The first few nights of a new puppy coming home are going to be the hardest. I'll tell you that right now. Unless you have an exceptional dog, the first four nights are usually a living hell. Let's just be honest. I am a big fan of kennel or crate training. 
And for me, what that looks like is when I go to bed, I'm the last one to go to bed at my house, so I stay with the dog. I take them outside. And the last thing before it's lights out is I put them in the kennel. I personally do not put food and water overnight. I'm not eating at night when I'm sleeping, nor do they need to eat at night when they're sleeping. It just makes a mess. So I put them in there with no food or water. I'll put a nice bed in there for them. And if I really am kind of worried about how they're going to behave, I might even cover it with a blanket, so it stays nice and dark and cozy in there for them.
It's kind of like raising a child. There are people that will wake up every time the child goes, ""Eh,"" and run to them and pick them up to take them to their bed. You can do that with a dog too, but you're going to be creating a monster. So I normally will kind of let them cry it out within reason, but I will let them do that the first couple of nights. If you stick to your guns, trust me, they will figure it out. The kennel becomes a comfort zone for them. It's just those first few nights. They're away from home. They're away from their mother, their siblings. They're not sure what's happening. I get it. But if you do give in and put them in bed with you, that's fine, but you better get ready to do that for the next 15 years or so.

A lot. Let's face it. They are going to bite and chew a lot. Some breeds and some dogs do it more than others and that's fine, but you've got to think about part of it is they're teething. We all know that babies teethe and chew a lot and drool, and their gums hurt and that kind of thing. Puppies do the same thing. They do it a lot more rapidly. The average dog will start to lose teeth (and, therefore, start to grow their new permanent teeth) as early as about four months. And usually by about six to maybe seven at the latest, all their permanent teeth are in.
You've got to think about this in reference to the chewing. They're not doing it just to be disruptive. They might do it because they're bored, but they're probably doing it because their teeth hurt and it feels good to chew on those things. So they're all going to do it to some degree. You just have to prepare accordingly for it and give them the right chew toys and things like that, which we'll cover in a second.

Well, at your puppy's first appointment, we make sure they're healthy weight. They don't have any cleft palates or congenital issues, any underlying heart issues that we can hear with our stethoscope, any umbilical hernias. We check to make sure there's no fleas or ticks. As far as examining a puppy, these are the main things that we'll be looking at. But we will be discussing a lot of things like how to get your puppy started on vaccines, heartworm, what that is, and prevention, flea, and tick prevention, and toys and behavior. Just setting them up for an overall good life and helping you get used to these conditions that your puppy will grow into.

The very first question that you should ask is what kind of vaccine schedule your puppy should have. It really depends on how many vaccines the puppy has received prior to coming to see us. So please make sure to bring all the records that you received from your breeder or adoption place so we can formulate the schedule specifically for your puppy's needs.
Another question to ask is what kind of vaccines your puppy should get. There are some core vaccines that every puppy should get, including rabies and distemper. There are other vaccines we recommend for certain puppies that go outside more often or go to the countryside and potentially get exposed to the ticks. So please let us know what the lifestyle of your puppy will be and we can start to formulate a vaccine schedule catered to your puppy.
You should also ask what kind of heartworm prevention or flea and tick prevention your puppy should get. Also, be sure to mention any training problems that you have, whether it's potty training or biting issues.
Make sure to find out when you should get your puppy spayed or neutered. That's a very good question. It really depends on the breed and size of your puppies, especially large breed puppies. We're starting to recommend that you may want to wait to spay and neuter your dog later because there's a medical benefit from it, but again, it really depends on the size and the breed of your puppy. So of course, please ask us a question about when would be the best time to neuter or spay your puppy.
Oral care is also very important to address, as you need to train your puppy so they can get used to being their teeth brushed. So please ask that question. And let's see, the next question would be, how often does my puppy need to go to the veterinarian? And again, that really depends on how many vaccines they've received before. In the case of distemper shots, we like to see your puppy get the vaccines three to four times, depending on when the first vaccine was started. So depending on that, we'll formulate the schedule specifically for your puppy. It will usually be about two to three times, depending on how many times the vaccine was given to the puppy.
You’ll also want to know what your vet will be examining during the puppy visit. We basically examine everything from head to toe. We're looking for anything that's orthopedic related—are the joints and long bones are they growing nicely? Does the pup have any pain? We make sure the belly feels great. Are the baby teeth coming in nicely? We check the ears, eyes, heart, and, most importantly, we make sure the puppy does not have a heart murmur. So we check everything.
And lastly, oral care—it’s very important to train your puppy so he or she can get used to being their teeth brushed. So please ask your veterinarian about how to best handle your puppy’s oral care.

Well, first thing I would say is write any questions you have down. A lot of times that would vary when you bring the puppy in, but lifestyle. Hey, I plan to go hiking with my pet. I plan to go to the beach more often with my pet. I plan to be indoors more. What kind of modifications to their preventative care would we need? Other things are if you're considering breeding, what that entails. What are some complications that can occur later on in life if they're not fixed. How to find your dog if they're lost. Microchips are a great way. So a lot of these questions I would say are good questions. So sit down, take some time to think of things to ask your veterinarian and go from there.

We basically examine everything from head to toe. We're looking for anything that's orthopedic related, are the joints, long bones are they growing nicely, do they have any pain? Make sure the belly feels great. Are the baby teeth coming in nicely. Ears, eyes, heart, most importantly make sure the puppy does not have heart murmur. So we do check everything.

It really depends on the breed and size of your puppies, especially large breed puppies. We're starting to recommend maybe waiting to spay and neuter your dog later because there's a medical benefit from it, but again, it really depends on the size and the breed of your puppy. So of course, please ask us a question about when would be the best time to neuter or spay your puppy.