Bringing your new puppy home

Bringing your new puppy home.

So you have taken the plunge and are about to go and collect your new member of the family. Your puppy! Hopefully you have everything ready for your new arrival and I dare say you and the families are all rather excited.

Collecting Your Puppy

My family and I have collected a few puppies over the years and have had different experiences with all of them.

I always collect a puppy in the morning so that the puppy arrives at our home in daylight hours and has the opportunity to explore its new surroundings before dark and I also ask the breeder not to feed the puppy before we collect it as this helps to avoid travel sickness.

When collecting your new addition take a towel, kitchen roll, a blanket and a puppy crate and some newspaper. All will come in handy if the puppy is sick or has a toilet accident on the journey, as you will need to clean up. Even if the puppy travels well you may need to be keep the youngster warm, hence the blanket.

Arriving Home

Once puppy is at its new home, put it out in the garden so it may relieve itself after the journey as it is unlikely that the puppy will have had its full course of vaccinations before you collected it and therefore you will not have been able to stop during the journey to allow the pup to go to the toilet.

Then offer a small feed and some water and after 10 minutes put it out again as the puppy may need the toilet again. As the puppy relieves itself say a command like ‘hurry up’ or ‘go wee wee’ as dogs learn by association therefore helping the puppy to learn that when it goes outside and you give the ‘hurry up’ command, it means its time to toilet! It will take time but when the puppy does go to the toilet remember to give lots of praise.

Do allow the puppy to rest and sleep in a quiet place as it may be tired after its journey and if you have children, instill in them to let the puppy rest and to leave it alone whilst it is asleep.

Visit the Vet

If you haven’t done so already, make an appointment to see your vet the next day to check the puppy over and see all is well. Choose a vet who you feel offers the best all round service for what you need. It is worth noting that some practices do not offer a twenty four hour service, which means that once they close at 6 pm you may find you have to travel more than thirty miles to the on call vet, who will not know your pets details. In some cases, practices do have their own twenty four hour service but you may have to travel to one of their other practices instead of the one nearest to you, this is fine as long as you can drive! Shop around and find one you love not just like.

by Sophia Taylor