This post brought to you by Iams. The content and opinions expressed below are that of I Heart Arts n Crafts.
Have you been asking yourself if you’re ready for a new dog? Maybe your kids have been begging you to finally get one? That’s what happened to me. My kids absolutely loved their uncles little Pomeranian dog, my oldest was really attached to him and I loved seeing that bond between a toddler and a puppy. Seriously, just look at the photo below …it just makes your heart melt. So we thought it was a good time to finally get our own dog, I wanted to get one when the kids were a good age to understand how to play with a small dog and they would be able to grow up with it.
But getting a puppy is a huge transition for your family, you have to rearrange your lifestyle a bit to accommodate the new addition. I’m no expert on this subject, but I wanted to share with you what I’ve learned a long the way and some tips to make the transition easier for your puppy and your kids.
10 Tips Every New Dog Owner Should Know
Get Your Gear – Make sure to stock up on all of your essentials before you bring your new dog home. Include things like a crate, bed, Iams dog food, treats, toys, shampoos, etc. Baby gates are great to have too!
Set Up A Puppy Room – For the times when you can’t supervise your dog, keep them in a small areal like the bathroom or kitchen. This will also be where you keep all of the puppies things like toys and the crate so that it helps keep all of the puppies belongings in this spot and helps to minimize the clutter.
Puppy Training – Pick one spot that you want your dog to go potty in, this way you won’t have your dog going all through the yard when they are finally trained. Take them directly to that spot every single time.
Enroll In A Puppy Class – This is great for your puppy to learn basic obedience and you can meet other local people with puppies.
Leave the TV or Radio on when you leave your puppy home alone. This helped so much the first few weeks if I had to run to the store for something I’d do this and she would remain calm!
Get everyone on the same schedule – As a stay at home mom, I also had two toddlers plus a puppy to take care of. What was the easiest for me to get everyone on the same schedule was to go on walks the same time everyday before we even got the puppy. This got us in the regular habit of walking every morning so that when got our puppy the transition was a little easier.
Get to the vet – You’ll want to make sure that your puppy is up to date on all of their shots and just an overall checkup.
House Training – Accidents in the house are inevitable with any new puppy, so we stocked up on good odor eliminators and puppy pads.
Prepare your yard – All dogs love to be outside, so prepare your yard so that they’ll be able to run around and burn off that energy that they have.
Getting them on the right diet – This is the most important tip because their diet can effect everything. You want to avoid foods that will give your puppy unwanted tummy problems, especially because you’ll be house training. Do your research on your dog food and get something that is high quality, like Iams quality dog food. When your dogs are eating better food, they feel better, and the differences are visible like a shinier coat, skin, improved energy levels and healthy digestion. Our Yorkie’s current diet has been giving her tummy trouble, low energy, and even some dry skin. So, we recently switched to Iams dog food, we’re excited to see how the change in diet is going to effect her. Iams Visible Differences
Ready to see the visible difference? Grab the $5 Iams coupon below and make the switch to a better diet for your dog!
Need more help? Keep an eye out for our next post on how to prepare your kids for a new dog!
Leave a Reply