Your puppy's first week at home

Arrival day: one quiet room and no visitors

Keep it quiet. One room, the crate open, water, a short walk in the garden and no visitors. Your puppy has travelled and met a new world; sleep is what it needs.

A puppy that arrives by road with our nanny has been awake, fed and walked every three hours, and a puppy that arrives by air has spent the day in a carrier under a seat. In both cases the first six hours at home should contain almost nothing: a drink, a toilet trip, a sniff around one room and a nap. Friends, children from next door and the family dog can wait until tomorrow.

Put the carrier or the blanket from the journey in the crate. It smells of the breeder's home and of the mother, and that smell is the single most calming thing in the room.

The first night: crate next to your bed

Crate next to your bed, a blanket with the mother's scent (we send one) and a ticking clock or a soft radio. Expect some crying; take the puppy out once at night for the first week.

The crying usually lasts ten to twenty minutes on the first night and a few minutes on the third. A hand on the crate door and a quiet word is enough; taking the puppy into the bed on night one teaches a habit that is hard to undo at thirty kilos. Set an alarm for three in the morning, carry the puppy outside, praise it when it goes and put it straight back without play.

By night five most puppies sleep from eleven to five. If yours still cries after a week, the crate is probably too far from you or the last meal is too late.

Feeding in the first two weeks

Keep the food the breeder used for two weeks, three meals a day, then change gradually. Fresh water always.

Every pet page on our site names the food the breeder uses, and the nanny hands over a bag for the first days. Changing brand on day one is the most common cause of the loose stools that worry new owners in the first week; the second is treats from the table. If you want to move to a different food, mix it in over seven days, a quarter more each second day.

• 8 to 12 weeks: three meals, roughly 7 to 8 in the morning, 1 to 2 in the afternoon, 6 to 7 in the evening
• 12 to 24 weeks: three meals, then two from six months
• Water available all day; pick it up an hour before bedtime for the first two weeks
• No cooked bones, grapes, onion, chocolate or anything sweetened with xylitol

House training without punishment

Out after every sleep, meal and play; praise outside, ignore accidents inside. Most puppies have it in two to three weeks.

Our puppies leave the breeder at 12 weeks having already started on a routine, so you are continuing a lesson, not starting one. Carry the puppy to the same spot in the garden, say the same word, wait, and praise as it finishes. Inside, clean with an enzyme cleaner so the spot does not smell like a toilet tomorrow. Shouting after the fact teaches the puppy to hide when it needs to go, which is the opposite of what you want.

Small breeds such as the Maltese take a week or two longer than Retrievers, because a small bladder fills quickly; it is physiology, not stubbornness.

The first vet visit on day 3 to 5

Book it for day 3 to 5. Bring the passport. The vet checks the microchip and the vaccination schedule and plans the booster.

The passport you receive lists every vaccination, deworming and the chip number, and the vet will scan the chip to confirm it matches. Ask the vet to register you as the new keeper in your national database on the same visit; in most EU countries this is a five minute form and it is what returns a lost dog to you. The full list of what is in the passport is on our health and documents page.

Crate training and the first time alone

Start on day two: a treat in the crate, door open, ten minutes. On day three close the door for a minute while you stand beside it. By the end of the week the puppy should rest in the closed crate for thirty minutes while you are in the next room.

The first real absence should come in week two, not week one, and should last twenty minutes. Leave without a speech, come back without a party. A puppy that learns in week two that you always come back is a dog that sleeps through your working day at a year old.

Socialisation before the booster

The window for socialisation closes at around sixteen weeks, and the booster vaccination falls inside it. The answer is to carry the puppy, not to hide it. Carried in your arms or in a bag, a puppy can hear traffic, see a tram, meet a calm vaccinated adult dog in a friend's garden and sit in a cafe for ten minutes, all without touching the pavement.

Plan one new experience a day: a different floor surface, a person in a hat, a child at a distance, the sound of the vacuum cleaner from another room. Keep each one short and end it while the puppy is still relaxed.

What not to do in week one

No dog park before the booster, no long walks, no stairs for large breeds, no punishment. Carry the puppy to new places so it sees the world safely.

Two more that surprise new owners: no bath in the first week, because the skin is still adjusting and the smell of home is useful, and no visit to the groomer until the second vaccination has been in for a fortnight. Large breeds such as the Bernese Mountain Dog also need a rule about jumping off the sofa; the growth plates in the elbows close at around a year, and a daily jump from sixty centimetres is the usual cause of the limp that appears at seven months.

What the second week looks like

Week two is the first short lead walk on a quiet street, the first twenty minutes alone, the first name game and the first sit. It is also the week to book puppy school for the weeks after the booster, because the good ones fill up a month ahead.

If anything in the first week does not match what you expected, your advisor is one message away and has seen every version of it. The pet page stays open to you after delivery, and the contact page lists the quickest way to reach us in your language.

Frequently asked questions