the pup have some time to adjust to all the new smells, sounds and location. Go slow, just like you would with a new baby (which is exactly what your puppy is!).

7. Have a schedule in mind. Puppies need lots of sleep and lots of potty breaks. Hopefully, you can plan to be off work or have someone with your pup for the first couple of weeks – this will help so much for both you and the pup! If no one can be home with the pup we should talk about how to manage this. I’ll list a sample schedule I use on Our Favorite Things page.

8. Have a crate ready for scheduled nap times. I know it sounds nuts, but a schedule helps your puppy understand what to expect. They feel safer and more secure when they know what to expect just like we do. Pups need a quiet place to sleep and unwind. Make sure the crate is just the right size (you can google this). Put in a crate pad and, if you’d like, a sleep toy. I wouldn’t wake them up unless I needed to, but as soon as the pup wakes up take it immediately potty! I use a gated area for my Yorkies, just big enough for a small bed and a pee pad. Yorkies are so much smaller and have small bladders, which means they have to be able to potty at night more often than a larger pup. I’ll show pics of my area on Our Favorite Things page.

9.  Feeding – I will send enough food home for the pups for 2-3 days and will provide the name and amount of food they are eating. If you want to change their food – research how to do this properly so they don’t get upset stomachs and you aren’t cleaning up really nasty poops! See Our Favorite Things for ideas about food.