Give me all your best buys for puppies please!

[catwithnocream]

We’re getting a lab puppy at the end of the year, a bit like having a baby I’m finding delving into which things to buy a bit overwhelming.
there seems to be lots of conflicting advice when I look at anything.
I spoke to a helpful staff member at Pets at Home today and she said she’d found the Ezydog shock absorber lead useful for her golden retrievers, up until that point I didn’t know such leads existed so things like that would great thanks!

well I would say your best things to get are

new swear words
some more patience (can never have too much)
probably new shoes to have in reserve
new skirting boards (that may not be essential - it's a wait and see)
new box of tissues (for your tears)
get a bumper block of sleep credited to your account

🐶

Our pup is 15 weeks old. These are my go to's:

Crate with cover
1.8m flat lead with flat collar (double D ring)
Clicker
Treat pouch
Baby gate on one small room
Playpen
Heartbeat teddy for the crate (our pup sleeps 11 hours a night- I SWEAR by this one).
Selection of enrichment toys - snuffle mat, puzzle feeder.
Reusable pee pads - we bought a selection of different sizes - saves the floors) - Pottybuddy brand
Food - we feed raw & kibble on a subscription
Training - we started puppy preschool at 9 weeks - research a training option locally
Minder - we interviewed minders and hired one to have her one day a week from the get go - our last dog was terrible about going with other people.
Early socialisation to noises, texture, traffic etc.

Things we hardly used
Sling for pre vaccination outings

Dog gates definitely.
Metal panelled playpen, because that can double as a room divider/temporary fence if you're not crating.
Puppy Kong in appropriate size.
Spiny ball
Anti-chew spray
Spare collars and leads in different sizes and lengths
Towels
Washable puppy pads. After house training is done with they're still useful to put down in wet weather. They stop wet pawmarks being trailed everywhere and help prevent pup from slipping.

I only ever have a crate with vetbed, some toys, a little blanket and a puppy collar with tag.
... and keep the cardboard boxes from those deliveries! They make messy but fun entertainment.

From a training perspective, I wouldn't recommend a shock absorber lead. It's the dog owner equivalent of giving someone speed awareness courses after they've broken the law instead of just sticking them in front of a video showing how bad driving kills.

Perhaps an extreme example, but the point I am trying to make is that you want a dog that doesn't pull...not a lead that allegedly helps mitigate the damage done by that pulling. Training your dog (particularly a retriever) not to pull on the lead is incredibly easy for 99.9% of dogs.

The only real thing you need is to decide where puppy is sleeping and who is sleeping with them (easier if you have them in your room) because everything is a lot easier with a good night sleep 😊

Easy Peezy Puppy Squeezy book
Crate
Playpen
Stairgate
House line
Treat pouch
Simple Solution cleaning spray

Didn't work that well for us…
Snuggle puppy
Anti-chew spray
Nylabones

I would disagree about the sling as I used ours extensively until DPup was too heavy (a surprisingly short time, glad I bought it off of marketplace!)

3 or 4 shallow stainless steel bowls so there's always a clean one. Pets at Home do them for a couple pound each

DPups absolute FAVOURITE toy is an old takeaway tub that he chucks in the air and scoots around the floor. I could have saved a small fortune on toys 😆

The Happy Puppy Handbook by Pippa Mattinson. Even after decades of Labs I found it invaluable for the latest puppy.
Fave toy was a 6 pint milk bottle which got replaced often (no lid).
Huge stack of newspaper - he had an inch thick layer in his crate, topped off with vetbed.
Decent headtorch for nighttime pees and poos plus a waterproof that goes over nightclothes. And something like Crocs.