I'm bringing an adopted puppy home Wednesday. What do I need?

A couple chew toys will help save your shoes and carpets. A bed if you don’t want the dog sleeping in the kennel or your bed.

If the puppy is not house broken yet, you will want some pee pads.

Is the dog housebroken? If not newspaper. You will also need toys, or something for them to chew on. Get some bite size treats for training. Also bundle up all wires or anything else that your puppy might chew on.

I’ve read that pee pad or newspaper training can be confusing to the dog, and I was planning to start her straight to “outside potty” by taking her out every hour. Will this work?

You haven’t indicated what kind/size of puppy, but I typically encourage folks to get a crate that can be made smaller (a movable interior mesh wall) so it can be expanded as the puppy grows.

I would go ahead and make a vet appointment so that is one of your first stops. The vet can give the pup a once over and will schedule future shot and neutering appointments at that time. You can also ask the vet for any tips or tricks (again depending on breed and size).

I would pick up a good quality puppy chow (I would ask the current holder of the puppy what brand the dog is eating now so you have it on hand—if it is crap, then plan to mix in a higher quality food with whatever they have been serving so you can switch the dog over gradually. A breeder will usually send you home with a bag of whatever they have been feeding, but the pound doesn’t do this). If the current keeper of the puppy could measure the puppy’s neck, then you will get the right collar size the FIRST time you go to the store.

I would have a bunch of dog towels and some spray cleaner and paper towels at the ready. I take even the smallest puppy OUTSIDE to go to the bathroom. It usually takes me about three days to get them essentially ringing a bell to go out (I can usually rely on my older dog to help with housebreaking). I never use newspapers or pee pads because I don’t ever want them to think it is OK to go in the house.

I would also make sure all the members of the household agree on common commands you ALL plan to use. If there are any kids, I would talk to them about how to behave around a puppy.

@ Kayak8 – thank you, that was helpful! She’s coming from a foster home, and has already had a checkup and her first round of shots. I will ask about the neck size for a collar as well as the food. She is a six week Boston Terrier/Corgi mix so probably a very small one. : )

Spray cleaner is going on the list… what are dog towels?

@eadinad Taking her out every hour will be too frequent sometimes and not frequent enough at others. I typically head outside right after eating, right after playing, and right after sleeping. Count on the rule of thumb that a dog can “hold it” (once housebroken) for about 1 hour for every month of age. This means a 6 month old puppy needs you to come home at lunchtime (if you aren’t already home) and be let out.

The first couple times the dog squats, I say “Hurry Up.” Eventually the dog associates this as being a command and will typically drop and go on command which is very helpful if your winters are as cold as mine can be.

Dog towels are old towels that you don’t use anymore that can be on hand to wipe down the puppy that just peed on herself etc. The spray cleaner goes with the paper towels to wipe up accidents (they make some the pet store sells that neutralizes the odor of urine which is helpful). You pup will be small enough to clean up in the sink, but you will hate yourself if you don’t have a towel at the ready when you are holding a wiggly wet puppy!

We house-trained all of our young pets using newspaper (pee pads weren’t around back then), even though they were let outside. I encourage you all to do the same. As dogs get older, they have a tendency to have indoor accidents, and if they are already trained to use a product put out for that specific purpose, you’ll be much happier in the long run. It’s a lot easier to clean up a messy newspaper on a linoleum or tiled floor than an ‘accident’ on carpet.

Here is a link for the kind of spray cleaner I am talking about (there are a lot of different brands, most pet stores carry them).

I also went to odd lots and got a bunch of baby washclothes (like for human babies). I got them wet at the sink, wrung them out, and tied knots in each one and threw them in the freezer. These were very handy when I had a teething puppy on my hands (they thought they were toys). After use, unknot,throw em in the washer (don’t both to dry them), re-knot and refreeze.

Thinking about the breed combination, your vet may recommend a harness rather than a collar.

I agree with chew toys – get ones that are hardish and chewy, like hard rubber toys. Puppies seem to want to chew on almost everything almost all of the time.
Maybe some puppy shampoo?

A Boston Corgi sounds adorable! One thing you might consider if you will be housebreaking during cold weather is a sweater with velcro tabs that adjust under the belly and is easy to put on. It may sound silly, but my little Boston stopped having accidents when he could be more comfortable outside.

How did last night go with the puppy?

@Kayak8 – great, thanks! We ended up bringing home the brother of the puppy we originally planned on, because he just plain seduced us. And I think he is going to be the best dog ever! It took us about two hours to tell the difference between “exploring this new place!” and “gotta potty, now!” and he had about four accidents in that time period. But once we got him outside in time to do his business and gave him a treat, he has seriously not had a single accident since! (About 10 pm.) Obviously he’s not magically house trained, but I am feeling very encouraged because I was prepared for the first few days to be much worse. He’s been napping and playing (stopped chewing the carpet after a few firm “Uh-uh-uhs”) and only whined a little last night… but we did let him sleep in our bed. We’ll start crate training this weekend when he’s adjusted.

I’m in new mama bliss. : )

Oh, and for those wondering, here’s everything we bought/got before we picked him up yesterday:

Crate
2 Kong’s
Blue Buffalo puppy food (dry and wet)
Leash
Collar
Ribbon and bell for potty training
Rawhide treats
Puppy pads
Pet carpet cleaner
Paper towels
Old towel
Dog shampoo
Plastic bag dispensers and refill for poo removal
Brush

Here’s what I’m going to get today:
Stuffed animal (to sleep with while we crate train him)
Sod (to replace the pee pad in his confinement space – for emergencies only.)
Flea medicine and Dawn detergent
Flea comb

We also puppy proofed the apartment by hiding or moving all wires and pretty much everything off of the floor other than furniture. Thank goodness we have good storage space.