The First Week Home
5 cards · about a minute
Shrink the house
One room rather than the run of the place: a puppy given the whole flat on day one has too much to chew and nowhere small enough to properly rest.
The first nights
Put the bed beside yours and move it out by degrees, a puppy who has never slept alone should not start on the night everything else changed.
Keep the old food
Feed exactly what the breeder or shelter was feeding for the first fortnight; the move is already change enough without asking the gut to keep up.
Sleep is the work
A puppy needs around eighteen hours a day, and most of what looks like biting and mania at eight weeks is a puppy who has been kept awake by visitors.
Start the routine now
The hours you set this week become the hours your dog keeps for years, so put the meals, the walks and the bedtime where you can actually hold them.