Puppy Essentials

Every new puppy owner wants to be prepared when they bring home their new loyal companion. Here are a few essential tools you’ll want to have at hand when that first day arrives. If this is your first puppy you may want to contact a trainer whose focus is on positive reinforcement and a reward system. After all, you want the best for you and your pup.

 Puppy Safety Vessel

The number one tool I recommend for training your puppy and ensuring its safety is a crate.  You want your young puppy to stay out of trouble, whether you need to work from home or while you are away, and while you sleep, especially during the younger months until your puppy can handle itself alone and unsupervised. Additionally, a crate used properly can safely prevent your new addition to the family from developing unwanted behaviors while you are not around or when you are unable to supervise your puppy such as chewing and swallowing items you deem precious in your household and urinating on carpets and floors. Crating can also help to prevent and ease your puppy’s anxiety when separated from you. It can help your new companion to relax and feel safe as your puppy properly crate trained will consider the crate as its own personal den sought after for safety and comfort.

A crate should not be overused. Your young puppy needs proper exercise, enrichment, and socialization. Keeping your puppy in a crate the whole day without relief is unacceptable. I usually advise my clients regardless of breed, age (over 5 months), temperament or disposition a four hour stretch during the day inside a crate is long enough.

There are a lot of options out there for crates, but I still hold true to the classic wire one. Without fail this crate is durable and keeps your puppy safe and out of trouble. The general rule of thumb is that your puppy should be able to sit and stand comfortably in the crate. Usually this means that the crate should be at least the length of your puppy plus one half. Its best to keep in mind that your puppy will grow and ultimately will need a larger crate after several months of growth. Putting your puppy in a crate that is too small will only cause your puppy discomfort and reluctance to the crate possibly defeating the purpose of what the crate was originally intended for.

A crate is one of importance as most likely you will use the crate for your dog for a lifetime or at least until your puppy reaches twelve months or older, depending on the dog, before it can be left alone in the house. A wise investment for both you and your puppy. You can’t go wrong having one in the household.

Puppy House Training Tools

Besides use of the crate as one of the many training aids for properly house training your young puppy are absorbent pee pads. This is a simple and cost-effective solution until your puppy learns to urinate outside. Pee pads are only a temporary situation unless you have a small dog and prefer to train your dog to eliminate both inside the house as well as outside.

Some pups find the paper pee pads fun to play with tearing them up (sometimes choosing to eat them) and dragging them around the house. The best-case scenario in this instance is to either purchase material pee pads rather than paper ones, and or purchase the specialized holders for use of the paper pee pads. Ultimately, It’s a good idea to place pee pads by the door you typically use to exit your house or apartment so your dog will learn to head to that door when it needs to relieve itself.

If your puppy relieves itself in an unwanted area, you’ll need to clean with a cleaner that prevents your puppy from marking and peeing again in the same spot in your home. It’s best not to have your puppy watch you clean up its mess. One of my favorite cleaning items is Miracle Floor Cleaner. Truly, a miracle of miracles.

Puppy Teething Helpers

Soon after your pup arrives in its new home it will want to find something to chew on as it will be teething up to six months of age until it gets its adult teeth. Some of my favorite chewables for the youngest of pups are Barkworthies, natural teething chews in an array of shapes and sizes for both small and large dogs. They are all-natural and won’t harm your puppy, but you must supervise your puppy when giving them these teething chews. You should keep an eye on your puppy and eventually remove the item from your puppy when it becomes small enough to swallow whole to avoid getting lodged in your puppy’s throat.

Another favorite teething aid of mine for a young pup is the puppy Kong. You can fill it with a stuffer from Kong and/or plain peanut butter (check label - avoid harmful ingredient – xylitol) and freeze it. When your puppy, needs enrichment pass along the frozen Kong. A frozen Kong can last up to 20 minutes. One of the benefits of using a Kong is that it requires minimal supervision even in the early months, to no supervision at about six months depending on the frozen stuffer type you choose. It’s an ideal treat to give your pup right after you get your puppy in its crate and leave the house.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful. I will post further helpful tips for you and your puppy in future blog posts, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I wish you and your puppy the best of success. Good Luck!