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Puppy Product Recommendations
Below are products that we recommend to have on hand when you bring home a new puppy. These are items that we personally use.
All of our puppies are fed Purina Pro Plan Large Breed Chicken and Rice. We have started all of our litters on this food and have had great results. We recommend feeding this puppy food for the puppy's first year.
We strongly recommend crate training your puppy. Crate training your puppy provides a quiet, safe place for your puppy to be. We have used both wire and solid crates. If you use a wire crate, you will probably want to put a cover over it so your puppy feels more secure. If you purchase a large crate for your puppy to grow into, make sure it has a divider. If the area in your crate is too big, it gives the puppy a sleeping area AND a place to use the bathroom away from its sleeping area. Use a divider to keep the area small and adjust the divider as the puppy grows.
In addition to a crate, we also use an exercise pen with any puppy we bring home. This is a place, separate from the crate that we put the puppy in during the day. A puppy should be constantly supervised in the house and an exercise pen is a safe place you can put your puppy if you can't watch it for a few minutes. In the exercise pen we have a bed, some toys, and possibly a litter box. We recommend using a 48" exercise pen as some puppies learn how to climb out of the shorter pens.
Toys and Chews! Your new puppy is going to chew....ALOT! Providing safe toys and chews is essential in the chewing phase. For stuffed toys, we recommend Kong toys. These seem to be the most durable stuffed toys and hold up pretty well to washing and chewing. For hard toys, we recommend Kong, Nylabone, and Benebones. We never give our dogs ropes as many times the rope gets ingested and requires surgery for removal. For chews we use pig ears, bully sticks, Himalayan yak chews, and beef cheek rolls. NEVER feed rawhide to your dog.
Let's face it. Accidents are going to happen. It is important that any messes are cleaned thoroughly. We use Nature's Miracle cleaning products to clean any accidents our puppy has. If the accident isn't cleaned properly, the puppy will still smell it and think it is a good place to go potty in the future.
We LOVE Snuggle Puppies. We have found that this helps the transition your puppy makes from being with all of its littermates to their new family. The Snuggle Puppy has a heart beat and optional heat source that simulates sleeping with a real puppy.
Goldens do require a fair amount of grooming so you will want the right tools on hand to get the job done. You can use a deshedder like the one pictured, but never use a Furminator brush on your golden. The Furminator has been known to damage golden coats. We use a slicker brush for regular maintenance.
Your golden's nails will need to be trimmed so make sure you have a good set of nail clippers on hand. We also use a nail dremel on our dogs to smooth their nails after they have been trimmed.
We have tried so many shampoos with our dogs and we finally found our absolute most favorite shampoo. We highly recommend Natural Care dog shampoos. We use the Puppy Soft shampoo on our puppies and the Shed Control shampoo on our adults. This shampoo actually cleans the dog and you aren't left with a wet dog smell after the bath.
Our puppies go to their new homes with a small collar, but they will outgrow it quickly. You'll probably want to have a size medium collar on hand. Never leave your puppy unattended with its collar left on. Many puppies have gotten their collars stuck on something and have strangled themselves.
Don't forget to get an ID tag for your dog's collar with your contact information.
A lightweight 6 foot leash is a good option for a puppy.
When you bring home a new puppy, you go through a lot of treats. You'll want to reward your puppy often so having treats on hand is necessary. We use Bil-Jac Little Jacs training treats with our puppies. Cooked, unseasoned chicken and string cheese are high value training treats that work well if you need a little extra focus from your dog.
You will probably use a few different styles of beds as your puppy grows. In the beginning, its important to get something that is washable in case your puppy has an accident. As your puppy grows, getting a durable bed will be important. If your dog is a chewer, be cautious leaving bedding unattended with your dog. Ingested bedding can lead to a blockage... and surgery. For dogs that chew beds, we use Kuranda dog cots. These are extremely durable dog beds and also work well for working on the "place" command. For regular beds, we usually use beds from Costco. We have found their beds hold up to our dogs and are washable.
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