How to Prepare for ‘Puppy Gotcha Day’
*Updated August 2023*
Published November 2020
You are getting your Daisy Mountain Doodle puppy in a couple weeks - how do you prepare for your new puppy coming home?
If you are getting your puppy soon, I am sure you are full of excitement, as you should be!! I want to help you prepare as much as possible for your new puppy so your transition can be as smooth as possible! Here are some areas to start preparing for:
Gathering puppy product recommendations
Planning health care for your pup
Researching training techniques and prepping a plan
Puppy Product Recommendations
Here are some of the products I suggest gathering to prepare for a new puppy. All of these items we use in our own homes and will only recommend what we use. If you had been planning on a puppy, and now the opportunity has arisen and you just need the minimal essentials, here is a list:
If you would like to browse my amazon storefront for a complete list of my recommended items, here is a link:
Food and Water Supplies
I suggest a lamb or salmon formula food. Some doodles/poodles can be sensitive to chicken formulas, so I do NOT recommend chicken based food or treats.
Puppies will go home on Purina Pro Plan 30/20 all stages Salmon and Rice and I suggest keeping pups on that food at least a month (to minimize stress while transitioning), but this is a great food to keep your pup on for life as well.
Crate and Potty Training Supplies
For our full thoughts and recommendations on crate training and tips, check out our blog on it. As a quick recommendation, we think that the 42” crate is great for our standard size doodles, and 36” for medium size, 30” for mini.
Remember, boundaries are your friend when first bringing home a puppy! Utilize “puppy proofed”areas in your home, a crate, a play pen or use the tethering technique when your puppy is new to your home and potty training! I use boundaries for many, many months when I bring a puppy home, and I give them small short opportunities for them to earn my trust to “graduate” out of the crate, but do not rush this!! My dogs will use the crate up for usually a year to a year and a half, at a minimum.
I suggest using primo pads for your crate instead of another generic and easily destroyed dog bed. I have seen many dogs destroy and pull out all the stuffing, and even ingest dog beds, but these primo pads are the most durable I’ve seen.
Collars, Leashes, and Harnesses
You may go through a couple collars while your pup is growing. Make sure to always check the fit - you should be able to comfortably fit 2 fingers in between the collar and neck. Even though your pup will be microchipped, always make sure your pup has an ID tag on his/her collar with his name and at least your number. I use collars for ID tags but use harnesses when training/walking/doing activities with your pup. I use the voyager harness when the pup is under 16 weeks, then the phoepet from 16 weeks into adulthood. I use the no pull harness for learning how to walk on a leash, I do not use it for extended amounts of time.
Enrichment, Toys and Treats
Toys and enrichment will be your best friend when you bring a puppy home - its a great way for your puppy to get out their energy, be mentally and physically stimulated, and a place for their puppy teeth to bite down on instead of your hands, haha. Just a couple notes about toys: be cautious about rope or stuffed toys. If a puppy ends up ripping them up and ingesting them, their stomachs/intestines could get obstructed and you may have to seek veterinary attention. I still have these kinds of toys for my puppies (they love them), but I only let pups have them when I am in the home and can supervise.
Otherwise, toys from kong and nylabones brands are great and very durable!
Bully sticks can also be your best friend as well!
Doodle Grooming Maintenance
If you have a doodle or a poodle, it is important to regularly do grooming maintenance in between your professional 6-8 week grooms. Here are the basic tools below I suggest, but please read my blog about further thoughts on this.
Regular Grooming Maintenance in between professional grooms include:
Line brushing (with detangler and a slicker brush) and using a steel comb on the coat every couple days to prevent matting. If there is matting, use a dematting comb on the problem area.
Flushing and cleaning the ears out every 2 weeks to help prevent ear infections.
Shampoo, condition, and completely blow dry every couple weeks, especially if they get in some mud or sand. This is my favorite way to keep my doodle and poodle coats mat free.
Use the clipper to give “bum” clips and the shears to trim the hair around the eyes and feet when needed. Use nail clippers when needed every couple weeks.
Pupwell is a great resource for grooming education and supplies. They have great videos to show you exactly how to do these needed grooming maintenance techniques. They have online courses to teach grooming techniques which are a great resource:
Pupwell has great quality for their essential tools:
I use their ultimate grooming kit for the maintenance between grooms, and for fully grooming my dogs myself:
Health Care for your Pup
Your puppy will go home with his/her vet record, which will include the 7-week vet visit with 1 one round of parvo/distemper shot. Please follow the vet schedule below (unless your vet recommends otherwise), and make sure to hold your puppy as much as possible through the parking lot and vet office, try not to let your dog on the vet floor until he/she is fully vaccinated after 16 weeks.
Vet Visit 72 hours after pick up:Per our contract, please take your new puppy to your own vet within 72 hours of picking up the puppy for a normal check-up just to establish your relationship with your vet and the new pup, and bring a fecal (the transition itself can be stressful on a puppy’s system and may activate some GI issues due to stress and a new environment).
10 Weeks old: Most vets recommend a round of distemper/parvo and bordetella
13 Weeks old: Most vets recommend a round of distemper/parvo and lepto 1
16 Weeks old: Most vets recommend final puppy round of distemper/parvo, lepto 2, and rabies
After this, they are good for a year!
Until your pup is fully vaccinated, it is very important not to take him/her to high traffic areas where they could pick up a virus. Parvo has been unfortunately common the last couple years, and it can get passed around very easily. The mantra we use is “keep all four off the floor.” It would be best to avoid dog parks, high traffic shopping centers and restaurant patios, BUT you still want to be able to socialize them though. We suggest bringing them to family or friends homes that own vaccinated dogs, and they can safely play in backyards. You can also go to public areas if you can hold your puppy off the ground, take them in a car ride for a pup cup, put them in a cart with a blanket under them so they can still experience new things (Home Depot, Lowes, Tractor Supply, Petsmart are GREAT places to take your pups around in a cart), or a large picnic blanket that they can stay on in parks and public areas. Once they are fully vaccinate, these places are great to take them for training and socialization as well.
Also, a couple comments on healthy bone and joint development. Young puppies’ bones and joints aren’t fully formed or fused together yet. For the first couple months, be careful not to let your pup jump off of high places like sofas or beds. A good rule of thumb is to only walk 5 minutes per how many months they are; so a 4 month puppy shouldn’t go longer than a 20 minute walk. I don’t take my dogs on runs or long hikes until they are a year old when their bones and joints are fully fused.
Finally, your puppy will come home with a 30 day Trupanion Puppy Insurance policy. Please consider continuing a puppy insurance policy, either through Trupanion or through another highly reviewed company (I have also heard great things about Nationwide Pet Insurance). Puppies are wonderfully curious, but an accident can happen at any time and emergency vet bills can be unexpected.
Training and Trainer Suggestions
We believe training is essential for dogs and puppies and is the key to them being successful family companions, and most likely will involve financial investments along the way. You are getting them at 8 weeks, and they’ve had a great foundation of curriculum already, but you get to take them and do the majority of developing and training, and the first FULL year is key! The time and finances you invest in your first year especially will pay off in the years to come! It may feel like a roller coaster the first year, there are normal regressions off and on, you’ll experience the toddler and the “teenage” phase in this first calendar year, so it’s important to have a plan for the whole year, so that when the regressions happen, there is space for training to help them work through it!
We believe the key to a well rounded puppy is socialization training! When a puppy isn’t socialized properly, they could eventually get timid and fearful, possibly even aggressive, in new situations. Instead, a puppy who has positive experiences being exposed to new people, new dogs, sounds, smells, places, car rides, adventures, etc becomes well rounded and can truly be taken anywhere and “do life with you” as they get older. So have fun and take them with you places this first year with a bag of treats to create positive reinforcements and help with be in places that set them up for success!
Doodles and poodles are so intelligent, I find training SO fun with my pups, and such a good bonding experience so you won’t want to miss out on it! I find that positive reinforcement training techniques, R+, are great for doodles. Since doodles are so intelligent and sensitive, sometimes it can be detrimental to use any adverse training techniques and tools, so please beware of those practices.
There are many good trainers out there! Trainers help with way more than just obedience - we suggest working with a trainer to cover everything - socialization, multi-dog household techniques, puppy-proofing your home, good boundaries, crate and potty training techniques, etc!! Here are a couple that we suggest:
Local Phoenix resources:
Neurodog Training: Dianne can help in various ways with training your dog and help you learn how to continue the training in your everyday life. She specializes in therapy and service dogs, uses positive reinforcement training techniques, and can use either zoom lessons if in your home is best, or out in public, or a mixture of both! She can help you get a start when you bring your puppy home, and later when your puppy is older, she can walk with you to get your dog Canine Good Citizen (CGC) titled.
Modern Dog Training with Emily: This is a trainer that can go to your home (central Phoenix, north phoenix and phoenix area) and work with you family one on one. The huge benefit to this is you can tailor the content to what your pup needs most, and you can decide the frequency of lessons.
Zoom Room: I use this with ALL my puppies, great for those in the north west valley. They are very informative with training techniques, and I bring my pups because it is a great, safe way to socialize my puppy with other pups, people, sounds, smells, textures, etc. They have a great puppy preschool for those that aren’t vaccinated, and they take great care in cleaning their facility before each preschool class.
Online resources:
Zak George. He uses positive reinforcement techniques and has many youtube videos that show his training techniques in action with puppies. I suggest him first because you can access his content on youtube for free!
Bella and Baxter. This is a comprehensive online puppy class that give all the basics!
Neurodog Training: Dianne can help in various ways with training your dog and help you learn how to continue the training in your everyday life. She specializes in therapy and service dogs, uses positive reinforcement training techniques, and can use either zoom or facetime lessons.