You’ve chosen your new pup and now you have a few weeks to prepare for their homecoming, what do you do?!?

1. Schedule a well check appointment with your vet as soon as you confirm a pickup day. It’s important for everyone involved to get a clean bill of health for your new furry friend as well as establish a good working relationship with your vet. On your first visit, you will want to schedule out your pups vaccinations as well as talk through parasite control options. Another question on that first visit is how to recognize if your little one might be under the weather or showing signs of sickness. You’ll also want to schedule out when you’ll get your pup spayed or neutered.
   
   
2. Stock up on supplies. You’ll need a handful of items to get off to a good start.
   1. A crate. This will become your pup’s den and depending on your plan with crate training or not, your new pup will like a safe spot to tuck away from the bustle of life. We like:
      – Wire crates with a removeable tray as they are easier to clean and can allow for both an “Open Crate” and a “Closed Crate” by simply throwing a blanket over it to give pup some ‘alone time’
      – A crate with  one or two latches instead of three
      – 30 inch crates for dogs who will be less than 30 pounds fully grown
      – 36 inch crates for those over 30 pounds fully grown
      – A crate with two doors makes some tasks like putting in food or water if needed much easier.
      – **** A crate with a divider so it can grow with your pup.
      – An Amazon search for “Dog crate with divider” should get you well on your way
      
      
   2. Food. We’ll give you a pound or so of starter food Purina ONE found at chewy.com (best price we’ve found in the Twin Cities metro), Menards, Fleet Farm, Walmart, Petco, etc but you can feel free to transition to whatever food you choose. A general rule of thumb is a 7 day transition:
      1. Day 1,2 – 25% new, 75% old
      2. Day 3,4 – 50% new, 50% old
      3. Day 5,6 – 75% new, 25% old
      4. Day 7 – 100% new
         
         
   3. A collar: The mini Bernedoodles and Goldendoodles will generally fit a small harness collar where the leash attaches between the shoulder blades. We start off with this until the pups are a bit more used to something around their necks, and then transition to a regular collar at that time when leash training becomes appropriate.
      
      
   4. A leash will keep the little rascals from getting away from you. They come in all flavors, fixed length, extendable, chains, the sky’s the limit.
      
      
   5. Toys You could spend $1000s of dollars on these and still only have a small percentage of what’s available. Pro Tip: Regular tennis balls are cheaper and more durable than the stuff in the pet aisle.
      
      
   6. Bedding will keep little pup cozy at night and during nap time. Again, find something that fits your crate if you’re using that or else something that works with the accent colors in the room they’re in.
      
      
   7. “Accident Spray” You’ll be cleaning up pee and poo, and you don’t want pup to think that last spot she had an accident is the place to go next time, so you need to remove the odor. We have had great success with Nature’s Miracle, “Enzymatic formula” Stain and Odor Remover
      
      
   8. Treats: Pick your favorite, small bite sized for the mite-sized pup
      
      
   9. Bones to chew on. We use non-rawhide or antlers with filling. Pro Tip: sneak a little peanut butter in the hollow of the antler
      
      
   10. Food & Water Dish. Again, many flavors, but we prefer stuff that can’t tip over when the pup flies across the kitchen floor after his peanut butter filled antler and smashes into the water dish. They make ‘Dog Gluggers’ for water if you want to fill it up less frequently.
       
       
   11. Shampoo: Doodles in general have a bit more sensitive skin than some other breeds, so choose something gentler
       
       
   12. Pooper Scooper will keep your yard fresh and clean.
       
       
3. Find a house training plan you like. There are different strategies to house training, so choose your plan and stick to it.

   With our mommies, for instance, we combined crate training and housetraining into one ‘power week’ or so. If they weren’t out playing with us they’d be in their crate. We take them out when they come out of the crate, and before they go back in. We also look for the tell-tale, whining, or sniffing in circles while we’re playing with them and bring them out immediately.

   The part that’s rough is the overnights. Since they really can’t control their bladders until somewhere between 3 and 9 months, we’ll take them out every 2 hours or so, increasing that as a general rule of thumb, one hour for every month old, so a 2 month old can ‘hold it’ for about 2 hours.

This list should get you started off on the right footing and hopefully you’ll be a pro pet owner in no time!