Getting prepared for new puppy

[basildonbond]

We will be picking up our puppy in the second week of September

It's bee ten years since my lovely bonkers cocker died so although we've spent lots of time with my parents' and sister's dogs we're a bit out of the loop puppy-wise

My sister is giving me her crate and we obviously need bed, food and water bowls, collar, lead, toys and industrial quantities of floor cleaner

What have I forgotten and what do I need to do in the next six weeks before the puppy comes

I have just replied to the other new puppy thread! Both of you need to amalgamate the advice given!

We'll be getting our puppy around about then too so will lurk in this thread

We have just found out that we're getting a puppy mid-September too!

An old english sheepdog! We are beyond excited in this house and its all we seem to talk about now. We are visiting the litter on Saturday and all being well bringing home September.

I've been researching local vets and pet insurance -not sure I can see the point of insurance for a healthy puppy when the insurance excess is £60 which exceeds the vet consultation fee of £32.

Newspapers- how ever many you have, you will need more
I had got to the point where I was pouncing on innocent visitors to the paper recycling skip (it was a long time since I had had a puppy too!)

Was just going to say "lots of newspaper!"

Also, crawl around the floor inspecting what a puppy might be able to chew.

Ahh ... Newspapers ... Hmmm the guardian iPad app won't cut it then ...

I'm using the puppy's imminent arrival to get the dc to clear out all the toys in the kitchen/play room which they no longer use to minimise chewing opportunities

Any recs for best small puppy toys? And collar or harness for when he's able to go out on walks? He is a Toller so will be about 20" tall when fully grown so not teeny tiny but not big either

We don't buy newspapers either

There's loads of plastic tat lying about the playroom too and if. The puppy gets into a DCs bedroom they'll have a ball with the cuddly toys.

Oh and I'm putting a stairgate at the bottom of the stairs so that dpup can't get into the bedrooms and the cats will have a safe haven

Might be a bit extreme but I took all the internal doors off downstairs and replaced with baby gates. That way I can separate the kids and the puppy if needs be without losing sight of what's going on in each room i.e. signs that pup needs to go out/kids are killing each other

Other advantages are:
great for the nightly mop (pup and the mop are enemies but the hoover is her best friend for some reason lol.)
Great when pup's totally filthy and I need to clean her up before she can come in the lounge.
we can put her behind the gate when someone comes to the door, she can see them and calm down before it's opened for her to say hello. Also means guests can get their shoes and bags safely stowed in the hall before she goes on the rob.

Check your garden too, it's amazing the amount of stuff she found the chew on in the first few weeks.

Must admit no newspaper or puppy pads here either but many many many a trip into the garden in the depths of winter and prancing around in a high pitched voice saying 'wee wees'!

Just as an aside, got the toilet training reliable first, then worked on him going in one particular spot, which worked fine. I care little about about our lawn but DH is anal!

Um, overnight?

Our pup is now 17 weeks old and never used any newspapers (still have a box if 100 puppy pads I've never used) we took him outside regularly during the day and every 3 to 4 hours during the night for the first week and he did really well. He is crated at night. Only had a handful of accidents inside when we havent been paing attention.

You will need 100s of poop bags. Pup goes 3 times a day here!

He loves getting brushed and we also have a toothbrush for his teeth, not very good with it but he's getting better,

How are you going to transport him in your car, we got a car hammock (we don't have a boot) which is quite good and a seatbelt clip.

No not even at night. Crate training is great for this and, apart from maybe the first week while he settled etc, we didnt get up in the night.

We always left him downstairs but slept with him initially and gradually moved further away each night until we withdrew completely. As I said, think we had two or three middle of the night toilet trips then he slept through, it really wasn't many but certain crate training was the key here. Crate was gone within 6 months as he wasn't a chewer.

Think being super vigilant even if its a pain at the time does reap dividends.

Only caveat for me is our dog seems to drink very little and has a bladder of steel, he regularly and easily will go from 4.30pm until 7am, even if I take him out at 11pm ish, which I still always do, he rarely actually toilets.

needastrongone how did you train your dog to go in one place? That sounds great. Must be time consuming? Does it mean your dog goes less on walks?

I was out with a friend and her dog last night and the dog had runny poo right outside someone's house - my friend really struggled to pick up any of it in a bag but felt awful leaving a smelly mess. We talked about taking a water bottle and kitchen towels on walks in future - must admit I dread that sort of thing happening!

Initially we didn't as just going outside was enough

But, when toilet training was established, we kept taking him to the same spot (well, I say the same spot - we have a large wood chipped area, anywhere here is fine, just not on DH's precious lawn!) and saying 'wee wee', clicking and treating (we clicker trained a lot to start with, less so now unless doing something new). Must admit to DH kind of dragging him a couple of times mid-flow too poor sod. He got it quickly, dogs are amazing at 'getting' stuff much sooner than you would imagine I think.

He still goes a lot on walks, cocks his leg and has done since 4 months old, just goes to the same place in the garden. He rarely poos in the garden, he waits until on a walk and in fields or grassland rather than concrete, but I haven't done anything at all to encourage this behaviour but it's useful!

Re runny poos - I think that might be a lot to do with what you feed them. Needapup has a half kibble (very expensive, grain free Taste of the Wild) half raw food diet. The kibble may be expensive but he needs very little of it, the raw stuff I get from the local farm shop who sell bags of 'dog food' (bits of animal they can't sell in reality) for £2.50 a bag, one bag lasting about 10 meals. Raw food really firms things up iyswim?

Thanks! Funny you say that about raw food, my friend was saying last night that she's considering switching to raw for that very reason.

Can you start puppies on raw food? I presume you introduce it gradually so you don't upset their system ?

We went to the pound on Saturday to get an older dog, but we were chosen by a tiny jack Russell pup, 12 weeks old very timid, complete opposite to what we went in for. I've only had older dogs before so this new puppy thing is daunting. I've been reading this great advise, anyone recommend a book or website to help us get started? We have the home visit this week so should have her home by the weekend. Tia