Welcome to the Petite Posh Puppies family!
🐶🐾🥰

Below you will find all info needed to be ready for your newest family member. Your puppy’s microchip info, vaccine records, Snuggle Puppy, Registration (if applicable), starter bag of food, blanket with littermates’ scent, and a few other goodies will be in your puppy’s “Go Home” bag on “Gotcha” day!

We ask that you please keep your puppy mainly inside and away from other puppies or outside grounds until your puppy is fully vaccinated (typically around 18 weeks of age). This is because he/she is still at risk for picking up very deadly illnesses such as Parvo. We do everything in our power to keep our puppies safe and healthy while in our care. We want nothing more than for them to be safe while in your care as well. 🥰

SUPPLIES TO ORDER ASAP!!!

TLC Pet Food & Nuvet Vitamins

TLC is the food your puppy is currently on and should stay on until 1 year old (make sure to choose puppy food). If you decide to do autoship, we suggest starting with every 16 weeks and adjusting as needed. Nuvet is a vitamin we personally give all of our dogs and highly suggest you do as well. Both links can be found here on our Nutrition page.

Puppy Condo

Below is an example of our “Puppy Condo”. This is what your puppy will be used to when you take him/her home. We highly suggest having something similar set up until your puppy is fully house trained. The condo can be a pen like pictured below, or a master bathroom/blocked-off area of your kitchen. So long as the floors for your condo are hard and non-absorbent. (Note that we do not recommend putting a crate in your Puppy Condo. This is because they tend to learn that they can jump on top of the crate, then jump out of the Condo!)

Items needed are the following…

Pen (unless you have a small room with hard/ non-absorbent flooring, about 4’x6’ to use)
Water + Food bowl
Pee pads
Pee pad holder (to prevent your pup from shredding it) Trust us!
Bed
Toys

Collar & Leash

You can find all of these supplies. As well as many more we use, love, and recommend here on our Puppy Supplies page.

BAXTER & BELLA is a wonderful online training program we are partnered with and are able to offer 25% off with our code (PETITEPOSHPUPPIES). Tap here to visit our Puppy Training page for more information.

BOOK YOUR VET VISIT

Make an appointment to have your puppy seen by your vet within 72 hours of receiving your puppy. This is simply a checkup. Your puppy will be up to date on all vaccines and dewormings when he/she arrives with you. Your vet will set up a schedule for when the remaining puppy vaccines will be needed, if any. We suggest booking these ASAP, as most vet offices have limited availability. * Please understand that things such as Coccidia and Giardia are very common for puppies to have. They are easily treated with very affordable medicine (no more than $30). Please contact us if your vet is suggesting expensive treatments due to either of these.

FEEDING YOUR PUPPY

Your puppy is used to eating 2 times per day (morning & night). You may choose the times that work best with your schedule. Remember that puppies typically have to potty about 15 minutes after eating, so plan accordingly!

Our puppies eat anywhere from 1/8-1/4 cup of food morning & night. We will let you know a more precise amount for your specific puppy on “Gotcha” day!

You will need to adjust your puppy’s food as they grow. Their tummy should feel just a tad plump. Your vet will guide you with this as well! (Note that if your puppy is not eating, it is a sign something is wrong. Be sure to get your puppy to the vet immediately if he/she has not eaten anything in 24 hours.)

NIGHTTIME ROUTINE

Your puppy is used to sleeping in his/her puppy condo all night long. There is NO need to treat your puppy like a newborn human baby! Make sure the condo has fresh water in the bowl, a clean pee pad, and their Snuggle Puppy turned on. Once you say good night, do not pick them up again until morning (doing so will train them that crying WORKS). However, you may comfort them by petting from outside the pen. It is completely normal for your puppy to cry for the first week. Your puppy is used to sleeping with his/her littermates, keeping each other warm and snuggly. It is a big change for them to learn to sleep alone. This is why we send a Snuggle Puppy home with all of our babies. It makes the transition much easier for them! Expect it to take up to a week for your puppy to adjust to being away from his/her littermates and settle into their new home. This will include crying quite a bit so you may want to have the condo set up away from your bedroom.

GROOMING YOUR PUPPY

We recommend grooming your puppy every 6-8 weeks. You may choose to have a groomer do this, or you may do this yourself. Brush your puppy every other day to prevent knots from forming (especially the legs, butt, ears, and chest). Brush your puppy’s teeth once per week. Oral health is extremely important as your dog ages.

TRAINING YOUR PUPPY

This is where your “Puppy Condo” will come in very handy! Be sure your puppy is in his/her condo whenever you are not fully watching them. Your puppy will be about 90% accurate at using their pee pad when leaving us! If you would like to train them to go outside, create a schedule every 2-3 hours to take them out. We suggest putting your puppy on a leash when walking around your home at first. This is to be sure no accidents happen. If your puppy does start to potty in your home… quickly pick them up, say “NO!” take them outside and say “ GO POTTY!” (Or whichever word you prefer to say consistently). Be sure to reward your puppy when they do go outside. LOTS of praise and a piece of their food for a reward (we prefer pieces of food over treats as it is less fattening). When you feel it is time to ditch the Puppy Condo, you can slowly begin to broaden your puppy’s area in your home. We suggest starting with just the kitchen, or maybe the kitchen & family room. Once your puppy can be trusted in those areas with no accidents, add another, and so on… Your puppy will quickly learn so long as you stay CONSISTENT!

OPTIONAL CRATE TRAINING

You can train your puppy to sleep all night in his/her crate and love it! However, you cannot lock them in a crate for longer than 2-3 hours until they are about 5 months old. At this age, they can be expected to hold it for 8 hours. Be sure to buy a crate that is just big enough for your (fully grown) puppy to stand up, turn around, and lay down. If you get a crate too large, your puppy will make one area a bed and another area a “potty”. The crate on our supplies list comes with a divider. We love this because it allows you to buy one crate big enough for your puppy when fully grown, but block off the extra space while he/she is still little.

INSURANCE FOR YOUR PUPPY

Your puppy comes with 30 days of FREE pet insurance (excluding New York— see below). Please activate within 24 hours of the puppy leaving us. (*must send policy # to us in order for your 2-year health guarantee to be valid). You DO NOT have to sign up for a paid plan. It is completely up to you to choose to have health insurance for your puppy, or not. It is just like human health insurance. If you happen to need it, it is very helpful! If you don’t, it is not.

(New York Residents)

Unfortunately, the DFS does not allow Trupanion to offer 30 days free. However, you can use the NY offer code when applying so that there will be no waiting period when activating with Trupanion. We do require that NY residents have insurance activated with coverage beginning the day the puppy leaves us in order for your health guarantee to be valid. This is due to travel. We do our very best to keep our pups safe, but there is always a chance they could pick up sickness during travel and we want them covered. You are open to shop different companies. Some that our past NY customers have used are Figo and Pets Best.