Search "new puppy checklist" and you will get lists with sixty or seventy items on them. Most of it is either unnecessary or can wait until week three. Meanwhile the things that actually matter on night one get lost in the noise.
Here is the version split into three buckets.
Before pickup: the essentials
Have these in the house before the puppy arrives, because the first night is not the time to be driving to a pet shop.
- The food the breeder was already feeding. Do not switch brands in week one. A puppy dealing with a new home and a new diet at the same time will get diarrhoea, and you will not know which change caused it.
- A crate or pen. Sized so the puppy can stand, turn around and lie flat, and not much more. An oversized crate defeats the point of crate training.
- A collar and a lightweight lead. Puppy sized. They will be out of it in six weeks, so do not spend much.
- Puppy pads or newspaper. Even if you plan to toilet train outside. You will want them for the first few nights.
- Safe chew toys. Three or four, in different textures. Teething starts sooner than people expect, and furniture is a much more interesting chew than anything you buy.
- Poop bags. Buy more than you think. Sixteen rolls sounds like a lot until you have had a puppy for a month.
Worth having in week one or two
- A snuggle toy with a heartbeat or heat pack. Puppies separated from their littermates for the first time settle faster with something warm next to them.
- Wipes. Puppies are messy in ways you do not anticipate. Paws, faces, the occasional accident. A pet wipe pack earns its place in week one.
- A blanket that smells like the litter. Ask the breeder for one. It is free, and it does more for the first two nights than anything you can buy.
If you would rather not assemble all of this piece by piece, a new puppy starter kit covers the recurring consumables without the items you should pick yourself, like the crate and the lead.
What can wait
Genuinely not needed in month one:
- Grooming clippers. You will not be clipping a four-kilo puppy's coat.
- A full set of grooming tools. A brush is plenty. The rest can wait until you know what the adult coat looks like.
- Winter coats and jumpers. Your puppy will outgrow them before it gets cold.
- Retractable leads. Not before loose-leash walking is established, which is months away.
- Every toy in the shop. Puppies play with about four of them.
The first two weeks are about routine, not training
People put a lot of pressure on themselves to start obedience training immediately. The more useful thing in the first fortnight is a predictable schedule: the same times for meals, toilet trips, naps and bed.
Puppies need more sleep than most new owners realise, somewhere around eighteen to twenty hours a day at eight weeks. A puppy that turns into a biting, frantic gremlin at seven in the evening is usually an overtired puppy. Put them in the crate and the behaviour stops within ten minutes.
Short training sessions can start around week two. Two or three minutes at a time, several times a day. Name recognition, toilet training, and the beginning of a sit. That is enough.
Toilet training: what actually works
Take them out on a schedule, not on a signal. Every two hours during the day, plus immediately after waking, after eating, after drinking, and after any play session. When they go outside, mark it with a word and reward within two seconds. Accidents inside get cleaned up without drama and no correction. A puppy cannot connect a telling-off now with something they did four minutes ago.
One thing worth the money
A soft blanket that lives in the crate and comes with you on car trips and vet visits. Getting a dog used to a familiar object early makes the first few vet visits considerably easier, and it gives them somewhere to settle when the house is busy.