If a puppy is on your holiday wishlist, there’ll be plenty of firsts in the first month of bringing home your pup! Here’s everything you need to know and prepare as you get ready to welcome home your new pup!
All year long you’ve wanted your very own puppy and pretty soon, that special little pup will be arriving at their new forever home! In the first month, your new puppy will be experiencing a lot of firsts: first night in a new place, first time meeting the whole family, their first veterinarian visit, and much more.
In this blog, we’ll cover what you need to prepare for their arrival with a few key things, plus go over what to expect for your puppy’s first month with you, and how to plan for the future!
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Get Ready…So You’re Ready When They Arrive!
Prior to your puppy coming home, set the stage for success with some preparation. Here’s what we recommend that you prepare before your puppy comes home!
Take some time to go through your home to evaluate areas that need to be proofed, remove potentially harmful items, or will be off-limits to your puppy until they are potty trained and capable of being left at home. In our Bringing Home a New Puppy! blog we exactly what areas and items to look out for when you’re preparing your home.
Puppies need a few key items to be comfortable and allow you to properly care for them! Before bringing home your puppy, check out our Holiday Gift Guides for Your Puppy! blog to see complete shopping lists with our trainers’ recommended picks of toys, grooming supplies, bedding, training tools, and more. Also, speak with your puppy’s breeder or the shelter or rescue for the food they are currently being fed.
Scheduling your puppy’s first vet visit
Many puppies go to their new homes over the holidays which means veterinarians may see an influx of first-time visits! Do your research on a veterinarian for your puppy and schedule their first visit for their first week home! During this initial visit, you’ll learn about your puppy’s general health, schedule vaccinations, and spay or neuter, plus get to ask questions about their breed’s need and proper care. Learn more in our What to Your Vet on Your Puppy’s First Visit! blog!
Start planning out what your puppy’s day will look like. This will most likely need to be modified after your puppy comes home, but having a plan to follow from day one will help your puppy settle in to their new home faster! Include designated activity times, nap times, potty breaks, and have a meeting to get the entire household on the same page with what everyone’s responsibilities will be, and the rules with the puppy. (ie. Are they allowed on the furniture? Where’s their designated potty area going to be?) Get a daily schedule sample from our blog Create a Daily Schedule for Your Puppy!
The First 30 Days
That first month is going to be full of excitement and plenty of growing pains! Your puppy will be learning the ropes of their new home relatively quickly, while you’ll be learning how to establish routines, house boundaries, providing necessary wellness care, training, and overall introducing your puppy to their new life to help them get off to the best start possible.
The First Day Home
As this will most likely be the first day your puppy will be away from their mother, littermates, and breeder, or their rescue or shelter, everything will be new, exciting, and maybe a little overwhelming! Every puppy reacts differently to their new home. Some will be eager to sniff and explore, while others may be timider. Both are normal reactions as your puppy begins to settle in.
Give them their own designated space
Hold off on introducing your puppy to the whole house right away. Instead, start with creating a space of their own with a crate and playpen and introduce them to this area so they can begin to establish it as their place to sleep, hang out, and eat all while keeping them in a safe area where they can’t get into trouble! Make sure to also guide them to the area they’ll be using for potty breaks so they become familiar with it. Head over to our blog Puppyhood Made Easy for New Owners: Setting Up Your Home for a New Puppy! to learn the best way to set up their crate and space!
Teach your puppy how to sleep through the night
Be ready for a long night (maybe!) with some puppy whining and barking. Not all puppies react this way, but generally, being away from their litter is a brand new experience. Your puppy may whine, bark, or just be generally restless. Provide them with a quiet, dark, and calm environment so they can settle and rest easier. Check out more tips to help make this transition smother in our blog Help! How Do I Get My Puppy to Sleep Through the Night?!
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The First Week
These first few days will lay the foundation for your puppy’s healthy and fulfilled growth, both physically and from a behavioral standpoint. During the first week, your puppy will have a health plan that both you and your vet will establish for their first year, a new daily routine at home, and start working good manners at home and in public!
During their first vet visit, you’ll want to talk to your veterinarian about establishing a vaccination schedule, their growth stages, when to start socializing and walking them, planning their spay or neuter, nutrition, supplements, and potential health concerns. It’s one of the most important visits as it sets the stage for your pup’s future healthcare maintenance, so coming prepared with the right questions is key! We go into all the details of what to prepare and ask in our What to Ask Your Vet on Your Puppy’s First Visit! blog!
Practice Your Daily Puppy Schedule
Puppies thrive from consistency because it helps them learn what’s expected of them. Following your puppy schedule will teach them their new life and daily routines that can be modeled to fit into your daily schedule. This is possibly one of the most useful techniques new puppy owners can use to their advantage to help their puppy learn important life skills like when to go potty and where, feeding, naptime, play, and training sessions! Match your own family’s schedule as closely as possible to start getting your puppy used to your routine vs. having their own separate one. Need help creating a puppy schedule? Follow our steps to set one up for yourself or to use our example puppy schedule to get started!
Once you created a puppy schedule, stick to it to help teach your puppy how to hold their potty, and where to go when it’s time. As your puppy gets older and learns how to hold it, you can start increasing them time spans between their potty breaks, as well as their free time. For our potty training tips on how to do this successfully, check out our Potty Training Your Puppy: Tips for New Owners blog!
Start teaching your puppy the basics!
Now’s the time to begin working with your puppy to help build your relationship together and get them learning how to listen to you and look to you for guidance! An easy way to do this is to teach them how to follow you around as you lure them with food, which you can then turn into the “Come” command. Practice this 3 times a day, for 3-5 minutes each session, and it works great during their mealtimes! For more details and other simple routines to start practicing with your puppy, check out our blog on Starting Your Puppy with the Basics!
The Next Three Weeks
By this point, your puppy is just starting to get the hang of the routine at home, you’re working on getting them potty trained, and are teaching them how to sleep through the night, and have begun working with them during their mealtimes! So what comes next?
Start training your puppy from home
Whether you choose to train your puppy yourself, or work with professional trainers, starting your puppy’s training asap and practicing daily in the home will get them learning good habits right away, instead of picking up bad ones that you’ll have to spend enormous amounts of time undoing down the road.
And if your goal is to have a well-mannered pup you can take anywhere, having a plan to follow and knowing what to do when your puppy starts acting out will help keep you (and your pup!) on the right track to achieving those awesome goals!
If you don’t know where to start, are not sure if you’re doing things right, or need some extra help outside of puppy classes you may already be taking, The Puppy Academy Online School provides new puppy parents with a step-by-step blueprint of training videos and live support from our expert trainers to help guide owners easily through puppyhood, while teaching their puppy all the essential commands, and curbing those unwanted behaviors.
For more information about our online program, check out our blog “The Puppy Academy Online School: How to Train Your Puppy from Home — the Easy Way!” and to sign up and begin training your puppy today, enroll here!
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After 30 Days
After your pup’s first thirty days at home, they’ve gotten quite a bit under their belt: vet visit(s), learning their daily schedule and routines, boundaries at home, potty training, and maybe started puppy training - that’s a lot for a small puppy! And it only continues from there! Depending on your pup's age of when you brought them home, once they've had most or all of their vaccinations (based on your vet's recommendation), they can start socializing with other pups!
Introduce your puppy to other pups and people
Socialization is a large and important part of your puppy’s ongoing development and prepares your puppy for intersections with other dogs and people as they grow. Making sure these initial interactions are positive, and knowing how to manage playtime sessions to promote good behavior will help your puppy to continue growing into a well-adjusted dog. For the best protocols on puppy socialization, check out the advice in our blog “Socializing Your Puppy to New Dogs & People!
Bringing home a new puppy is always an exciting time, regardless if it’s over the holidays, expected or not! New puppy parent overwhelm is real and preparing for your puppy’s arrival can help you be ready for the journey ahead. But not everyone’s journey starts with a clear-cut path and that’s totally okay too! Take the time to get your pup settled in at home, do some research, and create a game plan for your puppy’s wellness and puppy training.
Want a clear-cut path to training your puppy? Sign up for our Online Puppy Training School!
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