Welcoming Your New Pup: A First-Time Guide
The Calm Before the Storm!
Owning a dog is often sold as long walks, unconditional love, and a wagging tail at the door. While those things are real, they aren’t the full picture.
What no one really warns you about is how deeply a dog weaves itself into every part of your daily life. Your routine, your emotions, your sense of responsibility. This is the part of dog ownership that doesn’t always get shown, but it’s the part that matters most.
Where do you even start? It may feel overwhelming to know where to begin. This guide is here to help you focus on the essentials, the important stuff.
What I’ve learnt is you can always buy additional things if you feel like you need it. There is a lot of scaremongering to get you to buy everything under the sun for your new pup. And you’ve not even had a chance to take them home yet!
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A Practical Checklist for Bringing a Dog Home:
These are the non-negotiables, the items you’ll reach for immediately in those first few days.
- Collar (temporary + long term)
- Lead (multiple)
- Puppy food (to avoid upset stomachs, pick one brand and stick with it)
- Crate
- Bed (raised dog bed + washable dog bed)
- Training treat pouch
- Training clicker
- Food bowl
- No spill water bowl
- Puppy toys (chewing + enrichment)
- Pee pads (only for emergencies, not to be taught to pee on)
- Poop bags
- Pet insurance
Every pup should come home with its own little puppy pack. What this usually contains is proof of its vaccinations, micro-chipping information, a blanket that has the scent of its mum. This helps with his/her separation anxiety and the first few nights away from its littermates.
Some other additional items include toys, poop bags, a dog water bottle, a bag of food that it is currently weaned on and some treats.
Each breeder may have variations of these items. For the most part, these are a great starter kit from the breeder. They should care about the welfare of their pup and want to help it get settled in smoothly.
As you can see the essentials list is quite short. I found that these are items that you will need immediately as you get your pup settled in. It also helps you to plan ahead as puppies need to begin training the day they arrive. We’ll get into this another time here!
Now let me elaborate on some of the items on the checklist:
Collar
What breeders usually do is colour code the pups. This makes it easier to identify and helps you pick your pup. You get to know their personality as they develop within the 8 weeks they’re with their parents and litter mates.
Our little Lulu had a pink collar but what we discovered was it wasn’t secure. As soon as she pulled on it it would snap open! Quite scary when we have a fish pond and fox holes. We needed to be able to stop her from getting into them.
For this reason, I would recommend buying a temporary collar that is sturdy. You can use it at the interim before getting a more permanent collar. Since it’s temporary keep it for bath time, it doesn’t matter if it gets dirty or wet.
Leads
I would suggest to buying more than one! Our pups chewed through them within the first few days and needed replacements. In the early days, always have a short lead attached to your pup. This is to be able to stop them before they’re mischievous.
And since the leashes are always attached, they can get pretty dirty especially if they are out in the garden. Not to forget they get peed on, so having a few cheap and cheerful options is always handy.
Puppy Food
The breeder will usually wean their pups onto puppy kibble that is cost effective. A good breeder will send you home with the same kibble to help your pup get settled.
However, in the long-term it is probably best to find a kibble that ticks all the boxes on nutrition. Some have quite low percentages of whole protein which is disguised as meal or not specified animal proteins.
What I found is if you keep switching their kibble there’s higher chances of a regular upset stomach. So find the kibble, one that they like and stick to it!
First time puppy owner checklist
So there you have it, an essential checklist as a first time pup owner.
Once you understand the basics of what your pup needs to get settled in, the list is quite straightforward. But the essentials and you can always add to this later.
I hope this is helpful, I tried to be as concise as possible and not waffle too much. However, feel free to drop any questions in the comments if you are unsure or have unanswered questions.
