Nuts for Mutts

Bringing Puppy Home
By Ellen Schmidt

Now that you have seen your new puppy for the first time together with its litter mates and mom, you wish nothing more than cuddling it and spending time playing with this little cutie at home. You take over a big responsibility as the new pet parent, so it is time now to arrange overall important basics of new puppy care and lay the foundation of a healthy life.

Taking home your new puppy for the first time and introducing it to your home and family is a moment full of joy and excitement.

Make sure you arrange an appointment with your veterinarian and let him or her do a thorough puppy health check. This can help to give proper treatment straight away, in case your vet would find anything that needed veterinary attention.

You will be advised to give your puppy a special wormer designed for the use in young puppies in regular intervals over the first 12 weeks of age. Your vet will usually start up a basic immunization course that will require regular updates during its further life.

Accidents and unexpected health problems do happen quite often and it does make sense to insure your new puppy right from the beginning: you can be sure to be able to pay high vet bills in case your pet unexpectedly needs veterinary care or specialist surgery whenever throughout its life.

Your veterinary clinic will have plenty of information material and promotions available for owners of new puppies and you often get discounted or free insurance coverage for the first month for a newly enrolled puppy.

Pet insurance is different from other insurances you may already have got: there is no pet health plan that would suit all pets the same and switching companies later often comes with disadvantages. Therefore it is a good idea to sit down and compare pet insurance companies and their different pet health plans and options. You will need to invest a bit of time to do this, but it is worth every minute you spend now on it: make sure you find the best pet insurance plan for your new pet that covers also health problems in its later life.

The integration into your life and household is a shock to this little creature: it has been taken away from its mum, its litter mates and the people it knew and was used to since it was born. And now it is introduced into a totally unknown environment: everything is different, the voices and noises, the smells, food- and water bowls and the bedding. Usually, a puppy feels scared and insecure and does not understand really, why everything has changed all of a sudden.

You can help your new puppy coping with this huge emotional stress and anxiety better, if you continue feeding the diet it was used to at its breeder. Puppies that are challenged with a sudden change of diet will develop very quickly digestive problems and symptoms, such as diarrhea or vomiting. Give your puppy attention and try to distract it: play time and a new toy is always a good idea; challenge it with simple tasks a young puppy needs to learn, introduce it to the new daily routine and be consistent with what is allowed and what not.

Check, if everything is organized and in place when you need it, so you can enjoy every moment during your new puppy's first time in its new life without having to worry that you might have forgotten something important.

back to top