Puppy 101: The Basics for a Happy and Healthy Start

Congratulations on bringing home a new puppy! While not an exhaustive tome on the ins and outs of puppy care, we want to provide you with some basics for making sure you and your puppy are happy and healthy.

Food

Be sure to feed your puppy a diet designed just for puppies during the first 12 months of life. Look for a diet that is geared towards the approximate adult size of your puppy, which will ensure the appropriate levels of calories, fat and protein. Puppies need at least three meals a day until they are about 5 months old, at which point you can feed two meals a day. Your puppy should gain 1-2 lbs. per week. As your puppy grows, you will need to gradually increase the amount of food you are offering at each meal. The first 16 months of life are an important time of bone growth, cognitive development and new teeth; many homemade or raw diets lack the micronutrients and minerals necessary for healthy bones and teeth. Some puppies prefer kibble, others like canned food, we tend to recommend a combination to ensure a diet with adequate moisture. NEVER suddenly change your puppy’s food – this will cause diarrhea and possibly vomiting, and your puppy may become dehydrated. This includes treats – do not give large amounts of any new food, including training treats, as this will upset puppy’s stomach. Do not give table scraps or rich foods to your puppy as this will also cause digestive upset and you will be answering the call of nature with your puppy in the middle of the night. Giving your puppy rich foods can inflame the pancreas and create a gravely ill puppy. If you want to change brands or flavors of food for your puppy, you must make the transition slowly over a period of 7-10 days, gradually increasing the amount of new food and cutting back the old food. Our favorite “tried and true” brands are Royal Canin® Puppy and Hill’s® Science Diet® Puppy. Raw food is risky to feed to puppies because, with their immature immune systems, they are much more vulnerable to pathogens. Here is the FDA Guidance on feeding raw food. Please consult your veterinarian to find out if you should be feeding raw foods to your puppy.

Sleep

Like all growing animals, puppies need a lot of sleep. They will have limited periods of activity during the day and then take long naps. This is normal. The younger they are when you bring them home, the more napping they will do. We prefer to have puppies “crate trained” which means that a nice cozy kennel or crate becomes their napping spot as well as where they sleep at night. The advantage of this is that your puppy will feel safe and secure sleeping in his own cozy cave and is also unlikely to have an accident in the crate.

There is so much sensory overload in a new house with new smells, noises, people and dangers that many puppies will put themselves to bed in their kennel when they are tired. Ideally you will put the puppy in the kennel for a nap when they have been playing for a while and seem tired. Allow your puppy to have a soft blanket or towel and some favorite toys in the kennel and give him a small treat when they go in. At night time, after a last outing to use the bathroom, puppy will go into the crate and you can cover it lightly with a towel to create a non-stimulating environment if they are in the same room as you. If you travel with your puppy, you now have a portable “doghouse” and don’t have to worry about chewed carpet or shoes in a hotel room or at grandma’s house.

Bathroom Necessities

It is a part of life – everyone does it – the earlier you start a consistent routine with housebreaking your puppy, the happier everyone will be. Decide where you want your puppy to go to the bathroom – front yard, back yard, patch of grass, gravel, or wood chips. Be consistent – puppies do best with a routine that does not vary too much. When you wake up (more likely when puppy wakes you up), go straight outside with the puppy to the designated area. Immediately after each meal or nap, go straight outside to their area. Last thing at night before retiring, go to their area and have them empty their bladder.

Keep in mind that if you use pee pads in the house, you are sending a message that it is okay to go to the bathroom in the house! You may initially want to line the kennel with absorbent pads, just in case, but most puppies will really try hard to avoid soiling their kennel.

 If your puppy has diarrhea – stay calm but ask yourself if the puppy could have encountered any of the following: a new food or treat, something yummy (and forbidden) in the yard, a puddle or stagnant water, another dog you don’t know well or leavings of another dog? Try keeping the diet bland for a few days -- you may add a small amount of cooked rice or a tablespoon of canned pumpkin to their kibble. If the diarrhea is high volume, watery or your puppy doesn’t want to eat, then you must call your veterinarian as puppies can become dehydrated quickly due to their small size. Vomiting is a warning sign that your puppy may have eaten something outside what is permitted, and you should call your veterinarian about it right away. Vomiting and dehydration are serious in puppies and require medication and fluids to help puppy feel better quickly.

Health

Puppies have an immature immune system and need to be kept away from all other dogs unless you are certain the other dog has been fully vaccinated. Puppies generally have a series of four vaccine visits with your veterinarian.

It is especially important if you have a rescue puppy that may have been in a stressful situation or had a non-vaccinated mother dog that you follow the vaccination guidance to protect your puppy fully. Try to find a friend or family member with a nice, patient, well vaccinated dog and schedule a play date for your puppy.

The puppy’s first visit to the veterinarian should occur between 6 to 8 weeks of age.  This is when the puppies receive their first Distemper-Adenovirus-Parvo (DAPPV) vaccination, as well as a dewormer, fecal analysis and flea preventative. With the first vaccine, your puppy’s immune system will create a response in the form of antibodies, but this is only a passing response. At 9 to 11 weeks, a second vaccination with DAPPV is performed and this will help your puppy’s immune system develop a more appropriate response to the viruses in the vaccine. Two more vaccines to prevent these deadly viruses are given at 12 to 14 weeks and 15 to 17 weeks to ensure that antibody response and subsequent immunity will last for a year or more.

Before the first two vaccines have been completed it is important that you limit your puppy’s exposure to dogs with unknown vaccination status. In addition to DAPPV vaccines, we recommend the oral Bordetella vaccine during the second vaccine visit to help prevent kennel cough. Once a puppy is at least 15-16 weeks old, they can have their Rabies vaccine and get a certificate for a license. Optional vaccines for Leptospirosis, Influenza, Lyme Disease, Rattlesnake and Coronavirus depend largely on your puppy’s regional exposure to these diseases and risk factors. One year after the last puppy vaccines, your dog will be due for booster vaccines of DAPPV, Rabies and Bordetella. If your dog has specific lifestyle risk factors, your veterinarian may recommend a Bordetella vaccine every six months. Other vaccines may be boostered depending on what your veterinarian deems appropriate for your dog.

 Here is a table of our protocol based on the AAHA core recommended vaccines:

AAHA Recommended Core Vaccines for Puppies

 We recommend using a flea product that prevents heartworm infection as well as other parasites. A few of the highly recommended ones are Revolution®, Simparica Trio®, and Sentinel®. Revolution is a topical treatment that is easy to use on puppies and offers broad protection. The others are in a flavored tablet or chewable formulation. Many products exist and you must research what is right for your puppy or dog depending on where you live and the lifestyle activities you plan to do with your dog – hiking, camping, traveling or boarding, etc. 

Household Dangers

Puppies should NEVER be allowed unsupervised free range in your home. You can set up a puppy play pen or simply put the puppy into their kennel for a rest when they are done playing, when you are unable to supervise your puppy directly or need to run an errand outside the home. Puppies will chew anything, and electrical cords pose a huge risk for electrocution and death in puppies. Your puppy can also chew on toxic household plants, find inappropriate or harmful foods on the kitchen floor, encounter cleaning products that make him ill, fall down stairs or get a scolding from your cat and end up with a scratched eye. You can find detailed information about common household poisons and chemicals here.

Spay and Neuter

Please refer to the article on our website on this topic. There are many schools of thought on when it is appropriate to spay or neuter your puppy. In general, it is thought that waiting until 7-9 months of age for small and medium sized dogs is appropriate. Larger breed puppies should wait until at least 12 months old if possible. Obviously if there is a safety or behavioral issues with the puppy, then these surgeries can be completed earlier. It’s best to ask your veterinarian for advice as they know your dog and can help you decide on the right time for spay or neuter surgery.

Teeth

Puppies should have all of their deciduous or baby teeth by the time they reach 6 weeks of age or so. There are some individuals whose teeth are slower to erupt. The deciduous teeth start to shed to make room for the adult teeth at about 16 weeks (4 months) of age, and all of the 42 adult teeth should be in place by the time your puppy is 6-7 months old. Get your puppy used to having you look in his mouth and touching his teeth – an oral examination is going to be a part of every veterinary visit for his entire life!

Some breeds of dogs with small or short snouts will experience crowding in the mouth and may not shed their baby teeth easily. Retained baby teeth can create an area for tartar to accumulate and cause dental and gum disease. When your puppy goes in for their spay or neuter surgery, your veterinarian can remove any retained baby teeth at that time. Be sure to give your puppy plenty of healthy options for chewing so that they can move through the teething process easily. Some suggestions for toys include Kong® puppy, Nylabone®puppy and Chilly Bone. Here are several suggestions for appropriate chew toys from the American Kennel Club depending on your puppy’s age, size and chewing style.

Socialization

It is important, once your puppy has had a few vaccine visits, that your puppy be socialized with other dogs, other puppies and all manner of people and situations. Some puppies are quite confident while others are shy and skittish, this is normal. Just work with your puppy to slowly introduce new people and situations to build their confidence. Visitors to your house should be encouraged to let the puppy come to them and to then give the puppy a small treat. Visitors should refrain from loud voices or sudden movements that could startle a young puppy. Choose a family member or friend with a well vaccinated dog to come over for play dates. Enroll your puppy in training classes. Car trips can be difficult because many young puppies will struggle with motion sickness. Ask your veterinarian for advice if your puppy gets ill in the car as there are medications available to help with this until the puppy outgrows this phase.