Frequently Asked Questions

What does the puppy come home with?

-A gallon sized Ziploc bag full of puppy food your puppy has been eating.

-A small blanket the puppy and littermates have been sleeping with since they were 4 weeks old.
-Documents from the Veterinarian

What kind of puppy food do you use?

Purina Pro Plan Brand Large Breed Dry Puppy Food, Chicken & Rice Formula

Do I have to use the same puppy food or can I switch brands?

No, you can pick a brand of puppy food you or your vet choose to feed your puppy at any time. We provide a Ziploc bag of the puppy food we have used so if you do decide to switch brands you can properly do so. Transitioning your puppy to new food takes several days.

How much food does the puppy eat a day?

Approximately ½ cup per feeding three times a day. If your puppy doesn’t finish his food during one of the feedings add what’s left over to his next ½ cup feeding. The puppy will sometimes eat a lot with one feeding and then not a ton in another feeding. 1 ½ cups a day is the amount it comes out to. We have been feeding the puppy at about 7:00 AM, Noon, and 6:00 PM.

When does the puppy need his next shot and visit to the vet?

The vet recommends giving your puppy his next shot 2 to 4 weeks from the day the first shot was given. Schedule an appointment right away because sometimes the vet is booked a week out.

How often have you been taking the puppy out to go to the bathroom?

During the day, we take the puppy about every one hour, depending on if he is awake or not. We have found the puppy tends to be most active in the mornings, late afternoons and evenings so taking them out to the bathroom more often during those times is a must. Afternoons is when the puppy tends to take his longest naps so he may not need to go to the bathroom until he wakes up.
At night we take puppies out every three hours. Goodluck!

Do you have any potty-training tips?

ALWAYS take your puppy out to go to the bathroom AS SOON AS he wakes up from his nap. I recommend blocking off parts of your house to keep a better eye on your puppy. When we had our dogs as puppies, they only had access to the family and kitchen for the first two months we had them.

A schedule I recommend is: take puppy out to go potty as soon as he wakes up from his nap, set a timer for 20 minutes and play with the puppy, as soon as timer goes off take the puppy out to the bathroom, set timer and play for 20 more minutes, take the puppy to go to the bathroom again, let puppy nap. As the puppy gets older, the play time will get a little longer.

Praise the puppy when he goes to the bathroom in the proper place. Give him a treat! Don’t get upset at the puppy when he has an accident in the house.

Do you have any biting tips?

I recommend watching YouTube videos on this part of training but lots of redirection is key! Have toys handy to put in the puppy’s mouth if he is biting you. You don’t want the puppy to even bite your clothes or shoes while wearing them, any biting is bad behavior.

How often do I take my puppy to the groomers?

Wait until your puppy has had all of his vaccinations before you schedule his first grooming appointment. We take our dogs every 6 to 12 weeks depending on how short or how long their fur is after the last grooming. Queenie goes more often than Dixon because we like to keep her fur long and his short.

Overall training tips?

The biting, potty training and “sit” are the three things we recommend focusing on at the beginning. Biting and potty training can be hard and seem like it never ends but I promise it does end! Once the puppy has the command “sit”, then start another command like, “stay”, “come” or “lay down”. Decide as a family what words you want to use for each command. We chose “off” when the puppy jumped on us and “lay down” when we wanted them to lay at their special spot. This is my FAVORITE command because when it is time for us to eat, we tell them to lay down and they go and lay down at their special spot. When we have someone come over to the house, we tell them to lay down and they find their special spot to lay down. It is out in the open where they can still see all of the action but off to the side so they are not in our space when we don’t want them to be. Be consistent with your training!