Taking Care of a Puppy

Check out our pages on how to care for a puppy!

What to do after bringing home a puppy. Tips and helpful guides to help you care for your puppy in his first year.

Welcome to our tips for taking care of a puppy!
You and your dog will spend many years together and to get things off to a good start we've compiled pages on how to care for a puppy. You'll find links to those pages throughout this page and a list of them all at the bottom to help ease you both through the getting adjusted phase.

As soon as you bring your new puppy home it's time for her to begin learning and adjusting to her new life.
Spend some time with her in the room you have prepared for her and introduce her to her crate.

• If you don't have a whole room to devote just section off a portion of a room for the puppy's first months. Baby gates and furniture work well.



• Paper the entire floor area of the puppy's room



• Provide a crate with a dog mattress in it.



• Use small non tippable bowls for food and water and give your puppy a few toys (avoid giving him shoes as playthings).



• Start the puppy on a high quality puppy food.



• Some puppies sleep better if you place a wrapped hot water bottle (a 2 litre plastic pop bottle wrapped in a blanket works well) in the bed and a ticking clock buried with it can soothe the pup. (It feels and sounds like mom)

Once he's adjusted to his new home and crate the next step in taking care of a puppy is to begin housetraining .

Be patient and bring on the treats. It's true.... your new buddy pees on the floor (and worse)... with any other friend you'd give up and go home but this is your puppy. Follow our puppy housetraining techniques . There's never a dull moment when taking care of a puppy.

Finally, Health Care Insurance for your puppy. Our pets benefit from the advances that have been made in the veterinary field but sometimes at great cost. Provide the best in health care for your puppy without financial hardship with Dog Health Insurance

If you want to keep a puppy from biting start training at 3 months.

Biting can be difficult to get under control if it isn't addressed early in a puppy's life. Teach him that biting is only for his toys. Stop playing when the puppy bites.

Leash training keeps a puppy safe and under your control during outings

Teach your puppy to walk alongside you on a leash to keep him from running out into traffic or running off and getting lost or injured. A leash gives the puppy a small amount of freedom while still under your control.

Thanks for visiting our taking care of a puppy page. Try scrolling through the links below to find more information.

• Puppy developmental stages



• Crate training a puppy



• House training a puppy



• Leash training a puppy



• Stop puppy biting

Your puppy's crate can fit in beautifully with your decor. No need to hide a crate in the porch or hallway where your puppy's all alone. If you put a top on this one it can even serve as a side table. For a closer look click on the picture.

Puppysmarts Training DVD Potty & Crate training (1 DVD) This short, simple and easy-to-follow video lesson shows you step by step how to introduce your puppy to a crate and the proper use of crates in crate training or housetraining. We give you numerous tips on how to successfully housetrain your puppy. Plus as a bonus, we also teach you two methods to let your dog tell you when he or she needs to go outside by ringing a bell or to speak. Housetraining a puppy can be very frustrating for owners. Combining crate training with your housetraining efforts makes the process easier on the puppy and the owner! Controlling your dog's environment is essential to housetraining success.

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