Our Favorite Products!
Crates, dog food, and toys… OH MY!
So, so, so many things to think about & purchase for your new baby.
I’ve tried many items, but below is a list of some of my favorite things. Feel free to browse my list or select your own!
Food & Snacks & Beds
Choosing a food dish is Important! Yorkies only eat about 1/3 of a cup of food at each meal. For the first year, you want a good quality puppy food and it’s a good idea to feed them 3 times a day! After they turn a year old, switch to a good quality adult small breed food and switch to feeding twice a day. Choose a dish that isn’t too deep. I picked these from an Etsy site!
Snacks are important too! For puppies be sure to choose small treats, or those that can be broken into small portions. Except when training, give treats sparingly! My girls have gotten spoiled, so sometimes they will refuse their dinner hoping to get a treat instead! Stay away from table food or you may never get them to eat the food they need to grow and be healthy!
Plain Cheerios are great for training treats and just simple small bites every so often. Be sure to get just the plain Cheerios so you know pups aren’t getting lots of sugar or additives. Also beware, if you give them better tasting low quality treats they won’t want to go back to Cheerios!
Other examples of snacks and dog chews. I’m also sharing some important health items to have on hand such as flea/tick meds., Heartworm meds (be sure to talk to your vet about when to start these and what type to get). I keep a pet thermometer, eye wipes, ear cleaner and children’s benadryl handy too!
Setting up a gated area like this with pee pads and soft beds can give your pup a good place to play or stay while you are sleeping, working or occupied. I put a 6×6 waterproof whelping pad on the floor to keep things clean . I wouldn’t use a space this big for sleeping. That needs to be a smaller area! I got all of these things from Amazon.
Here is another idea for a sleeping area that can accommodate a pee pad. Even when Yorkies get a bit older it can be hard for them to not need to potty at night. With this set up they can take care of business without waking you up! Hint – the pee pad has a grate over it. I just was never able to keep my girls from tearing up the pad so the grate cover was a life saver! Again – Amazon!
Gates & Stairs
Little short legs need a leg up getting on the couch! I ordered these for them to climb up on the sofa with me. Yorkies often have problems with knee caps due to jumping so anytime you can encourage them to use the steps rather than to jump is a win! This set of steps also has little cubby under the tallest step so they can hide out if they want. I got this one and one other one I use from Amazon.
Unless you want your pups to have free reign in your house you will need some gates. I have a thing about dogs in my kitchen so I put this one across the area leading into my kitchen. It attaches to each side of the opening and you can unhook it so it rolls back neatly on itself when I’m not using it. The only caveat is that when they are tiny they CAN scoot under it! I got it from Amazon!
I got this wall gate to close off the hallway leading to outside doors. Dogs love to greet visitors when they arrive, but they can also get out the door before you can even think! I gate off all of the entry door areas. For my foyer, I had to get a very long gate, but it is safe for my pups! Again, when yorkies are very tiny they can get through these rails, so you may have to find something (like the gray Styrofoam covers you see on some of the rails) that will make the openings smaller!
Clothes, Toys, and Misc.
Everybody talking bout a well dressed pup! I do have some really cute little dresses, bows and costumes, but what you really need is a heavier coat like the blue, pink and red striped ones for colder weather. These are also reversible so they can be used for a rain coat when turned backwards. The I Love Mommy t-shirts are lightweight and great for cooler inside temps while the turtle neck sweater dresses are great for cool spring, fall or winter days. Towels are essential for drying off pups who got a bit wet outdoors. Yorkies have short little legs that get wet easily in dew covered grass!
A small kitchen scale is important when you have little pups and you need to keep up with their weight. Sometimes your pup might get picky about eating and you want to make sure they don’t lose weight! I got this from Amazon.
Finding toys for your pups is another area you want to pay attention to. You need a combination of soft plushies and hard chewies! Pick toys that are smaller so your pup can drag it around. If, like me, you have other, larger dogs around, good luck! Put your toys in one area that your dogs get use to so they can find what they want easily. A tip is that just like human kids, puppies get tired of the same things every day, so you can alternate putting some out and some away for a while to keep their interest!