Which of these are a MUST for a new puppy?
Saturday, December 26th, 2009 at
1:32 am
Beds
Biscuits & Treats
Books & Media
Bowls & Feeders
Carriers & Crates
Clean Up
Collars & Leashes
Dog Houses
Flea & Tick
Food Center
Gates & Doors
Grooming
Health Care
PetCare Pet Insurance
Photo Gifts
Rawhide & Chews
Shed Control
Steps & Ramps
Toys
Training & Behavior
Travel & Outdoors
And how many of each will i need to have before the puppy comes home? (e.g. Toys-8, food-6 bags, Beds 3, ext!)
Thankyou for your answers 
Filed under: Pet Health Insurance
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a must would be:
1. the same food it is eating when you pick it up and if you want to switch foods do it slowly
2.bowls for food and water plus sommething to put under them.. I use a plastic placemat for your table..
3.crate especially if your going to crate train which is a great way to train a puppy.. crate training is what I did…plus it gives them a den…
4.definately collar and leash with a name tag so if it gets out you will have you info on it..make sure you put a phone number and its name on it…
5. dog house?is it going to be an outside dog?
6. frontline its safe for puppys (flea and tick control)
7.find a great vet… call around and ask your freinds and neighbors who they reccomend…then take it in and get it a check up ASAP.. you could even schedule it for on your way to taking it home.. then keep making appointments until vaccines are up to date…..and keep the pup away from other dogs that you are unsure of whith there vaccines… pups are able to catch things until their immune system is good which is when the last set of veccines are given and the wait at least a week or 2 until you let it around any dog not up to date on vaccines… or that you are unsure of…smile
8.gates if there are steps and its very young
9.lots of toys/rawhides for teething/sqeekytoys etc tec
10.a good quality brush or a good metal comb works better than brushes, the brush just tends to get the top coat and not the under coat.
lots of love and attention and you are set…
how to crate train:
Crate training is one of the most efficient and effective ways to train a puppy or dog.
The single most important aspect of dog and puppy training is that you reward and praise your dog or puppy each and every time she does the right thing. For example: praise her when she chews her own toys instead of the couch or eliminates outside instead of in the house. The more time you spend with your puppy or dog, the quicker and easier it will be to train her.
The key to house training is to establish a routine that increases the chances that your dog will eliminate in the right place in your presence, so that she can be praised and rewarded; and decreases the chances that your dog will eliminate in the wrong place so that she will not develop bad habits.
It is important that you make provisions for your dog when you are not home. Until your dog is housetrained, she should not be allowed free run of your house. Otherwise, she will develop a habit of leaving piles and puddles anywhere and everywhere. Confine her to a small area such as a kitchen, bathroom or utility room that has water/stain resistant floors. Confinement is NOT crate training.
What is Crate Training?
Crate training can be an efficient and effective way to house train a dog. Dogs do not like to soil their resting/sleeping quarters if given adequate opportunity to eliminate elsewhere. Temporarily confining your dog to a small area strongly inhibits the tendency to urinate and defecate. However, there is still a far more important aspect of crate training.
If your dog does not eliminate while she is confined, then she will need to eliminate when she is released, i.e., she eliminates when you are present to reward and praise her.
Be sure to understand the difference between temporarily confining your dog to a crate and long term confinement when you are not home. The major purpose of confinement when your are not home is to restrict mistakes to a small protected area. The purpose of crate training is quite the opposite. Short term confinement to a crate is intended to inhibit your dog from eliminating when confined, so that she will want to eliminate when released from confinement and taken to an appropriate area. Crate training also helps teach your dog to have bladder and bowel control. Instead of going whenever she feels like it, she learns to hold it and go at convenient scheduled times.
Crate training should not be abused, otherwise the problem will get drastically worse. The crate is not intended as a place to lock up the dog and forget her for extended periods of time. If your dog soils her crate because you left her there too long, the house training process will be set back several weeks, if not months.
Your dog should only be confined to a crate when you are at home. Except at night, give your dog an opportunity to relieve herself every hour. Each time you let her out, put her on leash and immediately take her outside. Once outside, give her about three to five minutes to produce. If she does not eliminate within the allotted time period, simply return her to her crate. If she does perform, then immediately reward her with praise, food treats, affection, play, an extended walk and permission to run around and play in your house for a couple of hours. For young pups, after 45 minutes to an hour, take her to her toilet area again. Never give your dog free run of your home unless you know without a doubt that her bowels and bladder are empty.
During this crate training procedure, keep a diary of when your dog eliminates. If you have her on a regular feeding schedule, she should soon adopt a corresponding elimination schedule. Once you know what time of day she usually needs to eliminate, you can begin taking her out only at those times instead of every hour. After she has eliminated, she can have free, but supervised, run of your house. About one hour before she needs to eliminate (as calculated by your diary) put her in her crate. This will prevent her from going earlier than you had planned. With your consistency and abundance of rewards and praise for eliminating outside, she will become more reliable about holding it until you take her out. Then the amount of time you confine her before her scheduled outing can be reduced, then eliminated.
Mistakes and Accidents During Training
If you ever find an accident in the house, just clean it up. Do not punish your dog. All this means is that you have given her unsupervised access to your house too soon. Until she can be trusted, don’t give her unsupervised free run of your house. If mistakes and accidents occur, it is best to go back to the crate training. You need to more accurately predict when your dog needs to eliminate and she needs more time to develop bladder and bowel control.
You need one bed, 2 bowls, a collar and leash, a name tag, a dog house if he gets outdoors, one flea and tick collar and liquid, one bag of food, an arrangement with the vet to check him up and vaccinate if necessary, and to put a microchip, 2 toys(a ball and a plastic hot dog or something), 2 chews or rawhide, and you need to learn about training the puppy – consult a trainer or book. No violence, it is useless and damaging. Pet Insurance is not necessary, but it is advisable to have.
• Collar – a non-tightening collar is perfect for puppies
• Leash – two of different lengths, long and short
• Food and water bowls – stainless steel or ceramic are best as bacteria can thrive on plastic bowls.
• Grooming supplies – including brush, nail clippers, shampoo; ask a groomer or your veterinarian what tools you’ll need and how to use them
• Cleaning supplies – your puppy or dog may have some accidents at first
• Dog bed or blanket – though you may want to hold off on this if your puppy is of a breed known for chewing
• Crate – see Crate Training in the training section.
• A supply of quality food like Purina® Puppy Chow® brand puppy food or Purina® Dog Chow® brand dog food
• Chew toys
• Dog tags
There are also some optional supplies you might want to consider. These may be necessities in some cases – for example, a dog house is needed if your dog won’t be sleeping inside – but you’ll have to decide which of these items fit your lifestyle and budget.
• Fence
• Outside kennel
• Dog house
• Doggie door
• Gates – to block off certain rooms or staircases indoors
• Anti-chew spray
• Boots (an option for dogs in snowy areas)
• Grooming table
More on Dog houses
Dogs can be happy indoors or outdoors, provided their needs are addressed. A mixture suits most dogs well because they are happiest when they are with you, but they enjoy time outside as well.
If you need to leave your dog outside, a doghouse is a good idea.
• Dogs are den animals. They like a small, confined, safe spot for naps and hanging out. Various designs are available or you can build your own.
• Make it big enough for your dog, but not too big because heat escapes in a large space. Buy or build one that will be big enough for your grown dog, but while your puppy is growing, block off the extra space with boxes or a sheet of wood. Keep the occupied space appropriate for your dog’s size.
• Insulate against both the heat and the cold. The shelter of a roof and walls will protect your dog from the wind and sun, but use flaps for airflow in the summer and some kind of insulation against the cold air.
• Set or build it off the ground. Raising the doghouse even a few inches will block the cold air rising from the earth and will give added airflow in the hot months. It also helps prevent rotting and keeps water from seeping in.
!!!! Hello !!!!! flea and tick medicine and collars can make PUPPIES sick. Talk to your vet about that. Rawhide is not good for a dog because they can swallow a small piece and when it absorbs water it can get bigger causing a blockage. The only things you need are; food, water, collar,leash, and love. The rest of the stuff you can get as needed.
An interesting question, what is a "MUST"? I can only tell you what I considered I "must" do to raise the best possible dog for my family.
Beds — 1 crate which I can move from my bedroom to another area of the house as needed.
Biscuits & Treats: 1 kind of small, chewy wonderful yummy things for housetraining ONLY
Books & Media:
3-4 good books- 2 on how to raise/train a puppy because no one book can do it all, although "Before and After Your get Your Puppy by Dr. Ian Dunbar" is pretty thorough; 1 on basic health/vet care for dogs; 1 on the breed if you have a particular breed.
Bowls & Feeders : 1 water bowl. Food bowl not needed yet. Feed puppy from your hand for a month or so. (You will be using his food as a training reward for sitting, etc and using the yummy treats mentioned above for going potty outside so the pup will learn that "saving up" poop and pee and depositing it outdoors equals an awesome jackpot.)
Clean Up (You mean like stuff for the floor? I big bottle of Nature’s Miracle)
Collars & Leashes : 1 of each
Dog Houses: 0 he will be in the house—he’s a puppy
Flea & Tick: 0 he is too young for this stuff and shouldn’t be out in contact with other dogs/areas where they have been until he is fully vaccinated.
Food Center HUH?
Gates & Doors: ?? X pen to confine puppy in kitchen when I am cooking, etc.
Grooming: whatever brush/comb is suitable for the breed at this age
Health Care: vet visit within a couple of days home, then scheduled trips for vaccinations and eventually altering.
PetCare Pet Insurance:?
Photo Gifts ?
Rawhide & Chews 0 a puppy is too young to eat rawhide. it will irritate his bowels and he’ll have nasty, bloody poop.
A puppy Kong type chewing thing which is made out of hard rubber and relieves gum pain while teething is much safer.
Shed Control: huh?
Steps & Ramps 0
Toys: a soft toy that was left with the breeder and placed in with the litter before he was brought home. A couple of puppy Kong type chewing things, a ball as my dogs have all been breeds that retrieve, maybe another soft dog toy.
Training & Behavior: read the books, sign up for puppy kindergarten and a puppy play group if available to help continue socializing the pup while you wait until he is fully vaccinated before letting him socialize with every dog in yoru neighborhood.
Travel & Outdoors: travel crate to keep him safe.
Also:
1 bottle of puppy-safe shampoo for whenever he gets his first bath
Copies of all necessary paperwork for town dog license–although this might have to wait until after rabies vaccination.
Food: I bag of whatever the breeder has been feeding the puppies, plus instructions about feeding. I container with a lid to measure food into each morning to make sure he is getting what he needs every day–especially as you are feeding him by hand.
Phone number of breeder posted by phone or someplace easy to find: ONE
One (?) hour spent crawling around floor of your house at puppy-eye level to see what could pose a threat to him—what plants may be poisonous, what wires may be easy to chew, which decorations may be easy to knock over/pull down, etc.
beds-1, treats- 3 bags, bowls- 2 ( one for food one for water), carrier-1, clean up- lots!!!, collars- 2, leashes- 2, flea and tick- ask your vet, grooming- also ask your vet but buy a brush, health care- ask your vet once again, Insurance- ask your vet, Rawhide and chews- 5 (not of each) ramps and steps- if a small dog then 2, Toys- 3, Training and behavior- you have to teach the puppy, Travel- NO! if you travel bring your dog to a friends house. Have fun with your new puppy!