Bringing my new puppy home

Exciting! Bringing your new puppy home is a wonderful day! You have hopes and dreams of a great companion for years to come. A pup that will always be there for you, listen closely, obey immediately. You have a clean slate! An untrained ready and eager to learn adorable puppy!

You pick up your new friend, hold him and cuddle him all the way home, play for hours and then its time to go to bed. Your puppy cries, howls, whines and refuses to settle down. What to do...

Sadly many puppies at this immediate juncture will suffer from your lack of know how! I have read the majority of puppies fail to live long enough to enjoy their second birthday 1. because they will not lived up to your expectations . Its not their fault, they are clean slates in need of training and they are totally dependent on you, their new owner to train them. So it is imperative you do your homework ahead of time and have their home ready to receive them.

What do I need to have prepared for my puppy?
Have your puppies new home set up before you pick her up. She needs a long term and a short term confinement area which includes a:

• Comfortable bed
• A fresh supply of water
• The potty area
• A chew toy

Your puppy will spend many hours in this area to begin with, it is their safe haven.

Picking up Gunner
It was another snowy day, most people wisely stayed home, when we drove the 40 miles to pick up Gunner. We brought only a soft cushy blanket to wrap him up in and spent only 5 minutes at the breeders signing papers and wrapping him up in the blanket.

He was young, too young! Most experts agree pups should be with their mothers until 7 to 8 weeks of age so she can do much of their socialization. Gunner's breeder had to take the mom away at 5 weeks so rather than leave him with just his brothers and sisters we decided to pick him up early.

This gave us extra responsibility especially with the biting and chewing. Puppies need to learn how hard they can mouth. Moms train this well with a good nip back if the pup mouths too hard.
We had his home ready,

• A plastic Veri Kennel for his bed
• A plastic play pen surrounding it
• A tray with papers for his potty
• Water dish
• Kong chew toys

The blanket we picked him up in turned out to be the most important item. He slept soundly wrapped up in it every night and was never with out it. The one time I took it out to wash it he cried loudly until I put it back still unwashed.

Our adorable puppy was settling in.

1. Before and After Getting Your Puppy, Dr. Ian Dunbar, New World Library, CA 2004