Prepping for a new puppy!
We’re getting a new puppy next week and here is how we’ve prepped so far as pro dog trainers!
(Well really this puppy is going to be “mine” and I’ve been doing most of the prep, but I don’t want Corey to feel left out.)
Supplies!
We already have a bunch of equipment already like crates and dishes and what not. But! There are puppy items that we didn’t have! I bought a new pop up play pen, a super cute Thanksgiving themed collar, and a new puppy front carrier pack thing for exposure outings!
I plan to put together a puppy supplies checklist soon to go with our new puppy online course, so stay tuned for that!
At home logistics
Primarily where we’re putting the crates. For overnights during the potty training phase, we’re planning to put a crate by the door to our backyard. That way we can quickly get puppy out and not have to walk through the entire house.
During the day for short stretches, we’ll have a second crate set up in our dog room, so puppy can get used to hanging in there with the other pups. As puppy ages, we'll have them spend more time and eventually their overnights in the dog room as well.
And then we have a wire crate in our family room that puppy will spend some time in when we’re all relaxing together, especially when the other puppers are out. That way puppy will be exposed to a variety of crates in a couple different spots.
I also did pick up a puppy play pen that puppy will hang in when not in the crate or free in our living room. True free time will be extremely limited at first, but once puppy is potty trained and responded well to our verbal queues so we can coach them on how to behave during free time, that's when they will earn it!
Setting my training plan!
This is especially important since this puppy will be the star of our upcoming Puppy Rasing online course! So! I will be documenting every step of the way and sharing with you all how we go about raising our pup for their first 16 weeks of life to set them up for success as an adult!
My focus for those first 16 weeks will be:
Rituals - setting expectations for how we go about living life together. This is where crate training, potty training, meal times, training sessions, and downtime expectations all come into play!
Relationship - the biggie! I want my puppy to see me as their best friend who they can rely on through thick and thin. To accomplish this, setting fair, understandable boundaries is part of it. The other part is bringing the fun through play and training! I am so excited to find out what brings my puppy joy and doing those activities with them every day! And as for the training bit, all of our training in this first phase will mostly look like play. Low expectations, easy asks, and a lot of strategic luring and reward placement to get puppy to understand how to use their body with confidence!
Exposure - the final pillar! In order for dogs to feel safe and comfy in the world, they have to experience it! But safely and in reasonable doses. This doesn’t mean direct interaction with a bunch of dogs and humans. Obviously, there will be a fair amount of that, but only with dogs who we know are safe and humans who we trust. For everyone else, the goal will be to observe at a distance and ultimately for puppy to recognize that they’re not going to get anything from random people/dogs. They exist and puppy doesn’t have to worry about em.
Another piece of the Exposure pie is to all of the random sights, sounds, and smells they will encounter as adult dogs both at home and out in the world. I want to make sure my puppy experiences home appliances like the vacuum and can watch a loud movie without issue. I want puppy to calmly view the garbage truck coming down the street without concern. I want puppy to be ok with flags, balloons, sirens, fireworks, all the things! This exposure starts in the safety of our own home and then we will make a point to see/hear/smell these things out in the world.
A final Exposure piece that is super important is for puppy to be ok with be handled for vet procedures and grooming! It's a lot easier to teach a puppy to be ok with getting their nails trimmed than a full grown adult dog. So we will start that early! I also have already scheduled my puppy's first vet appointment. That first appointment is simply a meet and greet. We're gonna go in, check out the space, meet the staff, get some good snacks, and then leave. I want that first appointment to be allll happy, fluffy, and nice, so puppy's first encounter at the vet is a pleasant experience. :)
This is obviously a super zoomed out overview. So many more details to explore! But that is why we’re going to make our course about it all! It’ll be coming sometime in 2026, so stay tuned for updates!
