Bringing Home a New Puppy: What to Expect

Getting a new puppy is incredibly exciting for all the family, but it is easy to forget that it can be stressful for your new pup. Find out how to deal with your puppy’s first day home with Purina.
Bringing a puppy home is an exciting one for all the family! You are starting out your new life together with the canine best friend you have always dreamt of. Everything is ready to welcome your new puppy and help them settle in straight away.

But there is something many new owners don’t realise. While everyone in the house may be bursting with excitement and desperate to play with the newest member of the family, your puppy’s first day home may look entirely different to them. After all, they’re on their own, away from the mum and their littermates for the first time in their life, in a totally strange place, with people they don’t know. It can be overwhelming for your pup and may be stressful or even frightening for them. Here’s how to help your puppy settle in and find their paws in their new home.

Household preparation before bringing a new puppy home

There are a few things you need to know to be more prepared to bring your puppy home for the first time. Read our planning tips below: 

• Plan time off: A puppy can’t be left alone for long enough for you to do shopping or other key chores for some considerable time, so organise deliveries, assign tasks to other people, set everything up so that at least one adult will be home at any given time.
• Tidy up: Go around all the rooms your puppy will be in, at puppy level, protecting wires, taping or tacking down loose carpet edges, and putting away expensive tasselled rugs or wobbly vases! Puppies explore with their mouths so if it’s in reach, it’s going to be chewed!
• Set up a puppy pen: It’s important your puppy is in the same room as you all the time to start with so they don’t feel abandoned or get into mischief, but you may need to do tasks without a puppy underfoot. A versatile puppy pen can keep your puppy is safe and close by – and, at those times when you can’t keep your eye on them 100%, you can still keep them safe from hazards. 
• Check the garden: Fence off an area for your puppy to act as a toilet, and check the rest of your fences as, even though your puppy is not going to be in the garden alone, they can squeeze through tiny gaps in a moment. If you have a very big garden, you might want to create a section that is especially for your dog.
• Fence off dangerous parts of your garden: Gardens can hold many hazards for a curious puppy – from poisonous plants, to water features or pools – and even toxic products. Find out more about how you can puppy-proof your garden with our helpful guide.

Keep reviewing the above list as your puppy grows. The things they can reach and the items they’re interested in will change as they get older, braver, and more confident!

Bringing a new puppy home in the car

You’ll need to be prepared when bringing your puppy home in the car for the first time – from thinking about car safety, how and where your puppy will travel so that they are secure and not a distraction to the driver, and having a helping hand to either drive you or keep an eye on your pup. This is important as ideally you need to be able to be beside them – both to help make the journey less worrying and to start your bonding process.

This is their first introduction to their new life, so it’s important to make this journey as straightforward and stress-free as possible – for you and your new arrival.

Upon arriving home

Also be aware that the sudden stillness of the stationary vehicle can wake them and trigger vomiting if they were feeling nauseous… so be ready!

First steps

• Almost certainly, the very first thing they will need to do is go to the toilet. So, as soon as you arrive home, before you do anything else, is to carry them to your chosen toilet area. This is a great opportunity to kick start your puppy’s toilet training, so make sure you have a treat ready to reward their first toileting success!
• Bring your puppy in quietly, only introduce them to the people they need to meet today – if a meeting can easily be put off until tomorrow, do that, and give your puppy space to decompress and feel more secure.
• Introduce your puppy to just one room and the outdoor space they’ll use for toileting, and have someone stay with them all the time, even if they’re asleep so that they don’t wake up and find themselves alone in a strange place.
• Ensure if you have other dogs, someone is home with them, and that they’re well exercised, content and settled. If you don’t have someone at home with them, one person should stay in the car with the puppy while the other goes in, lets the dogs out for a pee and then gives them a chance to settle down before ideally putting them into another room. Ideally these introductions are best left until the puppy has had time to recover from the journey.
• While your new pup is getting used to their surroundings, always supervise excited children and make sure you give your puppy plenty of much-needed time out from all the excitement – and the opportunity to sleep peacefully whenever they want to. Remember that an 8 week old puppy needs around 20 hours of sleep every day.

Now sit down, have your puppy close beside you, and relax – it may be a full-on emotional roller-coaster for the next few weeks, or months, but you’ve started off perfectly and you deserve a rest!

Hints and tips for bringing a new puppy home

1. Make things familiar for your new puppy

Your new puppy is still a tiny baby. Up until now, their whole life has been spent in one place, a comfortable environment, close to their mother and with their littermates for company.

All the sounds, sights, and smells that were once familiar are gone. This is why trying and making things feel familiar right from your puppy’s first day home is so important. Bringing a piece of veterinary bedding or a blanket back from the breeder that smells of the puppy’s mum and littermates can be comforting and provide them with a touch of home.

2. Allow the puppy to dictate the pace of your interactions

When bringing a new puppy home for the first time, understand that some puppies might be super-friendly and enthusiastic and want to climb all over you. However, others may start off more standoffish and prefer to get to know you more slowly.

During the early days, let them decide how much contact they want from you and the rest of the family. Don’t chase your puppy around, and absolutely no grabbing or holding them – especially if they want to move away from you. You want your pup to begin their life with you the way you want them to go on – trusting you, trusting your hands, and trusting everyone in the family.

These are the days to just sit quietly on the floor with your puppy and let them explore you – or find other ways that your new arrival can get to know you with no pressure.

3. Create guidelines for your family

Before bringing your puppy home it’s useful to agree on a list of guidelines with your family. It’s important that each member of the family is consistent with these puppy rules from day one. As an example, a puppy will get easily confused if they are allowed on furniture by one member of the family but not by another.

And while it might seem cute in a baby, you don’t want your puppy to do things now that you are not going to want them to do as an adult. Give them bits of food from the table once and you can expect to be pestered at every mealtime! Or let them jump up now and you can expect that to continue when they are older. All of these are easily avoided as long as everyone is consistent.

Children should also be guided towards being calm and showing the new puppy care and respect. Take a look at our guide to introducing puppies and children for more tips.

Everyone in the family should learn to treat the puppy with kindness and respect. No grabbing, hugging or pushing and pulling them around (even in play).

There are other rules to establish for the human members of the family that might not have to do with their interactions with the puppy but in general to help encourage appropriate dog behaviour. As an example, make sure all family members know not to leave tempting, valuable or dangerous things in reach of puppy teeth. Puppies explore using their mouths and teeth so anything in reach will get chewed.

While you do need guidelines for your puppy, don’t think that these are set in stone and every dog has to follow the same rules. Decide what works for you and fits in with the relationship you want from your new companion – then be consistent.

4. Don’t worry if they seem worried or fearful

Don’t expect your puppy to come through the door confident and playful. They may do, but far more likely they will be tentative, wary and uncertain as they try to discover what the next phase of their life is going to bring. 

On your first day with a new puppy, it’s important to remember that everything has changed for them. Their new life may seem strange, different and potentially scary. 

You know that your puppy has ‘come home’, that you will love your new dog and give them everything you can to keep them happy and healthy. But right now, your puppy doesn’t know that. 

Be patient and give them time to feel safe – and your puppy will settle in much faster.

5. Spend as much time together as possible on your puppy’s first weeks at home

Dogs always need our company, but this is especially important in early weeks of life when puppies are learning about the world around them, who these new people are, and who to trust.

Make sure you are there to guide them every step of the way.

Once your puppy feels secure in their new life, they may, with training, be able to be left on their own but to start with, they need your company and presence to help them find their feet in this strange new world.

If you find that you are not able to spend as much time with your puppy as you need to, you can start to consider dog walkers, daycare – or friends and family members to help you. 

All you’ll have to do now is enjoy getting to know each other, playing, training, socialising, having fun and watching your pup grow up to be your best friend!

We hope this article on the first day with your puppy was helpful and prepared you! Next, read about our top tips on introducing your new puppy to other dogs and pets to help your training progress to the next stages.

Bringing a puppy home FAQs: