Preparing to take Your Puppy Home

Just a few comments to help you start preparing to bring your little beagle puppy home. Here's a list of items to begin pricing out and gathering so you are well prepared for your little hound dog:

• Veterinarian Formula Puppy Food (this is the food they will be eating in about 2 weeks - VERY important to keep them on the same food!)
  
• Dog crate/indoor kennel - your puppy will grow to about 25-28 lbs as an adult and stand about 13-15 inches at the shoulder - Make SURE you get a crate that will be big enough for an adult beagle. A crate is the proper size when a dog can stand up and turn completely around in it with ease but not a lot bigger than that. Look on Craigslist, zidaho or other online classifieds for a good used one or be prepared to pay about $100 for a new one from a pet store.
• 6 foot leash and an adjustable collar (waited until I had my dogs to get a feel for their personality and what color of collar I thought would look good on them)
  
• Food & water bowls (I recommend metal bowls with rubber bottoms on the outside - non-skid type)
• If you want a dog bed, shop around. The "bean bag" type beds have been a favorite of our hounds because they allow "nesting" and they can kind of sink into them. Drs. Smith & Foster is a good resource as an online store and offer high quality beds and other items.
  
• One or two small puppy toys - I have some recommendations for "chewing" prevention on your personal and household belongings!

You might also want to begin a fence patrol to make sure you secure your yard and close up any puppy-size holes or gaps. You'd be surprised at how small a space they can escape from! The other thing to keep an eye out for is spaces where your pup could get it's head caught. Strangulation or broken necks are a possibility.

Also, take a look around your home and puppy-proof cleaning products, fertilizers, lawn & garden-care products and things like anti-freeze, oil, gasoline, etc. Keep them out of reach of your puppy and securely locked away. Even if they are in "child-proof" containers with locking lids, PUT THEM UP HIGH. Puppies like to chew and can chew off locked lids or through containers and hoses of all types of material. These items can be fatal and are often enticing to dogs.

On another note, if you have a garden be conscious of the type of compost you are using. There is a popular "cocoa" based compost sold at WalMart, Shopko, Home Depot and other stores that is DEADLY to dogs but they LOVE the taste. You might also want to consider securing your garden from your puppy or they will enjoy the fruits of your labor before you do. Joely decided last year that the strawberry patch was HER personal one and besides fending off the birds, she trampled a lot of berries and ate a whole lot more! Bronco decided he enjoyed crunchy baby brussel sprouts...I'll leave it to your imagination to come up with the killer-odor that resulted from that!

As far as indoors goes, be prepared to keep cell phones, portable house phones, remotes for tv, stereo, etc, car keys, shoes, slippers, belts, pillows and books out of puppy reach! I once rescued the tv remote from Bronco who thought it would make a great chew toy...outside...in the snow...at night! Books, movies or CDs on the bottom two shelves of a storage unit are in danger as well! Check and see where your electrical and phone cords are located. Anything exposed is at risk of being chewed.

More photos and notes to come. Please let your friends or family know we still have one puppy available for reservation. It's easy to make that deposit, just click the "Pay Now" button to the right.

We want all of our puppies to go to their forever families - where they will be loved, trained, fed healthy DOG diets, walked, snuggled and have as many belly rubs as they need for their lifetime.