Episode #209 Ten Things You Need When Bringing Home A New Dog

What's the secret to ensuring your new puppy feels right at home from day one? Join me, Amy Jensen, as I unlock the essential tools and strategies you need to make your puppy's transition smooth and enjoyable. From selecting the perfect collar, harness, and crate to understanding the benefits of interactive feeding tools and chew toys, we're diving into the must-have supplies that will create a safe and enriching environment for your furry friend. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned puppy parent, you'll discover insights and recommendations to enhance your approach and set your puppy up for success.

Chapters

• 0:00 Puppy Supply Checklist
• 7:56 Essential Puppy Supplies and Training
• 12:51 Comprehensive Puppy Training Resources

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Today I'm going to walk you through 10 things that you absolutely need before you bring that puppy home. Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter Bella, the online puppy school. Here we are all about helping you create the best possible experience raising a puppy, from training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering a happy, well-behaved dog who truly feels like part of the family. So if you are ready to enjoy the journey and strengthen the bond with your dog, let's get started. Hello everybody, thank you for tuning into the podcast. I want you to be prepared when you bring that new dog home, or if you already have your dog, maybe check out this list and see if there's some items that you don't have that might be useful to you. Now the audio for today's podcast comes from my YouTube channel, so you might hear some things in the background. It's me actually holding a collar or a harness. If you want to see what's happening, head over to my YouTube channel at Baxter and Bella, but if you just want to listen, here you go.

Speaker 1: 1:06

First on the list are a collar and a harness. These are pieces of equipment that your puppy's going to need to get used to wearing, so we recommend you start it right away. And this is just a basic flat collar. Nothing fancy to it, simple buckle, snap and closure. It holds their ID tags. We recommend your puppy wears an ID tag so they don't get lost, and then we start to put a harness on them just for body awareness, just so that they get used to wearing it, and then we'll start leash walking here in a few weeks. But when your puppy first comes home, it's more about let's just get them used to wearing this. When you're shopping for a harness, I like to find one that has a front clip and a back clip so you can change which point you are attaching the leash, depending on which kind of activity that you're doing. In the beginning your puppy might not love wearing their collar or harness. So get a toy out, one that's fun, squeaky, moves around. They like to play with it and start to play with your dog. Play relaxes your puppy and they'll forget that they're wearing this thing. So it'll take them a few days to adjust to having that on, but pretty soon they forget about it and it's no big deal. Also, remember that we want to remove our dog's collar or harness before putting them in a crate or pen.

Speaker 1: 2:13

Next on the list a leash and a long line. So you'll need a basic six foot leash for all of your basic puppy training, and then it also serves as a house line. So when I first bring my puppy home, they don't know the rules of my house and I need to keep super close track of them. So at times they're going to be on a tether or a house line, which is just again a basic six foot leash. The other piece of equipment I recommend, along with the leash, is a long line, so this is more of a 15 to 30 foot line. Again, it's lightweight, it's small. This one happens to be waterproof. Again, a small clip and this is going to hook to my dog's harness on the back. So I'll put the harness on my dog, clip this to the back of them and now when I go outside I have a longer leash to practice. Some recalls and things like that with this comes in super handy once your puppy is able to go out in public so they're fully vaccinated and you can head to the park. This is a great way to play with them at the park where they feel like they're off leash.

Speaker 1: 3:10

But we have some management in place. Next up we have crates. This is a necessary tool for potty training, making sure that our puppy has a nice, safe place to sleep, to relax, to chew their toys. This is the only place, with this new puppy that's coming into my home, that I can leave them unsupervised. So this crate is going to allow you to get things done that you need to get done on a daily basis and not always have to be watching your puppy.

Speaker 1: 3:36

I highly recommend starting out with just a simple small plastic crate. Again, we want to size this appropriately that our puppy can stand up, turn around, lay down. But that's about it. We play lots of games with these. We teach our puppy to go in and out and eat their meals in here. This is where all of the good stuff happens. I like to call it my puppy's bedroom. So this is where they get the good stuff. This is where they get their bones and their chews and their meals.

Speaker 1: 4:00

Like we talked about, this is not a go in there and be bored kind of thing, and the wire ones grow with your puppy. So there's a divider that comes with these so that you can section it off a small part of it and as your puppy grows, we can move that divider back until it's their full size crate. Plastic ones don't have that advantage. But again, this is nice in the beginning, just to move around really easily to keep that puppy close to me. So if I'm in the kitchen cooking a meal, my puppy is going to be in this crate next to me and cooking a meal, my puppy's going to be in this crate next to me. If I'm in my office doing emails guess what? This crate is at my feet. If I'm on the sofa watching a show, I'm going to also put this crate up next to me and just let my puppy get used to being inside of something with a barrier. They can't get to me directly, but they're safe because they can see me, they can smell me, I'm right next to them and they start to learn that, hey, I can relax in here, I can fall asleep in here, which is what we want. So again, I love both options. Again for a full size crate. This is what I use for my dogs, but I do like to start out with a nice movable plastic crate that's easy to maneuver.

Speaker 1: 5:06

Another item you absolutely need is an exercise pen. We want to create what we call a zenden. When my puppy first comes home, they're pretty stressed and I want to make this area feel like home to them. We're going to take their crate and attach an exercise pen to it. Or, if you have that small plastic crate, you can simply set that inside, but we want to create a space that is familiar to them. When we talk exercise pens, there's lots of different types on the market, so let me give you a few examples and then you can decide what will work best for you and your puppy.

Speaker 1: 5:37

If you have a smaller puppy, this is a good option for you. It's simply a plastic pen. There's a little door that your dog can go in and out of. You can lock that so they can't go in and out of that. The only thing to be aware of with this one is that your puppy might climb out. So if you have a puppy that's going to grow 10 plus pounds, then this might not be the best option. But if you're getting a smaller dog, it works really well.

Speaker 1: 6:03

This is a wire exercise pen. It's one of my favorites. I've used this for so many puppies that I've trained. It's 36 inches high, which is just high enough to really deter climbing, if any, and there is a topper, a lid, that you can buy for this if you do happen to have a puppy that is a climber. But this one works really well. It folds down really flat, it's lightweight, I can move it around my home really easily and but it's sturdy enough to handle these puppies. I mentioned that some puppies love to climb, so a good option that I found is this toddler playpen. It has vertical slats. You'll want to make sure that you have a bigger puppy, obviously, that can't fit through those slats. If you have a smaller dog, then the other style might be better for you, but the vertical slat is a great option that prevents climbing. So notice that this exercise pen is wrapped around my staircase. I can open this pen up and make it a room divider.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Another item I recommend you get is a dog bed. Now, there are a lot of different types on the market and what bed you choose will probably change as your puppy grows. I might put something soft like this in my puppy's end den, give them a nice soft place to take naps and rest. But if they do start to bite at it or chew at it or play with it, then I'm just going to remove it for the time being. A bed that I use for all of my dogs in training is a raised bed, so this is a Karanda bed. I like it because it's up off the floor. It gives my dog a very defined space as to where I want them to stay, and so I can use this for a lot of different purposes. Because it's raised, the puppy's going to have to take a step off. That really defines the space as to where I want them to remain, right, if I'm sitting down to eat dinner, I don't want my dog begging for my dinner, so I send them to their bed. They chill out here and they get rewarded for doing so. If I go plop myself down on this, amy rewards me, and we use this in a lot of different circumstances, whether it's somebody coming over, like a guest ringing my doorbell, or dinnertime, like I mentioned, meal prep time, and maybe I'm helping my kids with their homework and I need something for my puppy to do. This is a great training tool.

Speaker 1: 7:56

Every dog needs food and water bowls. I recommend just a simple stainless steel bowl. I like this option because it's easy to clean, it's less likely to harbor bacteria and my puppy can't break it. In addition to a regular food bowl. I love puzzle toys, so this is a Kong wobbler. You simply unscrew the top. You're going to put the puppy's kibble inside and then put the top back on, and now when I place this in my puppy's exercise pen, they get to work for their food. So sometimes I might feed my puppy out of their bowl, but other times I'm going to put the rest of their kibble after a training session into a puzzle toy or something interactive. Another option would be something like this this is an outward hound puzzle toy. Your puppy eating food out of here is going to take a lot longer than your puppy eating food out of here. Make sure your puppy always has access to fresh water. Again, I recommend a stainless steel bowl, and then I like to get the hook that goes to my crate. So you'll find a little accessory piece that you can buy that hooks onto the bowl and then you simply just attach it to your puppy's crate. This is nice because puppies like water. Bella here loves water, and by raising this water bowl up, she's less likely to make it a swimming pool.

Speaker 1: 9:02

Another item you are absolutely going to need when bringing home a new puppy is a chew toy. Now I like to get my puppy a variety of things. I like to get them something that's a little harder. This one has some textured nubs on it that they get to sink their teeth into. This little rubber. One's softer, so this one's nice. It's a teething toy. You can fill it full of water, put it in your freezer. It's really cold on their gums because puppies are teething and so their gums are pretty sore. There's chews that you can stuff with things like food that there's their favorite. You can put kibble in here. You can layer it with applesauce, natural peanut butter, pumpkin puree. These two go together. These are Westpaw topples and you can fit them together and put their kibble inside and it turns into a nice little interactive feeding toy. Lots of different options Again, this is a holder that will hold like a bully stick. I like the holder because it prevents my puppy from swallowing the last two inches or so of that bone.

Speaker 1: 9:54

A simple hide. This has no chemical preservatives in it at all. It's just a simple hide that's been dried. This is really good for cleaning your puppy's teeth. A lot of different options Again, we want to make sure our puppy has a variety of things to chew on. Sometimes it might be a puzzle feeder, sometimes it might be something hard that they can settle down and relax with. You'll want a variety of things for them to chew on.

Speaker 1: 10:15

Next on our list toys. I like to find toys that have different textures, some that squeak, some that have a crinkle. Puppies love sounds and they love movement. We call them movement magnets, so they're going to follow whatever wiggles. As you can see, pella's willing to follow this movement. I like this toy because it has these long, dangly appendages. That makes it easy for her to bite on the toy, me to wiggle the toy, and she's not getting my hand. So you want a toy that you can hold one end, your puppy can bite the other end and you can wiggle it. You can make it exciting. We can hide it, we can pop it back out. We can even practice simple things like a sit to say please to get the toy. Another good toy option is this fleece rope. You can make this. Just get a couple strips of fleece and braid them together, tie the ends in knots and now your children have something to walk around with. Because this is more wiggly than them, your puppy will want to go for it, and then they can simply move around the space together with your puppy biting onto this rope.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Grooming supplies are a must for any dog, whether they have short hair or long hair. The basic items you'll want to get for your dog are a metal comb and a brush that's appropriate for your dog's breed. Now, with young puppies, I start out with these metal combs. I like them because I can lay this pretty flat across them and just get them used to the movement of this going across their bodies, versus really digging in and combing the hair. So again, I like to start with just a metal comb. Another tool I absolutely love is this fine tooth comb. This is great for getting out your dog's eye goobers every morning, so you don't have to use your fingers.

Speaker 1: 11:50

I have doodles at my house. They have longer hair and it grows down into their eyes pretty soon. They can't even see, so I just have a little pair of blunt nose scissors that I can easily trim the hair that grows in front of their eyes, just so that they can always have good vision. You'll also need a good pair of nail clippers. After I clip my dog's nails, I like to take a Dremel and just file them down so that there's no rough edges. But as far as basic grooming tools go, I suggest every household has these items, in addition to just a basic puppy shampoo.

Speaker 1: 12:22

And the last item on the list training. You're going to need a program to coach you through how to help your dog live in a household with humans. They don't know how to do that, but we're here to help you and we can coach you through every step of the way. We offer do-it-yourself programs that you can do on your own time. We have live classes and courses that you can come to via Zoom. You take everything from the comfort of your own home, so you're watching us on TV, you're going through the program and practicing things with your dog, just like we are on screen.

Speaker 1: 12:51

If you have questions, you can email us. You can also schedule one-on-one calls to talk to our trainers. We do live group Q&A sessions three times a week. Really, we have so many resources to help you train your dog. Whatever your goals may be, we're here to help you. Thanks for tuning in to the Puppy Training Podcast. I hope today's tips help you feel more confident and excited about raising your dog. Remember, with a little patience and consistency you can create a loving bond and a well-behaved pup who's a joy to have in your family. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with fellow puppy parents. For more resources, visit Baxter and Bella online. Until next time, happy training.