It’s finally happening: I’m preparing for a puppy of my own! Like many first-time pup parents, I’ve been lucky to grow up with family dogs in my childhood home, and there’s been a pooch-shaped hole in my life ever since I moved out. But, in just a few weeks, my husband and I will close the door on our dogless place one last time – and hop in the car to pick up our miniature schnauzer!
When you’re a kid in a dog-owning household, you don’t see the full extent of what your parents go through preparing for a puppy. Like any prospective dog mom, I want to create the best home for my furkid, and now that I'm the one doing the work on how to prepare for a puppy, there have been far more layers than I was expecting.
Sure, it’s fun ordering the best puppy treats and researching the best puppy food, but that hardly scratches the surface. There’s a reason why they say owning a dog is a big commitment – there’s a mountain of things to consider.
Fancy coming on this journey with me? Read on to find out what I’ve learned about how to prepare for a puppy and the things that are working well for me.
How to prepare for a puppy
1. Budgeting
There are two parts to this kind of prep, which is something I’ve split into start-up costs and ongoing costs of owning a dog.
The start-up costs encompass the purchase price of our puppy alongside the one-off costs of everything we need to buy before our puppy comes home. This includes everything from the best dog toys to puppy treats and what our puppy will sleep in and on, eat and drink from, and their essential puppy vaccinations. We’ve listed all the items out – it’s several pages long!
Next up, it’s the ongoing costs. which are essentially an estimate of what our pup will cost us per month. This includes the best pet insurance, feed and other supplies, grooming, weekly doggy daycare fees, plus a little extra to build up in the background for bigger purchases or emergencies later on.
Monthly costs do pile up, and at the moment, we’re not budgeting for one of the best GPS trackers for pets with a subscription because it’s more of a nice-to-have than an essential. We might look at increasing our budget down the line.
Working this out means we are confident our dog’s upkeep will be affordable, and even if something unexpected crops up, we should be able to cover it. Money worries, so aren’t worth it, and I’m really glad we took the time to do this.
2. The ultimate clearout
I can’t be the only one who struggles to part with items, even if I no longer use them (or even forgot they existed!). However, since part of preparing for a puppy involves accumulating a bunch of puppy paraphernalia, it follows that we would have to get rid of some of our existing clutter.
It’s been super worthwhile to do this. We’ve managed not only to donate items to charity, but we’ve sold bits and pieces too; every little helps, after all! More than this, our home feels much less chaotic, and we can fit all our pup’s new things in comfortably and tidily.
3. Contacting our building management
I live in an apartment, which means there’s a little bit of admin to do before bringing our pup home.
Tenants in my building are allowed pets, you just have to apply to the management company for a permit, pay a small fee, and allow six weeks for it to come through. Once our pup was born, we set this in motion. The application was accepted quickly, so we expect to receive it soon.
If you rent or own an apartment, it’s a good idea to ask whoever is responsible for its management about any pet procedures you might need to follow ahead of time. Here’s some more advice on renting with pets.
4. Local research
This is an ongoing step that I’m not sure we’ll be done with for a long time! We've lived in our local area for a while, but never as dog owners. While we know which parks are dog-friendly, we don’t have first-hand experience with local vets, training classes, and doggy daycares.
While it can be helpful to seek out Google reviews, I wouldn’t be inclined to rely on this fully. We are also:
- Seeking out word-of-mouth recommendations, both from friends and via local Facebook groups
- Asking to sit in on a training class at a potential puppy school before bringing our puppy home
- Arranging to visit vets and doggy daycares to check them out before our puppy comes home
5. Set a home improvement deadline
I know what you’re thinking – we must be crazy for sprucing up our space when a new puppy might mess it up! Surely, home improvement should be the last thing on your mind when considering how to prepare for a puppy.
Well, that’s a fair point. That said, my thinking is that painting and DIY is tough, especially in an apartment where space is a limited, so we’re rattling through a refresh of our paint and upgrading our storage through DIY efforts while we can focus all our attention on it, and not having to keep at least one eye on a puppy!
6. Asking fellow pup parents for the whole truth
Where better to get the lowdown on how to potty train a puppy and tips for leash training a puppy than from someone who’s been, or is going, through it?
Real, no-frills feedback is the name of the game, and it will help you build your own idea of what works (and perhaps what doesn’t) when it comes to caring for, training and raising a brave puppy.
Plus, if your friend’s dog seems to be a suitable candidate, it’s a great time to craft a doggy play date. Take the opportunity to be clear about the format of the playdate – I think it’s really important to advocate for your puppy so he can have the best possible experience. Read our advice on how to introduce a dog if you’re not sure.
7. Puppy proofing my apartment
I don’t have a yard to proof, so that’s saved me a job, but just the apartment has been a big task! So far, my mission to puppy-proof my home has entailed:
- Ensuring cables are tidied – looping them through cable hooks out of reach has been a simple and effective way to do this
- Purchased a grass dog toilet – I have a communal garden that my puppy will be able to go potty on, but I don't want to expose her to this before she's fully covered by her puppy shots. Until then, she’ll get used to going just outside our door on a real grass dog toilet. So, once she’s fully protected, going potty on the lawn should be a piece of cake
- Tackling overheating by investing in a portable A/C machine – our apartment can get super hot in the summer months. In the past, my husband and I struggled on with just a room fan, but that wasn’t going to be good enough for our pooch. We just unboxed our new A/C machine, and I'm using it while I type this – at the time of writing, there’s a heatwave, and the comfort is amazing!
- Bite-proofing furniture – don’t get me wrong, we will be monitoring our puppy at all times, but it only takes a couple of chomps to damage a table leg, even if you rush over to stop your puppy biting. To help protect my furniture, I plan to run sisal rope around table legs and chairs, and the wooden feet of footstools and bookcases. I’ve heard the biting phase comes and goes; hopefully me my furniture and I can weather the storm!
8. Visualizing my new routine
I’m a pretty early riser, a regular runner, and a keen hiker. Still, I know that my daily routine is going to look different with a dog, especially as I’m a work-from-home freelancer and we don’t plan for our puppy to be in daycare every day. I’m going to have to build enough dog enrichment time into my routine to ensure my puppy has the attention, exercise, and entertainment she needs.
At the same time, I’ll also teach her resiliency and independence – as a busy writer, I can’t give her cuddles on tap. She may need some of the best dog puzzle toys to work on, and I’ve also heard that a frozen Kong filled with something delicious works well!
Alongside this, my husband and I are going to commit to some strict house rules so everyone knows where they stand – including our puppy. From what I’ve learned, consistency is key in puppy training, so if our Mini Schnauzer knows she never gets fed from the table or never rushes out the front door ahead of us, she’ll be more able to relax into an environment where the rules don’t change.
9. Learning as much as possible about puppy psychology and training
Y’all, my algorithm knows I’m preparing for a puppy and is serving up all the dog training content you can imagine. I always swipe through to the profiles of any videos I’m interested in to check on the trainer’s doggy credentials, and it’s helped me find trainers and philosophies that I really like.
I’ve also been listening to a couple of dog podcasts, mostly No Bad Dogs for training information and the Good Dog Pod that handles updates in canine health research and veterinary care insights.
A book I’ve learned a lot from is The Happy Puppy Handbook by Pippa Mattinson. She has loads of great advice on how to prepare for a puppy, from training and socialization to going out and about with your young puppy. Plus, she’s very realistic and honest about what new puppy parents can expect to experience.
10. Making an experience ticklist
Finally, I’m serving up possibly the most fun part of preparing for a puppy: making future plans!
Ideally, we’d like to raise a dog who’s comfortable with, and ultimately, enjoys, everything that we do – getting coffee with friends, going to dinner, and heading out for trips in the car. We’re based near London in the UK, so we’d love for her to travel happily on the train into the capital and even go on European holidays with us.
In order to help our puppy live life to the fullest, we need to give her the tools to do so. This means building up to these experiences early and gradually. Perhaps traveling by train would start with a visit to the station at a quiet time, then walking on and off a stationary train before going on a short trip to the next station once she’s confident.
We’ve listed out all the things we’d like to do in life with a pup, broken them all down into confidence-building steps, and hope to embrace the joy of watching her grow and learn. Maybe we’ll host a little graduation for her once she ‘passes’ all the steps – she will be our kid, after all!
