'Novice' getting a puppy in circa 5 weeks - can I have a 'To do' list please

[handlemecarefully]

Getting a Bernese Mountain Dog in around 5 weeks. Had a dog when I was a child but mum organised all the practical stuff so I'm a little ignorant - even about the basics.

Could anyone oblige me with a sort of checklist of what to do to prepare for the puppy's arrival?

buy the perfect puppy book here plus one on your breed like this one

Be prepared for

poo
wee
interrupted nights
bitten ankles
lots of fun!

Also bone up on general dog psychology to fox it at every step

Thanks CD - will order the perfect puppy book. Not looking forward to the sleepless nights bit, but very excited (and a little apprehensive) over all!

find a good dog training class and book in as early as possible..have had many pets over the years and quite a few dogs..I think training is soooo important..

puppy training pads(pads for them to wee on so they done soak your carpets.)

ha ha ha!
we got our first puppy 2 weeks ago so we're rather new to this too! We start training classes tomorrow (thank god!).
I would recommend making a 'safe' area where you can leave him at night and when you're out. Unless you're crate training - if so get a crate now (ebay seem cheaper than pet shops).
Find out what food he's eating.
Register with a vet?
baby/dog proof your house.
stockpile newspaper.
Buy chewy toys and soft toys and dog treats.
You could sleep with a bit of blanket which you then give to the breeder for the puppy to sleep with so that your smell is familiar to him - then when he comes to you bring the blanket for his bed and it will by then smell of his mother and litter mates and reassure him.
Start a thread on puppy names.

Oooh lucky you, I adore Bernese Mountain Dogs, they are just wonderful. My advice would be to fence your garden, even in the parts that you are sure would be impossible for your puppy to escape from. I say this from experience - they can squeeze through the tiniest spaces!

Thanks guys - what sort of puppy have you got cupcakes? I've bought lots of chew toys already in preparation for her arrival and some stainless steel feeding bowls. It all seems rather surreal and unbelievable atm. My friends are keen to get me booked into therapy because I am rather house proud and they think the puppy will give me a nervous breakdown - but I'm realistic about what I am taking on and know there will be dog hairs and poo all over the place!

What a fantastic suggestion about giving the breeder a bit of blanket with our smell on!

helpwithhols - I agree, I definitely will do obedience classes.

Babyannabel - ooerr, I think I'll need to work on our fencing; on one side of the garden with have a farmer's hedgerow separating our garden from a field and a busy road so that will need attention

ooh, I'm jealous. we're tentatively thinking of a puppy but dunno if it'll ever happen. I've got a couple of q's like, if you go out for the day eg shopping what do you do with it? Leave it home alone, inside or out? like handlemecarefully, we had one when we were younger. we did leave ours out, but dunno if that's such a good thing to do?

Alos, when you go on holidays - do you plan to take it with/ kennels/stay with friends/family?

Are you getting a male or female & have you chosen names yet, handlemecarefully. How old are your kids? How big do these dogs grow?

Hey, handlemecarefully - puppy sounds exciting - we have a nearly 2-yr old lab and here are some things I found invaluable -

book by Jan Fennell "The dog listener" I can't recommend it highly enough -
Chewy toys called kongs that have a hollow inside so you can put a doggie treat or biscuit in it - the puppy will play for ages just to get the treat inside -
Make sure you take the puppy out at least every hour to 2 hours - ie never give it a chance to make a mess in the house -
If you use puppy training pads or newspaper - first lay them over a large area and then slowly - over a matter of weeks - reduce the area slightly until you can "lead" the puppy to where you want it to wee etc.
In the beginning - try to keep puppy and kiddies apart at puppy feeding time - it is the only time that a dog will really get snappish and protective of her bowl so rather avoid a situation all together.
enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!

Earnest - I guess I am planning on not being out of the house much until the puppy is properly house trained, and then as it gets older will gradually start leaving it (indoors)for a couple of hours at a stretch. Suppose it will be a little life limiting in the short term.

When we go on holiday the pup will go back to the breeder who also runs boarding kennels - so that's handy! We are getting a bitch and I favour the name Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) but 3 year old dd is lobbying for Snow White! The kids are 3 and 21 months - but the Bernese is a placid breed with an excellent temperament and good reputation with children.

Thanks for the tips Coolmama. The chew toy with the treat inside will be given to the pup at strategic times (when I can't directly supervise it for a short while) in the hope it will divert it from chewing furniture etc! I'll be sure to keep the kids away from the dog when she eats. Perhaps I'll feed them all at the same time (so neither is bothering the other)!

Get a stair gate so you can leave it locked in the kitchen. We've got 8mnth old ridgeback, absolutely fab with baby also 8mnth. Its hard to go for walks with pram and i'd defo recommend time at night to train it on the lead. As for the food/dish thing i made a point of always sticking my hands in the dish when feeding him stroking him, pulling his tail etc as one day the kids will go near when he's eating and if he's used to it he won't mind. Baby pokes him in eyes, whacks him, he's never shown any aggression which is so lovely for all family. Hide bones and roasted bones are good, just expect damage cos thy love to destroy things!! I prefer dogs to bitches, just got rid of snappy border collie bitch though so i'm bias! Good luck and be prepared for wreakage!!

My husband loves ridgebacks!

he is a fantastic dog, best i've ever hand. And i've had a few- border collies evil, st.bernard too big but lush, mongrels, norfolk terrier/jack russell was ok bit rattish!! Mountain dogs are wicked i'm well jealous!!! I quite fancy a husky but won't be until after this one!! Did you ever watch bell the mountain dog as a child? I was obsessed with it!!

hmc - we've got a labrador. He is incredibly bouncy and I've been finding that quite draining but as of tomorrow he'll have cleared his vacinnation period and we're allowed to take him outside for walks and so I'm hoping that will help!
He had his first 'puppy socialisation' class last week and it was excellent - despite his bounciness and the fact that he was the only male and kept going for the girls.
I was a bit upset to find out that I had been training him wrong - I have been 'barking' the wrod 'no' at him when he jumps up at the children or runs off with their toys but apparently this is just reinforcing the behaviour as it is giving him attention for it. I now have to turn my back on him when he jumps up and have to teach the children to be statues. Sometimes I have to remove him from the room and put him behind the stair gate we have blocking off his 'area'. I am finding this aspect of the training the hardest (touch wood but I think we're almost there with the wees and poos!).
My children are 5 and almost 3 - the youngest finds it the hardest because he can knock her to the ground when he jumps up on her. This is why I really need to get it sorted! Plus I'm having another baby in September (nervously chews nails).
Sorry it's taken me so long to reply - my mumsnet time has vanished!
I like the name Belle, btw.

Cupcakes - get hubby to bring home a bodysuit or some clothing that new baby will have worn from the hospital and let the dog have a good few sniffs - that way the dog won't go nutty when the baby comes home -
Also with regards the the 'ignore the dog' advice - it is very good because dogs have a "pack" mentality and you need to train them to understand that you are the Alpha male ie the leader of the pack - one of the ways to do that is to ignore the dog - because the Alpha "dog" decides who gets acknowledged and when - by doing that you are reinfocing the idea that you are boss - makes sense?

oooh a puppy - good luck. one way to enforce pack behavior is to feed the dog after everyone else in the house has been fed. if you feed your puppy at the same time as the kids then the dog will grow up thinking that it's in the same part of the pecking order as the kids and will therefore treat them as equal to it rather than be submissive. Kongs are fantastic, they're good toys to play fetch with and they're virtually indestructable. Another good thing to get your dog to chew is smoked bones. you can buy them in petshops and they have no filling or anything but they're smoked and apparently taste nice. Just be aware to let your dog have lots of water as chewing on the bone initially can make him/her very thirsty, but after a couple of hours of good chewing the initial flavour does wear off and it's not such a major problem, and the dog will still chew on it. Don't be fooled into thinking that if you give the dog toys it won't chew though, labradors especially are renouned for their destructive tendencies, which often go on way past puppyhood until the dog is 4 or 5 years old, so if you don't want your puppy destroying your house, then make sure there is nothing within chewing range if you're leaving it unattended.

Also, with big dogs it's important to take them for regular walks, twice a day at minimum. A good way to establish approximately how big your puppy is going to be when it grows up is to look at its paws. If a puppy has very big paws when it is a puppy, then be aware that when it grows up, it is going to be enormous.

what about a chihuahua or a border terrier? How many/how long are the walks needed? How long can it be left alone when it is grown up?

This has worked with all our dogs - I give the breeder ( or in our case half - breeder !!) an old jumper/ blanket or something with OUR smells on it - house, kids, other animals etc for the pup to get used to before we collected and with Windsor ( latest to the menagerie - liver springador - totally lovely !!) it worked a charm and only 2 sleepless nights. Oh and socialise him / her with other dogs as soon as possible.
DD was almost 2 when we got Windsor and they are the most utterly and total best of friends - she's just 3 now.
And have FUN FUN FUN

Ooerrr! - we are going to Worthing to see the litter of pups this Sunday and choose our puppy. Quite excited.

It will be another 3 weeks before we can take her home though

We've got a sixth month old Weimarner, it's specific to each bread of course but i would be prepared for:
Mouthing- prepare your children, they bit hard sepecialy when their second teeth are coming through.
Sleeping-If you go and see him before bringing him home take a toy or blanket so he gets comfort from it when you bring him home. Also as tough as it might seem it is vital you do not keep going to him if he cries at night, it teaches him he doesn't have to sleep if he wants to play.
Peeing- Pick a spot in the garden for no 1's and no 2's, try and make him go there every time he goes out and give him a command word like "do your stuff", keep repeating it, esp when he is actualy going, then give looots of praise. Wored a treat with Spook and Weimaraners are difficult to house train- he now pees on command!
Set boudries and stick to them- make sure everone is in agreement on things like, if he goes on the sofa or not/upstairs/on beds. It's especialy important with large breeds, if you let them get away with something while theyre small and cute they will do it when they are huuuuuge. If you have trouble being firm picture a great big 40kg dog trying to climb into your lap instead of the cute furry thing you can see
Assert dominence- things like making him sit and wait for food until you say he can eat, eating before he does, making sure you go through doorways first. It teaches them manners and teaches them their place in the pack.
BUY A CRATE!!!!- we found this a life saver! Again it may seem cruel. It really isn't. Spook sees it as his den, he goes there if he wants to get away from baby or us, we can put him in there as punishment, and we can put him in there when we go out without worrying about him eating the house Again fab for large breeds.
I could go on, but i won't

I am more than happy to give you advice, owning pups can be very, very, very tough. I'm no expert tho! The only thing i would urge you to do strongly is to buy a crate,
Best of luck it is sooo much fun

We got a puppy about 8 months ago having always got older dogs previously. My god what a lot of work he is.

Lucky you!
We got our first puppy in October and would agree with all the advice given so far especially the crate(we don't use ours all the time but it's the only way I can mop the floor without swinging a puppy round on the end of the mop) and puppy socialisation classes. They teach puppies to get on with other dogs and just as importantly with other people. Excellent fun too.
Last piece of advice - buy an umbrella and a warm coat. It rained for 3 weeks when we got our puppy and the only way I could house train her was by me standing in the garden with her in the rain waiting for the magic moment. Standing at the door calling encouragement didn't work!

Also (like having babies) you do go through a 'my god what have we done?' phase and it's much harder than you imagine for a while but it get's better and those days get fewer.

And take loads of photos because they change daily!

Sorry should have mention socialization classes, they're very important. We didn't do loooads of training in ours but i can say hand on heart that spook has never ever snapped or growled at another dog and accepts all breeds.
Your vet should tell you about them after she's had her first jab