Bring our puppy home

[Userss8807]

Hi everyone,

We bring our new puppy home in just under 4 weeks.
Its been a long time since we have had a puppy and I just want to make sure we are prepared as possible for her arrival.

We have…
2 x crates
bowls
toys and chew toys
lead
collar
beds
blankets

She comes with 5 weeks of insurance and 5kg bag of her food…

Am I missing anything, any tips very welcome.

Sounds bizarre but comfort teddy with a heartbeat sound in it is a must! Comes with a little wheat bag in it that you can heat in the microwave and put inside too - mimicks mum and really helps settle them. DPup slept right through from 11pm - 6am from the beginning and I think it was definitely down to this. Will try and find a link!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ALL-PAWS-Heartbeat-Separation-Behavioral/dp/B01HZB2950

This is the one we had

Puppy proof your house. Move wires, objects, books etc from lower shelves etc.

Anti-chew spray
Floor odour spray

Get plenty of sleep now

Be prepared fur good and bad days (the puppy biting - horrible, wear old clothes you don’t mind getting bitten)

Blanket with mums scent on it (collect when you get the puppy)

Do you have children? If so, teach them before puppy arrives how to play with and handle the puppy etc

And most of all, where’s the photo?!!!

Stock up your wine, a new puppy in the house is going to drive you to drink!

Look into Pets at Home and their vets. When we had our new pup they had an offer of inexpensive (compared to local independent vets) "club" prices for vaccinations, minor treatments and annual check ups. Also, we used our main insurance company for pet cover, worked out cheaper.

It depends what the puppy is. That is not a safe toy for a larger breed.

@Userss8807

Wear long sleeved tops and thick trousers!

Buy a baby gate and a playpen.

Join the puppy thread here.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/thedoghouse/5401577-puppy-survival-thread-all-welcome?reply=146796161

If you are planning to insure, I would take out your own policy from day 1. I didn't and in those first few weeks, my puppy ate something and needed an injection to induce vomiting and her anal glands emptying. When I switched to Petplan, they listed the whole of her digestive tract from entry to exit as exclusions. I looked into staying with KC insurance, but it was ridiculously expensive.
My next puppy was insured before I got her.

We have a (massive) golden retriever. She survived just fine! We got it on the advice of an ex guide dog trainer - I’m sure if it was an issue she would’ve pointed it out.

Wow thank you everyone!

Love the idea of a comfort teddy but we don’t have a microwave (odd I know!) do you think a hot water bottle would be safe?? I can’t help but thinking what if they chew it?

We do have children, 13,11,8…they are excited but we are having many many conversations about leaving their things hanging around, how to react to puppy chasing, biting, jumping etc

She comes home with a scented blanket and toy.

Noted the advice about insurance I’ll get on with that.

I’ll look in to the Vets for Pets clubs.

House and garden proofing and underway…

For me, a baby gate is a must. I have two dogs and I don't want them going upstairs to sleep on the beds. So I have a gate at the bottom of the stairs that I shut when I get up. They can have the run of downstairs, but not upstairs.

I think this is an apalling idea for any size. downright dangerous!

The stuff to clean any toileting accidents on the floor that removes the smell.

The book Easey Peasey puppy Squeezy, your kids could read this as well.

Okay. Sorry. I'm quite surprised by that. I did look at reviews.

However, I have a giant breed so nothing was ever safe with her and I guess we always go by our own experience...

Sorry for making assumptions 😳

Your list is missing a photo for this thread!

My gorgeous golden retriever puppy is now 6 months old, my first dog so I am not an experienced puppy parent by any means. My one piece of advice would be to mentally prepare yourself for the kids to be less excited and involved than you/they think, once the first few days have passed. Puppes sleep ALL THE TIME and when they aren't sleeping they are often nipping. So for kids - even teens - they can find it boring and aggravating (and then they feel guilty for feeling like that). Luckily in our house the dog was very much wanted by all of us, particularly me, but I do know one or two people who got dogs 'for the kids' and then found it hard that the kids don't live up to their promises.

I got one of those heartbeat toys and the first night I put it in my puppy’s crate, he immediately started furiously humping it’s face. I was horrified 😂

Don’t forget your monthly worming tablets. Our vet does a plan which includes discounted appointments as well. (This was an added expense I wasn’t expecting).

Also, find out what vaccination type your pup gas had. If they’ve started a course with one brand, they can’t swop to another brand and have to start all over again.

Are you planning on doing puppy classes? Start researching these now , as good ones get booked up. Put a post on your local Facebook page for recommendations. Go for a club/trainer that does more than an initial six week course as I found this wasn’t enough.

Crocs & or wellies to wear in house especially for kids as the nipping felt a lot in those early weeks. We all had cheap crocs in the end to save our toes and slippers from being eaten. Licki mat and Kong were good especially frozen ones. The book easy peasey puppy squeeze we also used and our kids read bits it was helpful. Have a plan for zoomies, ours always hit at 5-6pm just when i was trying to get dinner ready for kids it was a very tricky time of day for a few months.

Choose which trainer you are going to go to for puppy (and onward) classes. Also I highly recommend the Sally Bradbury kids book about getting a puppy and her Facebook group is great, it has loads of free guides which is a how to book in itself - dog training advice and support. It helped me so much when we got our puppy.

Good point @Septleavescoming , don't walk around in socks. I had to wear riding boots all summer long. Our pup always had her witching hour and frantic zoomies at 9-10pm, just as we were winding down to go to bed.

Puppy pads, poo bags, i get a harness for walking rather than using her collar as this can cause issues with her neck. Small training treats,

Thanks everyone….here she is….

Get your own insurance sorted before you get them. As it doesn’t kick in for 2 weeks after (from what I’ve experienced anyway). Don’t skimp on insurance either. Make sure you’ve got a decent level of cover, like £8000 a year or lifetime cover. Vet bills are expensive!

Also get registered with a good vet. There’s not many who do their own out of hours anymore. Which in an emergency is not ideal. There’s only 1 in our city that does so needless to say we registered with them.

also good luck with the pup 🩷. We’ve got 2 pups. Not our first rodeo 😂

Actually, I agree with @CoubousAndTourmaIet .

Those toys are actually a fairly bad idea for larger breeds, particularly those prone to chewing, such as Goldens. The heartbeat machine is often the right size to get perfectly lodged in the puppies throat. It's like squeaky toys - the 'squeak' is about perfect to get lodged in a dogs throat. Fine if you're supervising, but not great if you're not. Okay in much smaller dogs like cockers, mini poodles etc. It's just the size issue of the toy with bigger puppies, particularly as they don't have any sense and will swallow anything.

I think there was a poster ages ago who was a vet who said she'd seen a puppy die after they swallowed a kong after being left alone.

Separately, Guide Dogs abuse their animals and say a dog can have 2 litters in a year and four over a lifetime (which is even higher than the KC suggest). Not relevant, but just an example of how little they know or care about dogs so I'd take the advice of anyone who ever worked for them with a bit of a pinch of salt!

Hence said guide dog trainer left on grounds of toxicity and now manages a dog park instead, providing training advice on the side. She was an absolute godsend when we were working through behavioural problems with our GR in her early years - incredibly patient and very much utilised a gentle ‘let dogs be dogs’ approach.

I’d still use a heartbeat toy again to be honest - it’s up to each family to risk assess and consider whether it’s worth it or not. Our girl was never destructive when it came to toys and for us it brought a full night’s sleep alongside a content, well rested puppy. I have no regrets!