BEFORE!!! You Actually Get Your Dog and Bring It Home!!

This is a very important point to get in before I start giving out tips to training and raising your dog!
When you finally decide you're ready to get a dog, there are a lot of things you need to do before you ever get the dog and bring it home. I get really upset when people just come home from the park or the shelter or wherever with a new puppy and have nothing to take care of dog with. You HAVE TO BE PREPARED to bring a dog into your house! Before you ever get the dog you need lots of things so that way the transition for the puppy is easiest, and you're not feeding it table food and letting it eat out of your cereal bowls, or sleeping on the carpet, etc. That environment is not good for a new puppy, you have to be prepared to be able to give them a healthy happy home.

Here is a list of things you will need before you bring a dog home:  (not comprehensive)

Dog food (puppy, if your dog is young)
Bowls (1 for food, 1 for water = size appropriately big dog, big bowls and visa versa)
Kennel  (size appropriately)
Dog bed (buy one, or make your own, I have always made mine :) )
Pooper scooper or bags (you will have to clean up after it!)
Toys (they will love you for this!)
Treats (preferrably training treats if they are young)
Nail Trimmers
Brush
Towels (I have designated towels for my dog, they are dirty esp. in bad weather, if you don't want it in your house you'll have to clean them up)


That should be a pretty good start for your first few weeks with your new puppy. I always tell people to make sure that they buy things for how big their dog WILL get, not how big it IS. That is mainly just to save you time and money, because otherwise you will inevitably have to buy a bigger one. Training treats are also a good idea, because when you are training you need something small that can be eaten quickly so they can get back to paying attention to what you're working on.

Another good thing to do before you get your dog is to call around to veterinarians to see who has the best prices for all the shots and checkups you will need to get for your new puppy. Told you it's a lot of work!