Before You get A Puppy – Everything You Need To Know

Getting a puppy is a fascinating time, but it can also be quite stressful!

Before you get a puppy, you must remember that having a pet is a huge commitment!

You must prepare yourself and your home for the next 10 – 15 years + before bringing your newest addition to the family home.

Below are just some things you may want to consider for your pup’s first few hours, days, weeks, and months ahead.

Getting A Puppy Home

Before you get a puppy home, you must remember that while it is all fun and exciting for you, it can be an extremely stressful time for your pup. My suggestion is to plan to get your puppy when you can take time off to spend the first few days with them.

Before You Get A Puppy – Puppy Proofing

If you are a first-time puppy owner, let me tell you something which every puppy owner knows so well, Puppies Chew, it’s their way of finding out what’s going on in their new world!

Chewing

Always make sure to have plenty of appropriate dog chew toys available for them.

However, never have these all out at one time. I recommend no more than 2 – 3 chew toys out at any one time.

Remember, these toys are out to not only ensure they don’t chew your favorite shoes but to stimulate the mind. If your puppy sees all the chew toys, you have purchased at the one time, and there is no surprise element in the way of “What’s that New Toy,” so they will lose their value very quickly.

Along with your shoes, always make sure poisons (Rats and Mice, etc.), electricity cables, and household chemicals are stored away safely.

Family Introductions and Safety Around Children

I can guarantee that when you first get your puppy home, everyone in the house is going to want to cuddle and play with the puppy. Before you get a puppy, the little guy mustn’t be overwhelmed by many new people and the excitement this new addition will bring.

It is a great idea to keep introductions to only those of you in the house, and then once they are comfortable, slowly introducing them to a few friends and family each day.

I realize that the joy and excitement of a new puppy arrival are within the family and between friends and neighbors; however, I cannot stipulate enough on the above to ensure your pup grows up to be a friendly, confident dog around people.

As well as introductions, it is also imperative that younger children are always supervised around your puppy and when they grow to become a dog. Younger children can tend to be a little rough and loud during their interactions with puppies, so they need to be encouraged to be calm and gentle during playtime and never to tease their puppy.

Puppies will scare easily, and like we highlighted in family introductions, this will affect their behavior and confidence in the future,e so before you get a puppy, talk with your children and get them involved as much as possible with the feeding, handling, and training of your puppy.

Your Puppy – Food & Feeding.

Before you get a puppy, whether from a registered breeder or from one of the many animal rescue shelters (A place I highly recommend looking for your puppy), they would have been started on high quality, complete, and balanced premium dry kibble food.

My recommendation would be to keep them on this diet when you get them home. Breeders may have certain dry and raw mixes they recommend, and again I would keep them on what they recommend.

If you want to change your dog’s diet, I highly advise that you speak with your Vet first to ensure the changes you would like to make will still ensure that your puppy receives all the nutrition it needs to grow into a healthy adult dog.

If you decide after speaking with your vet that you want to change your puppy’s diet, never do this in one step. This should always be done over a period of about 6 – 13 days by slowly introducing the new food and decreasing the current food. This will help stop your puppy from getting an upset stomach as their system adjusts to the new food.

An Example of this is the following:

• Days 1 – 4: 3/4 current food & 1/4 new food
• Days 5 – 7: 1/2 current food & 1/2 new food
• Days 8 – 12: 1/4 current food & 3/4 new food
• Day 13 onward: New food only

It Is Always Tempting To Give Your New Puppy Treats.

However, before you get a puppy, you must remember that they are largely creatures of habit.

If a habit starts at the dinner table or in the kitchen with a few sneaky treats, they will, as they grow, expect this as normal. It can also cause upset stomachs, and prolonged use will lead to your puppy becoming overweight.

Treats Are a Great Reward System.

My suggestion would be that before you get a puppy, check out some puppy and dog training videos, and you will see this is a very well-used and successful training method. If you are going to give treats, measure the number of treats you will be giving your puppy for the day, and then remove this from your pup’s daily amount of food.

Be A Responsible Dog Owner

As a new dog owner, you will have certain legal responsibilities under whatever acts are applicable in your area. I suggest that before you get a puppy, you make yourself familiar with these.

Your local area council will have a lot more detail on your responsibility as a dog owner, and I recommend that you visit that website.

Some more common responsibilities are:

• Make sure you always have a poop bag or something similar wherever you go with your dog – No one likes cleaning other dogs’ poop!
• Always have your dog under control.
• Your dog should be microchipped and registered with your local government agency/council.

If you would like to know more about anything puppy and dog-related or would like some more information before you get a puppy, please either leave your comments below or email me at mark@ourdogsworld101.com, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.