Getting Ready for Your New Puppy

Now that you have selected your new puppy, you need to make sure that you, your family and even your home and property are prepared for the new addition. If you have children, you may recall the excitement and commotion before the baby was born - preparing the baby's room, purchasing all of the necessary items needed for the proper care and feeding of an infant, and of course 'baby proofing' your house to be sure the little one would be as safe as possible. All of these preparations should be made for your new puppy as well.

Taking on the responsibility of raising a puppy should not be taken lightly. Doing it right will require a great deal of your time. A seven week old puppy in the house is a true test of patience, energy level, and commitment. Try to remember as you find yourself saying 'good grief, the puppy needs to go our again?!', that your efforts are teaching him the rules of living in your house and how to interact with people during these early months will reap rewards in the future. It does get easier!

Take a look at your current schedule. Where are your blocks of free time? Do you have any? If not, what could be changed in your schedule to make time to take the puppy our to eliminate, take him for walks, play with him and groom him? If you work full time and must leave the puppy home all day alone, consider having a dog walker (Petsathome® is a good choice)!! come to the house at least once a day to take your puppy out for exercise, play, engage in human interaction, and of course, eliminate.

The amount of exercise your puppy will need will depend on the breed you have chosen as well as his temperament. There are certain breeds and certain dogs in general that are typically more active and will require more exercise to tire them out and keep them out of trouble. Did you select one of these puppies?? If so, be prepared to take the puppy out frequently. A tired puppy will make your life much easier.

Are you someone who likes to get a full uninterrupted eight hours of sleep each night? That is not likely to happen with a young puppy in the house. Expect to be getting up and going outside during the night when the puppy needs to go. Some young puppies can make it all night (really, five or six hours) without needing to eliminate. You may be lucky and find that your schedule is a last trip outside around 11:00 p.m. and then the puppy sleeps quietly until 5:00 a.m. Another puppy many need to go out at 3:00 a.m. Parents understand the importance of getting up to care for their infant when they wake up many times during the night to be fed or because they are wet and need to be changed. You will need to make this same commitment to your puppy. The puppy will ultimately make it through the night, and once day you will be back to getting a full night's sleep, but it takes time. You cannot stay in bed because you are tired and it's cold out, and ignore the fact that the puppy needs to go outside. If there are two adults in the house try and get the other personal involved in their routine., perhaps taking turns every other night letting the puppy out.

Another component of preparing yourself for the new puppy is recognizing that if you have children, you will need to spend a great deal of time supervising your children with the puppy. You may be accustomed to leaving your children in the living room playing while you are in the kitchen preparing dinner. Once the puppy is there, you will not be able to leave him in the living room alone with the children. YOu will either need to remain in the living room with them, or plan on bringing the puppy into the kitchen with your.

Remember that a puppy will need to go outside to eliminate, go for walks, and to play all year round in all types of weather. I lf you live in a region of the country where the winters are cold, you might choose not to go outside play with your kids because of the temperature, but you cannot do that with the puppy. He needs to go out, even if the temperature is below zero or it is pouring rain. (of course if you have a small toy breed puppy, you many need to paper train for a short period of time). Your puppy must learn to go our in all types of weather. We cannot tell you how many times we have heard from dog owners that their dogs will not go out to eliminate when it is raining (which means that they will end up eliminating in the house instead) Go out with your puppy in the rain and sown and have some fun. You might want to invest in a good raincoat and all-weather footwear for yourself if you don't already have them.