There are so many things to remember to buy, and have on hand when you bring your new puppy home. There’s; puppy supplements, food, food bowls, crates, dog beds, leashes, harnesses, and collars. Then, there’s the biggie: Chew Packs!
You need to have a puppy chew pack. This is a good supply of toys and bones that the puppy can safely chew on. Chew packs come in different sizes; for large breed, medium breed and small breed puppies. The chew pack has different bones/toys in it. You can shop many different varieties of chew packs. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
You will be using those to teach your puppy to teeth on bones/toys, not your skin. Puppies are teething and they will be looking for something. The first thing they must learn is what’s available and acceptable to chew on.
If they put teeth on your skin, arms, legs or shoes- you need to have a bone/toy to divert them to. When they divert to the toy or bone, you need to reward and praise them. Soon they will go right to their bones and toys when they need something to chew on.
After you pick out a chew pack, you can introduce each item to you puppy to find favorites. You will also want to have a couple of Nylabones around also. Nylabones are designed for the kind of power chewing your puppy will be doing when you bring them home. Nylabones are safe chew and can be left in the puppy crate.
Make sure you check out all the toys/bones in the chew pack to determine which can be left out all the time. Some toys are great for diversion and play, but cannot be left unattended with the puppy. They must be put away after the play session has been done. Generally Nylabones and Kongs can be left out all the time.
Kongs are durable toys that come in all sizes from small to extra large. You can also fill up the Kong with puppy kibble and give that to your puppy for a snack.
As your puppy grows, you will need to re-evaluate the size ratio of all the toy/bones/Kongs and Nylabones to ensure you have the correct size. Remove and replace as the puppy grows. Toys/bones designed for an eight week old puppy can be a choke hazard to a six month old puppy.
Make sure any debris on the floor, or in reach of the puppy is picked up. Like toddlers, puppies are teething and putting everything in their mouth. So you need to keep the puppy safe by making sure there is nothing in their reach that they could ingest.
If you are unable to watch your puppy, make sure they are in an area free of anything unsafe they could mouth, chew or injest. For short breaks, you can put the puppy in their crate with a steel water bowl and their Nylabone. A lot of people use baby gates or indoor puppy fence to create a safe playpen for the puppy inside their house.
Puppy crates come in many sizes and designs. Depending on the breed of puppy, they should be big enough that the puppy can stand up and turn around in them. They must be large enough so that when the puppy is standing up, their ears do not touch the top ceiling of the crate. If the puppy cannot stand up and turn around in the crate when it’s closed, the crate is too small. If you continue with crate training, you will need to upgrade to larger crates as the puppy progresses in growth.
If the puppy is less than 15 pounds, they can fly in the cabin of an aircraft with you in a soft sided airline approved puppy cabin carrier. These crates are designed for flight use only. They are not durable enough for regular, puppy crate training. They can also be a chew hazard. However when you use them for airline flights, you are in attendance(ie supervised use of the carrier for travel).
For regular puppy use you will need a hard sided crate, or a wire crate. These crates are designed for every day use and training, including car travel. When using crates with teething puppies, make sure the inside of the crate contains only steel dog bowls for food and water, and a Nylabone. Dog beds, pads and mats can be a choke hazard for teething puppies in crate training.
You can use the dog beds, pads and mats outside the crate for supervised time with your puppy. You can train them to use their dog bed as their place in the family room when you are there with them.
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