All the things I wish I knew before I got my first ever puppy!
I genuinely brought half the pet store when I went shopping for Cooper and I still got it wrong!
This post is really what I wish I would have seen before I spent millions buying up half of the local pet store. Lockdown wasn’t helpful as it made people, (understandably), reluctant to engage in any form of conversation with me, so asking for advice in store was out of the question!
Naturally every dog is different and it’s inevitable that you’re going to buy things that your dog won’t like/use, but this is list of things that are the ‘must haves’ in my opinion!
Also just to note, I am not sponsored, nor have I been paid to advertise any of the products below.
1. CRATE
Crate training seems to be a controversial topic on the Facebook forums, but it’s the way most new dog owners go and the way I was recommended to go by a trainer. I personally brought the largest crate I could for Cooper, obviously retrievers grow to be quite a large dog so I wanted something with space for him as he grows. A lot of people say that dogs prefer small spaces, but Cooper HATES enclosed spaces, and my friends retriever was the same. At the end of the day you can buy a large crate and block it off to make it smaller, but you can’t buy a small crate and make it bigger!
2. A PLAYPEN
Following on from a crate, I also brought a play pen which I fixed around the crate. I'd seen a few people do it online and I liked the idea that he wasn't so confined during the night. I brought the largest play pen I could find, and fixed it around the crate. Dogs don't like to pee/poo where they sleep, so if you time it wrong and your pup has an accident in their crate, it doesn't end well! 1. Pee and Poo everywhere, on the bed, on your dog, but more importantly, your pup's probably going to be even more upset about it. Having the pen around meant that I could put Cooper's potty mat in the area away from his bed, yes he missed the mat a few times at night but it didn't cause any major dramas.
3. A BED
Okay so this one is pretty obvious in the fact that you need to buy one, but my main advice would be to buy 2.
A lady in the pet shop who had a German Shepherd recommended getting a plastic bed and buying a pillow to go inside it as it was more chew resistant, I followed her advice and that is the bed that Cooper ended up sleeping in for the first few days.
I then however returned to the pet shop to buy a second bed, I set up his crate in the hallway, but spend most my time during the day in the kitchen with him, moving his bed in and out of the crate was a bit of a nightmare so I figured it would be easier to buy a second one that could live in the kitchen. This time I brought a softer bed as Cooper had shown no signs of wanting to eat his other bed… As you can see from the photo it took him a while to get the hang of sleeping in it, but 2 months later and he still loves it.
I think a bed really is something of personal preference to you as the owner so I wouldn’t recommend one over the other. Both of the above beds were from Pets At Home and were around £40 each.
*UPDATE*
For anyone with a medium to large breed dog, buy big! Cooper outgrew his first 2 beds in just over 2 months and we've now got him the adult versions- he doesn't quite fit them yet but he doesn't care and it saves having to buy multiple size beds as they grow.
4. PUPPY PADS
Another slightly controversial topic…puppy training pads. The basic fact of puppy life is your puppy is going to have several accidents inside, so it’s all about managing it. I read mixed reviews on using puppy pads as some people claim your pups will associate them with going inside, but 2 months in now and Cooper knows that if he needs to pee, he has to go outside, (we were lucky he’s never pooed inside!). But we still use the puppy pads in his play pen at night when he may not be able to hold it and can’t get outside in time.
5. PUPPY PAD HOLDER
Going hand in hand with the puppy pads, I would definitely recommend getting is a plastic holder for them. Puppies are naturally naughty, and leaving a puppy pad stuck to the floor just screams ‘eat me’ or 'shred me to little pieces' to them. Although it’s not impossible for them to tear from up from the holder, it’s a lot harder, and if they do it during the night there may be some remnants of pad left for them to pee on still!
6. A NON-TIP WATER BOWL
So this was a mistake I made on my first puppy shop, which in turn, has lead to several large scale water clear ups! I originally brought a bog standard stainless steel water bowl, I mean it’s a water bowl, it only has 1 job right?
I can’t deny the fact that it did the job, it held water. But as you will know, or will soon find out, pups have very little spacial awareness and not much control over their limbs, where a lot of bowls tip outwards, it only takes 1 stray paw to knock the whole thing over- and you would be amazed how far water can travel!
What colour or style bowl you choose makes no difference, I’d just really recommend one like below which tilts in towards the top, unless your pup is a master of kung fu kicking, these style bowls are very hard to knock over!
7. A SLOW FEEDER BOWL
Dog’s love food. It’s just a fact. And especially with retrievers, excuse the pun, but they really do woof it down! I think especially with the stress of moving to a new home, when you give your pup their food they eat it as quick as possible in fear that it might be taken away from them!
Unfortunately, like humans, eating food at the rate of knots doesn’t do them any good, and Cooper for one ended up with a bad case of hiccups after every meal. To rectify this I ended up buying him a slow feeder bowl. He didn’t like it first and he did have a big sulk that something was stopping him eating as fast, but it worked wonders in the end!
8. A MAT FOR THE ABOVE
Like a child, puppies are messy, food get’s spilt, water gets knocked. Spilt food mixes with the spilt water. Having that little bit of plastic down saves having to clean the floor non stop. Depending on your floor as well it creates a more grippy surface for the bowls to sit on.
9. POO BAGS...AND LOTS OF THEM
I mean I guess this is another pretty obvious one! There's only 2 things I really recommend with them and that's:
They’re scented
They have 2 handles so it’s easy to tie them up.
I ended up bulk buying what is meant to be a years worth on Amazon. They tick both the criteria above and come in a great box which you can easily pull them out of.
10. DOG SEAT BELT
This one is more dependent on your situation. As lockdown was in force when I got Cooper, the breeder delivered him to us. But I’d highly recommend buying a dog seat belt from day 1 whether you’re picking your pup up or not. You never know when you might need it.
Rule 57 of the highway code states: “When in a vehicle make sure dogs or other animals are suitably restrained so they cannot distract you while you are driving or injure you, or themselves if you stop quickly. A seat belt harness, pet carrier, dog cage or dog guard are ways of restraining animals in cars.”
For me I was so glad I had it. A week after he arrived, Cooper got a parasite and was throwing up all night, which in turn led to a midnight trip to the emergency vet, then another trip to the normal vet the day after. At the end of the day, paying £8.99 is better than paying the police fine, getting points on your license, and really worst case scenario, injuring your pup!
11. UNLIMITED KITCHEN ROLL AND DISINFECTANT SPRAY
Back to the pee/poo situation. Accidents are going to happen and I have my fingers crossed for you that you have wipeable floors! Some people recommended a mop to me, but to be honest aside from it been more effort, I imagine the mop would end up smelling pretty quickly. I’ve been using Simple Solutions and it’s been great. It’s a spray so any little accidents can be quickly cleaned up. It also has specific ingredients that eliminate the scent so your puppy is less likely to pee in that spot again.
For more substantial cleans, i.e. washing the entire floor, I've been using Zoflora which is pet friendly and smells good (well in my opinion it does anyway!)
12. A COLLAR AND TAG
Your pup should already be microchipped when you get him/her, but legally if a dog is in public it should have a collar and tag on. I know pups can’t technically go out before they are fully vaccinated. But like the seat belt, looking at worst case scenario, what if your pup did manage to get out? It’s a lot easier for someone to look at their tag, than go through the process of taking them to the vets to get the micro chip scanned.
The collar is very much a personal choice, and I can’t comment on what size would be best. I completely misjudged how little Cooper was going to be so ended up going back and buying a smaller collar! I forgot that most puppies are 90% fur!
Tag wise, I got Cooper’s done in the local pet store. The lady who did it for me was very helpful and recommended a couple of things re: what to put on the tag.
Unfortunately theft of puppies is on the rise, especially in expensive breeds. The first thing she said to me was NEVER PUT THE PUPPY’S NAME ON IT. If your pup is anything like Cooper is, he loves everyone! And if someone did try to steal him, if they looked at his tag, saw his name was Cooper and called his name, Cooper would probably happily trot off with them- especially if they had food as well!
I ended up putting my initial and surname with my mobile number underneath on one side. Then my postcode and my mum’s mobile number on the other side. That way if he does get out locally someone would know roughly where we live and has 2 contact numbers so there is double the chance of getting hold of us.
Again, I’m not saying that’s definitely the right way to go, but that was the advice we got and it made sense to me!
13. STAIRGATE
Depending on how much freedom you want your puppy to have and what breed of puppy you have, a stair gate can be a life saver. A lot of larger breed dogs, like retrievers, aren’t meant to do stairs until they’re a certain age- but just because they’re not meant to do them, it doesn’t mean that they can’t do them or they won’t do them!
They can also be used to shut off rooms or areas in the house which are off limits to the pup. This also saves little puppy claws scratching at your doors!
I found this stair gate on Amazon and it does the trick. I wasn’t looking for anything too fancy, just something practical that wasn’t going to break the bank. It was also easy to put together!
15. TREATS
When you get your little fluff ball home, you’re going to want to start training them straight away, and the best way to convince them to do something is food!
There’s lots of different treats on the market, but read the packet closely because some of them are very high in fat and as a result you are only meant to give them a couple a day, which obviously won’t be too effective with repetitive training.
We found with Cooper the most effective training aid is some plain boiled chicken, or sometimes just using his kibble is good enough. Using something low fat is better as you are less restricted on what you can give them.
16. TUPPERWARE CONTAINERS
The breeder will let you know what food your pup will be on, but if they are on dry kibble I highly recommend getting a range of Tupperware containers, one large one to store the food in (It’s a lot harder for a dog to get into sealed Tupperware than it is for them to get into an already open bag.) Then some smaller Tupperware containers to keep treats in. A plastic scooper or cup is also useful instead of having to try and scoop it out with your hands!
Also once you're settled on a food, it maybe worth investing in a bigger air tight container- especially if you are buying 10kg of food at a time!
17. KITCHEN SCALES
Scales are almost always a must with food- or at least they are with dry food! Cooper has been on 2 different food’s now and both brands used weight as the reference as to how much you need to be giving your pup. Sometimes you can be lucky and the weight can correlate to say, 1 cup full, but when it increases to 1 + 1/7 of a cup, it's far easier just to stick it on the scales- and also better to ensure that you're not over or under feeding your pup!
18. CAMERA MONITORS
Unless you have a whole team of people in the house all day everyday and you’re going to sleep with your pup, you are eventually going to have to leave them alone, and when you do, you’re going to want to know what they’re doing.
Where Cooper is in a crate downstairs, especially over the first few weeks, having the cameras on him at night meant I could judge to see if he was crying and barking because he needed something, or if he just wanted attention (It was normally always the latter!)
After trawling reviews of cameras I finally went for the Victure WiFi IP Camera 1080P Baby monitor Pet Camera 2pc with Motion Detection Two Way Audio. It comes with 2 monitors instead of 1, the quality is good and they were really easy to set up. Yes they’re not as great as quality as what the Ring indoor camera may be, but they do the job and are a fraction of the cost!
19. A LEAD
This is something I missed off my original shopping list. I figured, well he can’t go out till his 12 week injections, so why do I need a lead? Then it occurred to me, hmm, how do I walk him down the garden when I want him to toilet in a certain place? And more importantly, you want to get your dog used to the lead from the start, because if your pup is anything like Cooper, they’re not going to like it in the slightest!
I went for a normal material lead from Pet’s at Home, NOT EXTENDABLE. When they’re young they’re going to want to eat everything and have no common sense when it comes to where they should and shouldn’t go, so you definitely don’t want them on a long lead!
I was also told recently at training that leather leads are better as the dog can ‘feel more’ through it. I haven’t personally made the switch to a leather lead as Cooper is quite good on his normal lead now, but the lady who told me won at Cruft’s with her last dog so I guess she knows what she’s talking about!
20. A SLIP LEAD
I was anti getting one of these, but our trainer recommended them, and as he trains Guide Dogs professionally, we figured he probably knows what he’s talking about!
As you shouldn’t leave a collar on a dog while they’re in their crate, we leave the slip lead out at night so if he needs to go out, instead of fiddling about with his collar and regular lead, we can quickly put the slip lead on him and he knows that we’re going out for toilet, NOT for play.
21. BLANKETS
Kind of self explanatory, but important nevertheless. The breeder will sometimes give you a blanket or bit of material with their mother’s scent on. We also brought some more blankets to go in his bed and in his crate with him. I’m not sure if their purpose is more to make us feel better that the crate looks homelier or whether the pups actually like them, but either way they don’t break the bank. Also it’s worth sleeping with one for a few nights so the pup has something with your scent on it as well.
22. TOYS
There are an infinite number of toys on sale for dogs and puppies, everything from balls to tug toys to soft animals, and from what I’ve seen so far, every puppy is different so it’s bit of trial and error really. I am going to post a separate entry on toys, but I’d recommend maybe buying one ball, one rope and one soft toy, see which one your pup like’s best then go from there. I thought as Cooper was a Golden RETRIEVER, that he’d like balls and playing fetch- I couldn’t have been more wrong! His favourite toy which he sleeps with every night is a little striped zebra chew toy which is half soft toy, half chew ring. I’m very impressed that it’s lasted so long and I’m dreading the day that it dies because he loves it so damn much!
Kongs are also a good idea to put treats in, it can keep them amused for a little bit while they figure out how to get their treats out of them. That, or get an empty water bottle, take the label, lid and plastic rim off, and then drop a couple of treats inside it. Works a treat!
23. TOY BOX
The chances are, you're probably going to accumulate a lot of dog toys in the first few months of puppy ownership, and they get EVERYWHERE. Just don't get too sentimental about it, 3 months in and I'm on my second toy box!
24. INSURANCE!!!!
So I’ve left the most important thing till last… INSURANCE. I got 5 weeks free insurance with the Kennel Club which was great as it meant that I wasn’t in a massive panic to sort it all out along with all the other new puppy stuff. However if your pup isn’t coming with insurance, sort it out asap. Puppies are prone to all sorts of illnesses, within a week Cooper got a parasite from licking a bit of bird poo in the garden, that ended up in an emergency vet appointment in the middle of the night, an anti sickness injection, an x ray and an enema. Then another trip to our normal vets the day after for another X ray and for stool samples to be taken. Then probiotics, then special gastro food, then a few weeks later a mild case of cystitis, and another round of medicine. It may sound like a lot of things but the vet said they were are very common problems with puppies, and fortunately for Cooper they were all mild and not life threatening. There are of course the more deadly illnesses like Parvo virus, and then the day to day things of your pup eating something they shouldn’t. Just to give you some idea, my friends dog swallowed a potato WHOLE. The op to remove it was £4,000! It doesn’t matter how amazing your breeder is or whether your pup comes from a long line of great show dogs, they’re all still susceptible to same illnesses and problems!
When my 5 weeks with the Kennel Club was up, I scrolled through the pages of the Facebook groups for recommendations, and by far the most popular 2 companies that came up were Pet Plan and Bought By Many.
I personally went with Bought By Many, purely due to the fact that they were cheaper than Pet Plan, offered more cover and also give you free 24/7 access to an online vet (which thankfully, touch wood, I haven’t had to use yet!)
To give an idea of price, (living in London), I’m paying £611 a year for Cooper. That is for their top lifetime cover, meaning as long as I stay with them they will continue to provide cover for any ongoing problems he may get. It covers up to £15,000 a year in vet’s bills and I chose to have a £99 excess. You can also choose to pay 20% of any claims for a lower premium.
I found the insurance to all be a bit of a nightmare, there’s so many different options and a lot of small print to read. It was also a lot more expensive than I had anticipated- warning to anyone in London, we pay twice as much as everywhere else in the country!
Bought By Many does also offer a lifetime cover which locks your policy at a certain price and it won’t go up over time. I was originally set on that option, but I later found out they will only cover up to £20,000 over the entire life of your pet. It was tempting but I knew it would be a gamble, and as Golden’s are prone to quite a few health issues I didn’t want to take the risk.
If you do choose to go with Bought By Many, if you use the link below, you will get a free £20 amazon voucher. Softens the blow…a little bit!
