Puppy Shopping. What do I need.

[AtYourCervix]

5 month old Maremma.

Needs a name and equipment.

What will I need?

Bed
Food
Kong
Collar & lead
Brush

Ummmmmm

Well, if my new boy is anything to go by - ear-plugs and sleeping pills should be top of the list!

We bought:

Bed, plus a couple of pieces of vet bedding and a couple of blankets so we always have some clean just in case.
Crate
Kong
Knotted rope pull toy
Large-ish soft cuddly dog toy for him to snuggle up to
Various other toy and things to chew, including saved up carboard inner tube thingies, which have been his favourite
Collar, lead and temporary name barrell (so we could wait to get one engraved when we'd decided on a name)
We couldn't buy food in advance as we didn't know what he was on in his foster home
Food bowl (already had a water bowl)
We didn't need brushes and combs, but basics would be brush, comb, nail clippers
Simple solution house-training cleaner stuff
Stockpiled kitchen towel (to use with Simple Solution)
Stockpiled poo bags

We have used everything on the list so far and for us the extra bedding came in handy, as he had an accident on the way home and our washing machine has gone kaput.

We also gave him my old fluffy dog covered hot water bottle which he seems to get a lot of comfort from. We bury it under his blankets when he goes to bed at night.

Oh yes, and you're so right about the - although it's not easy cleaning up puppy diarrhoea in the pitch black when you've had a couple not that I'd know.

Ah yes..

Kitchen roll.
Cleaner spray
Poo bags
Toys.
Sticky hair remover roller things.

Think he's too big for a crate. He's 5 months and lanky and huge.

Big crate?

He sounds gorgeous.

Maremma are beautiful dogs, but iirc, very much a one-person/family bonding breed and prone to guarding and mistrust of strangers.

I can see a crate might not be an option if he's already a good size.

Newspapers? I took to accosting innocent visitors to the paper bank at one stage :o
And names.... Dog or bitch (or did I miss the memo) :o

Dog. Lupo, Ludo or Teddy, so far.

Ach, not Lupo :(
I like Ludo and wanted to name my non materialising DS2 love Teddy. I also wanted to name the LandShark Ned but we use "bed" as a frequent command and it was just too similar
Other Italian names like Enzo, Tusca (Tuscany- where the breed comes from) or, or ............ :o

Lupo is the car with the dodgy advert!

What about Bear?

I like Ludo too. It was the one that jumped out at me from your list.

We had weeks of family arguments debate about what our boy should be called. I was adamant we wouldn't go for the name dh wanted (and went on and on about all through our two week holiday before we picked up the pup), but typically the pup decided for himself the day we brought him home, as he responded to it straight away and completely ignored all the other choices and the name he'd had since birth at his foster home - the traitor!

Actually though - and for heaven's sake don't tell dh this - it really suits him.

Oh lord I'm having a wobble. I've forgotten what to do with puppies.

What sort of lead do I need? Only ever had ordinary collar and lead but now there's all these fancy ones.

And do I need a pen?

Shopping list...

Bed
Food
Wee spray
Comb
Brush
Kong
Antler
Toys
collar
Lead

Normal flat collar and lead is all you need for a pup AYC. The fancy ones are just tools to help assist you with retraining any problems that may occur, but even then they're by no means essential for 99% of dogs.

List sounds fine to me. There's tonnes of stuff out there, but the truth is you only really need the basics.

It's a shame it's a boy, otherwise you could have called him Mia, as in Maremma Mia.

Looking back, the key puppy items we needed were a Kong, Simple Solution wee spray, and a stair gate/crate. And 328367 one of those Nylabones for the teething months, although the puppy liked to save us money on bones by recycling shoes, plastic dog beds, chair legs, etc, as chewing implements.

Argh!

I was planning sunday but H just rang and he's coming home this afternoon!

SQUEEEEEEEEEE!

I'M Supposed to be sleeping before a nightshift but now I'm too excited!

Bonus of this though is that I'm not going to b here for first night howling

Fid shopping this morning so am all ready though.

Crikey that was fast AYC!

Nightshift is a great way of avoiding night howling. I am still sleeping on the sofa in the same room as my little howler and we brought him home this time last week.

At least your boy is a little older, so should be able to go longer at night without needing a wee.

It's the age thing that sped us up. Plus once I'd met and fallen in love with him there didn't seem much point in hanging around.

Ludo I think.

Congrats on getting the dog now!

I can see that you've done the shopping, but just thought of this:

Antlers can chip the dogs teeth - it's fairly rare though. Our dog will not eat them at all - which is annoying as they are not cheap.
And I'd recommend avoiding those bones with knots in the ends - my parents' dog choked on a knot, so my parents had to do a doggy-Heimlich and shake her while holding her hind legs as it was stuck in her throat.

We were very happy with loads of squeaky toys as they worked perfectly to distract the puppy from eating the house and us.

We kept our dog in a large cardboard box (no lid, naturally) in the beginning - puppies eat everything and I didn't want to spend a fortune on a bed that would be ruined in a month. The sides of the box were so high that the puppy couldn't climb out herself, which meant she'd tell us when she needed to go out in the morning.
She was in the box right next to the bed - and if whining, I put my hand in the box with her, and that was fine. Nights weren't too bad here.

Hmmm. Got a large box in the shed. Maybe he'd like it. Will try.

Haven't got antler yet. Vet sells them. Maybe if he's madly chewey.

Good point Vibbe. Rawhide chews can be really dangerous and I don't let my dogs have them either.

Pip's favourites are knotted rope toys, his soft cuddly duck (which doubles as his surrogate sibling at night because he snuggles up to it) and soft, squeaky alien toys and his kong. We can't stuff his kong yet (due to digestive issues) but he loves throwing it around, chasing and chewing it. Having said that, he's had a field day playing with thick, unbleached cardboard inner tubes as well, so I'm glad we saved them up.

I was planning to get both him and Lurcherboy an antler, but then read some scary stories about the damage they can cause so changed my mind. Probably being slightly paranoid though - especially given Lurcherboy is fed raw.

Pip responds to 'settle' now if he wakes in the night and only goes out for a quick wee at 5.00 am, after falling asleep at 10.30/45 ish. This is a vast improvement on a few days ago, when he was waking (and yelling) every hour and needing to go out at least three times a night. Although he has some digestive issues and that's stopped since we've taken him off all kibble and added in some probiotic paste, as advised by the vet.

We started off with his bed alongside the sofa, so I could reach down and reassure him and start reinforcing the 'settle' cue (no room in our bedroom for him and ds1 is a ridiculously light sleeper). Then moved him across the room once he started to respond to the cue. We did try moving him into the kitchen, with me still on the sofa in the living room a few feet away, but it was too much too soon and he panicked, so he's back in the living room with me now.

I like Polo is it Italian?

So excited for you I've got another 4 weeks to wait for our girl. Thanks for all the tips on what to buy :)