ITEMS TO PURCHASE FOR YOUR PUPPY

1 – Wire crate with divider

Divider is made so it grows with the puppy.  When you first get the puppy, it is not housebroken yet and so you will be crate training him/her.  Below I will talk about crate training.  When you first get a puppy, it will have a tendency to poop and potty at the back of the cage and sleep at the front.  With the divider, you want to make the cage fit the puppy to avoid that.  Then as the puppy gets bigger, you can move the divider until you no longer need it.

CRATE TRAINING

When you first get home with the puppy, place him/her in the crate and just wait about one minute and then get the puppy out, but do not let his/her feet touch the ground.  Carry the puppy right outdoors to where you want him/her to go to the bathroom.  When you get to that spot put him/her down and then say “Go potty” or any keywords you have.  If it takes the puppy a while, you can say, “Hurry up!” Then, when the puppy goes, praise him/her and give him/her a treat or you can even do the clicker training that way too.  Clicker training is basically you give a command and as soon as the dog/puppy does the command, you click and give a treat immediately.  After the puppy has gone potty, you can bring him/her in the house and give him/her some freedom, but you want to keep an eye on him/her because you never know what they can get into.  Not everything is safe for a puppy and you also don’t want them to have another accident in the house.  Then after a few minutes, repeat the whole putting in the crate and taking outside again.  You can do this several times the first few days and then eventually the puppy should get it.  Also, never place a puppy in the crate as a punishment or they will associate the crate as punishment.  If you only use it for when you are gone and positive ways, then the dog/puppy will see it as a safe place he/she can go when they feel threaten or scared.  Dogs come from wolves and wolves have their dens and the crate is like the den for a dog.

2 – Petsmart Coupon Book

Petsmart has a book you can buy for $20 and it is called a Puppy Coupon Book or something like that.  It is good to get.  It has coupons galore and also even has a coupon so you can get a free 10 lb bad of puppy food.  

3 – Kong Ball

Puppy Kongs are good.  Kong also has specialized filling for the Kong and it can be peanut butter flavor, but it is a type that puppies can have.  It is hard to give a puppy peanut butter due to the fact that they may have allergies to peanuts.

4 – Chew toys

Some dogs are huge chewers where others are not.  My dogs always have been chewers, so they can’t have any rope toys or any soft toys.  So, I get them nylabones.  But, you can also get them antlers and more at Petsmart or other pet stores

5 – Grooming

 It depends on the type of dog you get when it comes to grooming.  If you get one that requires more grooming than others, then it is best to research what type of brushes to get your puppy.  Now if yours doesn’t require a lot, then you might not want to get any right now.

6 – Dog Towel

There are specialized dog towels that you can get that dry the dogs and puppies and when you are done, it is made to dry fast.  Also, when you wash it, they say that you can wash it, but do not dry it and since it dries fast, you really do not need to worry about that.

7 – Hair Dryer

You can go to website like  www.petedge.com  and find grooming things and even a dog hair dryer.  I have one of those and it is amazing.  It’s like one of those strong hand dryers you find at the fair and different places.  That way it is not blowing hot air that can burn the dog/puppy.

8 – Bell for the Door

This is part of training your dog to let you know he/she wants outdoors.  They say the best way to train a puppy to use the bell is to show them the bell, take the puppy’s paw and have them tap the bell and then immediately click the clicker and then give a treat and take outdoors to go potty (if puppy doesn’t go potty, that’s ok.  You are just doing the bell training).  Then keep repeating until the puppy does it on his/her own and then click and give treat and go outdoors to potty.  For a while, every time you hear the puppy ring the bell do the click and treat and take right outdoors no matter if the puppy needs to go or not.  This just trains the puppy to associate the bell with going outdoors.

CLICK HERE to view the the bells I personally purchased.