SO YOU ARE GETTING A NEW PUPPY!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
These are the necessary things needed BEFORE your puppy comes home. Playpen, water and food bowl, crate and bedding, pee pads, pin brush, nail clippers, tooth brush, doggy toothpaste, (NOT HUMAN) halter and leash, ball, toys that don't have tags or buttons or anything a puppy can chew off and eat. A doggy door if you have sliding doors get a panel Patio Pet Doors for Sliding Doors that fits in the sliding door that has a doggy door in it from a pet store or online.
Playpen
If you get a puppy from me, this is the Food, I feed, so you will need to get this to feed your new puppy too. Otherwise they will get the runs
"Taste of the Wild", Pacific Stream,
kibble dry puppy food. Get a small bag.
Your new puppy does NOT come, potty trained, but will be introduced to pee pads and will begin to use them. Nor is it leash trained, nor is it trained to sit or stay etc... They are still puppies and barley are weaned, other than it will love and lick your face. You need to train it to do those things and it can take months. YOU, have to be consistent or puppy will be lackadaisical about it too. Get the puppy into Obedience Training once it has all it's shots. Do not take anywhere until it has all shots, do not allow to go on ground in public places, parvo and distemper are on the ground. Continue with training in different ways. Rabies is the last shot it needs depending where you live from 16 weeks old and upward. If you aren't outdoors it can be older. If your puppy whines at night, keep it in a crate next to your bed and let it smell your fingers so it knows you are there. It might need to go potty too, so let it out on a pee pad or take it outdoors, depending on what YOU want to do. Puppies have no idea what you want them to do, it must be repetitive for them to learn.
Mine are used to being in a play pen for safety and security for them to sleep in, with a bed and water line the floor with pee pads. Then after they eats they like to get out for about an hour or 2 and play hard. When done playing they will get really tired and want to sleep for 3 to 4 hours, unless they are woke up. They sleep average of 14 hours a day.
The first thing they do when waking up is, pee, drink water and want to eat a little again, poop then play and while playing pee more. So it’s important for there to be a pee pad right where she plays indoors. Put a pee pad by the door too and if it starts to pee grab it and put it on the pee pad, eventually grab it and take it outdoors so it learns it's suppose to pee out doors. If you take it outdoors right away after she eats, she can play, poop and pee outdoors.
Stay consistent, to start potty training her, take her out every 2 hours, then 3 hours, then 4. As they learns to hold their bladder. It's a puppy with a small bladder right now.
Just be sure the puppy goes out to a safe yard, no poison plants or hawks, coyotes to grab it. You can also put, a bell over the door knob, and teach it to grab it and ring it when it needs to go potty. You can see the video on the volpinosrus Facebook page, search Volpinos R Us on Facebook.
Set up appointment with your Vet within first 5 days of having it or even the day after you get it. Let your Vet know it’s a rare Volpino Italiano from Italy ahead of time and if they don’t know what they are have them go to www.volpinoclubofamerica to read about them. Schedule the shots only 5 in 1 not 7 in 1 as the 7 in 1 Volpino's have had reaction to by passing out or other Immune problems in the future then the Rabies when due, never vaccinate all at once, due them with 2 weeks in between.
All these things need to be done and scheduled, before you bring the puppy home as your puppy needs to be safe, and not kept in a crate all day but a play pen, away from electrical cords or anything you don’t want it to chew as they will chew your hearing aid, glasses, furniture until they are 2 years of age.
Never feed it bones from pet stores, they can sliver and cause problems with the gums.
As a 8 weeks old puppy you can clip toe nails with cuticle clippers, tiny scissors until they get older then use the dog nail clippers. I will clip them before you get them but they grow fast so feel them on a regular basis so puppies get used to you doing it and keep fur on foot trimmed over nails like a rabbit foot, so you don't see the nails.
Your new puppy is now in your new home. First thing you want to do is to REGISTER WITH THE UKC, and AKC your breeder will give you the papers to send in, and with in a week take to your Vet for a Health check and get it's next shot if needed.
Your puppy is now in a new environment, new everything he/she is loving but still nervous, not really sure why it’s there but knows, “goody goody!!! This is new and fun, I need to find out what it’s all about and where everything is”. …I named one of my Poms Watzit because he had never been out of a kennel and didn’t know what things were, so he ran around smelling everything asking me, what’s this, what’s that. So, I named him Watzit. The Volpino puppy needs time to learn what things are what is his purpose and what is his space in this new environment, they are very curious and adventurous, love to run, run, run and play.
Because, it's going to be so happy and playful, it will jump off of anything, so keep it on the floor, not sofa, chair unless it's safely in, YOUR arms, not a child's. A child will never keep the proper grip on a puppy. Have the child sit on the ground with it. The puppy will jump out of your arms and a child's at the second it can then it can permanently damage it's patella or hip or something else. They are wiggly and silly and have no fear, so at all times keep it in safe environment.
We humans are the ones who need to be trained first, to know how to train our beloved pets, so we need to stay consistent, when it comes to a puppy, We, need to learn what the puppies schedule has been, his body language what he learned at his old environment may not meet our needs. They don't come fully trained to meet the new owners schedule, they are on the old owner’s schedule.
So now take the time to write down each time the puppy, sleeps, eats, pees and poops and plays. That is the puppies job right now. Do it again the next few days so you can see it’s schedule. Compare the time each day so you can prepare yourself. It may vary from 15 minutes or more but not by much. It becomes your responsibility to teach the new schedule if needed, keeping in mind theirs first, their body language, their immediate needs. You do this by waking it up if it’s sleeping to pee – poop then eat and play. Slowly it will learn the schedule you are slowly putting in place. But watch the puppies natural one so maybe you can change yours around a little bit instead. If it wakes up at 5 am and you want to sleep till 6 am, put up with it whining till 5:30 or have it in a crate next to your bed and scratch the door for it to smell your hand to let it know you are there. It can take a while for it to feel comfortable so it’s up to you how much patience you have, then take it out to where you want it to go to pee right away, do nothing else.
Do you immediately take him outdoors after he sleeps to pee or do you use a pee pad or both?
When they are little like this, they will look for a pee pad but if one is not there they don't think about it and they just go where they are. Pee pads have formones so they are attracted to go on them.
Teaching them your schedule by taking them out every 2 hours, on a halter and leash and right after eating to get them used to going out to do their thing out doors. They eventually by repetition will go to the door when they want to go out, which tells you it’s time. The puppy will chew the halter while on him even a collar, so you don't want to leave it on him/her at all times, just when you want to take it for a walk. As it ages it won't chew it off the halter or collar.
A doggy door always helps, into a secured yard where no big hawks or other wildlife can get them. We have a few who hung bells over the door knob and taught them to ring the bell when they go out to pee, they get a treat to do this after they pee and or poop, not just because they ring the bell.
They like a clean environment too but it doesn't mean they won't goof now and then even when they are older, sometimes because they are mad at you for one reason or another. So as they get used to living in the new environment they you and they will agree to a new schedule.
When you are not able to watch over every move, the puppy needs to be in a play pen, where there is water, pee pad and crate with bedding for it to sleep in, they like a cave like environment. Then when you want to play with him take him out to pee first where you want him to pee and poo. The puppy will spin around probably & squat, so you can tell when they want to poop.
Soon after a puppy eats it will poop, one of mine goes out the doggy door to poop half way through eating, then comes in and resumes eating. They will poop at least 5-7 times a day when little, count each time and see what time of day it is, they will repeat this each day if fed at the same time. as they age they don't poop as often some only after the eating once a day, some 2 & 3 times, depends if you give them treats too. If you feed him the same time each day, they will poop the same time each day.
They should be eating dry puppy food 3 times a day, just a small handful, no store-bought treats, let your treats be a small piece of carrot or banana, green bean, slice of apple, peach but not the seeds. Read up on what human food ASPCA has a list, I have posted it several times on Facebook.
Dogs have allergies to many human foods, so just a kibble dog food acts like a treat too and you really don’t need to feed it any treats at all, that’s a human thing to make it easy to teach it tricks.
As the puppy ages then feed, 2 times a day always a good puppy food until they are 8-9 months. By the time they are 1 year you can feed them 1 time a day, morning is what I like so they can poop at their leisure out the doggy door as I close the doggy door at night. I do leave a pee pad at that time by the door
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I feed “Taste of the Wild”, no grain, no corn, you can feed whatever you want but be sure its a food one and not one that has been recalled. I have listed all foods recalled for years on pages and groups, another one yesterday 6/13/2018. Numerous recalls from grocery store dog foods and some that are purchased from pet store, including Blue Buffalo a few years ago for adding corn to their food for bulk. It’s possible good now but I still won’t feed it.
While playing they may stop to pee if there is no pee pad available in their space they are playing, they will then pee anywhere so best to keep it playing on tile or concrete with a pee pad nearby. If they smell where another dog has peed in the past, even years ago they can still smell it and will pee there, so a pee pad is good, it has that a formone on it that lets them know to pee there.
From time to time, I will add to this as people ask questions but for now, this is all about YOUR NEW PUPPY.
~Terralea Collins
SUGGESTED GROOMING SUPPLIES
PIN BRUSH EXAMPLES OF NAIL CLIPPERS TOOTH BRUSH SISSORS
This is a IRIS-Dog-Puppy-Training-Pad from CHEWY
There are others if this one is not for you but I find the puppies like to play and chew up the pee pads so this holds them in place.
There are different bran names of these supplies, get what you would like but they are needed. Brush your Volpino regular, I keep my brush next to where I sit, when my Volpino jumps up on my lap. I feel if there are any thick spots that need brushing and brush it. Clip the nails about once a month, brush the teeth with doggy toothpaste (not shown here) and trim around rear if poop sticks to fur.