My hubby and I have been wanting to add a pup to our family for the longest time. We researched, waited, and thought it through. We wanted to make sure we got her at a time where we were able to give her all of our attention and didn’t have a lot of travels going on. We decided to get her from a breeder near our home town. We were on a waiting list for months before we were able to get her. She was born on January 1st, 2020, we went to visit her in late January, and then got her on February 22nd.
Here she is.. meet Piper Sky Stidham. We obviously named her an aviation name since flying is a huge part of our life. She’s a tiny golden doodle and should be around 12-18 pounds! She has been the best dog and we are so in love with our little girl!
When you get a new puppy, especially if it’s your first, you research, watch videos, and buy everything!! Of course that’s what we did and honestly we didn’t need everything we got. If you want to know exactly what you need when you have a new puppy keep reading…
First off toys, this is a no brainer. You need to buy your pup some soft toys and a lot of hard toys. Hard toys because when they are a baby they have very sharp teeth and they need something to chew on. Speaking of chewing, when we were researching we found out about bully sticks. Bully sticks are sticks of cow hide and they will keep your pup busy chewing that instead of your furniture.
Next, lets talk about crates, when choosing a crate you need to get a crate that is small so your pup can’t move around too much. It needs to be this way because your pup won’t potty in there since they don’t want to lay with their pee. We did this with Piper and she hasn’t once used the bathroom in her crate. In her crate we keep a little bed and usually her blanket.
Speaking of crates, let’s talk about crate training. If you are crate training your pup, make sure when introducing them to the crate that you introduce them slowly. On the first time introducing them into the crate, leave the door open and maybe put some treats or toys in there. Let them walk in and out of the crate, getting used to it so it doesn’t seem like something scary. When it’s bed time let your pup go to the bathroom, then bring them in and calm them down. Relax with your pup and get them tired, then lightly place them into their crate and close the door. Put a towel over top of the crate so they can’t see out. After this, we usually turn off the lights and head to bed ourselves. Fingers crossed, Piper hasn’t cried at night at all using that method.
If your pup is having a hard time leaving her mom and siblings there is a soft toy you can purchase from amazon that has a warm pack in it and has a heart beat. You can put this toy in their crate at night to help them feel at home. You can also bring a toy with you when you pick up your pup and rub it on their mom, this way they have her scent.
Food, when trying to figure out what type of food you need for your pup make sure you go off of what they are already eating. If you want to switch to something else make sure you do it gradually. Puppies tend to not eat much so if you notice your pup isn’t getting a lot of food, try feeding her a hand full ever so often instead of giving her a bunch at only a couple times a day. You need to make sure your pup is eating because you don’t want their sugar to go low. If you are worried about that you can go to your vet and get “EnerCal” this is a syrup paste that will give your pup some sugar.
A couple other items we found out that we needed was stain/oder remover, a play pen, food and water bowls, treats, and bite spray.
We are still new to all of this and I know we will keep learning. I will share more tips and tricks when we discover them. I will link everything I talked about and what we use here.. https://www.liketoknow.it/ltk/4Yhu7VqDDKKjtsjm7hXPk6
Enjoy some more pics of Piper!
