I've bought a dog!A Westie. First dog ever. What do i need?

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Our family has been thinking about this for years now. We finally have bought a beautiful Westie puppy.

What are the must have items and what are the best of these?

I'm determined that the dog won't take over the house and also that the house won't smell completely of "dog". A little i'm sure though...
Anyway I am in the midst of preparing fro our new arrival and would appreciate any helpful advice.

thx

thanks all.

Very interesting comments (a bit heated perhaps ) about the clipping v stripping debate. Our breeder thinks stripping is sometimes more for show dogs and not ALWAYS necessary, but we will see. I think i'll just go with the vets advice on that one.

Does anyone have a link to show how stripping is done at home?? I'd love to see it so I know if I could do it, I doubt it though.

In between professional grooming what is the best brush to use on her? the choice is so wide!!

Hooch I must say it is nice to have some positive comments, a lot seemed a bight negative... We plan to have her in a crate for selling, that will be in the laundry at night.

I like the look of the Orvis beds! How often do you wash the covers? & do they fit back on nicely?

She has kennel club insurance, and we will insure her to make sure there is continuous cover. Is there one Insurance that most people use? there are so many providers!

I'm a bit nervous but at the same time very excited!

If you can afford it then a lifetime one is ideal - I think Pet Plan comes up the best. I've just got mine on a More Than yearly one as I get a discount having other policies with them. It's worth going for the higher vet fees as my last dog I had on the 3k one thinking nothing would ever cost that much. But just diagnosis of her mesothelioma came in at just under 3k and there would of been nothing left for treatment had it been treatable.

Better to get the advice of a good groomer, vets don't tend to be that well educated on nutrition or coat care in my experience.

If your westie has been bred with the correct coat then she will need it stripping at 16 weeks I believe it is.
If she has been bred with the wrong coat - very little undercoat or thick and fluffy/wavy then she won't be able to be stripped as only wire coats can be stripped.

Just google hand strip how to, loads of articles and videos.

I would just use a comb personally - medium teeth then a flea comb.
Though others may have different recommendations for brushes.

Pet plan lifetime cover is what you want for insurance.
Pretty much all vets recommend them.

thanks both. I've looked at Pet Plan and seems good I'll give them a call tomorrow fro pricing.

For the Vet bed, should I get the 'roll' or get one of approximately the right size? What do you put underneath that? How often do you replace the bed?

Oh lovely, congratulations. Our westie is lying on us on the couch just now so I'm not going to give any advice as he sleeps on couch during the day and in our bed (under covers) at night ?? he has us well trained!

Definitely get insurance and get them chipped which went well for us when an incompetent groomer gave us the wrong dog back!

wow the wrong dog what a terrible mistake!

I buy this vet bed and cut to size with scissors.

We had a bit in his crate, car, and a couple of places he sleeps in.

If you get extra you can keep and use it when it gets too dirty/washed too many times/chewed etc. Depends on dog and if they have been sick etc on it. Mine chewed holes in it a lot when young/teething, but found it much better and cheaper than replacing beds with filling which sometimes only lasted one night! Now he's stopped teething he's got a proper bed, no crate and we only use vet bed in the car.

We have a 4 year old westie... he had tummy trouble when we got him as a rescue pup but soon settled down on a simple diet. He also had skin trouble - we give him 5ml salmon oil daily and it cleared up after 5 weeks - still give it him now as I'm sure it makes a difference (he is no longer a paw chewer!). Has not been to the vet other than for boosters since the week after we got him.

Another thing to note is that dog spit has something in it that will make his/her own fur turn pink/red - so where they lick, will become discoloured - this is NORMAL!

Westies love to hold toy animals by the throat too... Ours will get his favourite hold it til he thinks it is "dead" then suckle on the neck gently to send himself to sleep - so cute.

I could be wrong, but I am fairly sure that brown or red stains are caused by an overgrowth of yeast.
Unless it's by the eyes which can be due to a problem with tear ducts i think..

Stains caused by yeast are treated conventionally with malaseb I think it is or naturally with a raw diet.

A paste of bicarbonate of soda and water should remove staining, just make sure the dog can't eat it.

There is also a natural food supplement to stop stains on white dogs, wish I could remember the name of it.

have seen the vet on the staining - some westies are just more prone to it than others - he took saliva cultures - as some people say yeast others say bacteria, others say totally normal - he is all clear - just his saliva contains these staining enzymes.

You can get "blue" shampoos that lighten it or bleachy ones that don't sound that nice, but we didn't get him for his looks so we can live with it...

The product I am thinking of isn't a shampoo, it's a natural liquid that you put in the food that stops stains.

In America their version is called angel eyes, but the one I'm thinking of is made in the UK.
What oh what is it called?!
I will have to try and find it on google.