• Baby gates or fencing for a puppy playpen
  • Even if you crate your puppy (which we highly recommend – puppies need lots of naps, even when they don’t realize it!), it can be helpful to have options for limiting their access while they’re still working on housebreaking and learning what is and isn’t appropriate to put in their mouth. Additionally, your puppy shouldn’t have access to the stairs for a while, to protect their growing joints, so it can be helpful to discourage them from potentially hurting themselves by placing a gate at the bottom of the stairs. Some puppies are surprisingly talented escape artists, so give this Baxter and Bella post a quick glance before deciding what fencing to get, if you do plan to set up a playpen!
• Snuggle Puppy
  • Your puppy has only known life with littermates and mama up to this point – he practically always has a buddy present! When entering his forever home, the Snuggle Puppy‘s familiar smell, warmth, and heartbeat can offer some comfort as your pup learns to transition into spending a little more time by himself. They are especially handy for popping in the crate to help your little pup relax and fall asleep. If you get a Snuggle Puppy, you can bring it when you come visit the pups around 5 weeks, so it will go home with mama’s scent. Aside from the comfort of feeling like your pup has a buddy, though, Snuggle Puppies are great because they are specifically designed to be safe for puppies – no sewn-on eyeballs or nose that could come off and be a choking hazard, a tag that is hidden away in the belly, and no stuffing in the tail or ears to help prevent your puppy from ingesting it.
  • They are available directly from the Snuggle Puppy website, or on Amazon or Chewy. The small size is plenty big enough, and, out of personal preference, I’d recommend not getting white, simply because it can be hard to keep looking clean with a puppy carrying it around!
• Food and Water Bowls
  • You don’t need anything fancy for a food or water bowl, but some personal favorites are slow-feed/puzzle bowls for kibble, or stainless steel bowls – both are great. For water, floating-disc water bowls are nice to help prevent spills, splashing, or especially wet puppy faces (the one linked isn’t the exact one I have, so I can’t attest to the quality, but that is the general design I like!).
• Chews
  • Antlers and water buffalo horns are great for older dogs, but can be hard on baby teeth, so we recommend holding off on those until pups have all their adult teeth – keep them in mind for when your puppy is a little bigger, though! In the meantime, our dogs love Benebones and Lumabones.
  • For crate training, you’ll want to have some irresistibly delicious chews on hand to maintain a positive association between your pup and his crate. Collagen braids seem to be especially delicious, but we’ve also heard great things about beef chews like bully sticks, as well as No-Hide (rather than rawhide, which can be unsafe).
• Collar
  • As an adult dog, your mini goldendoodle will likely wear a 14″-16″ collar, but she’ll be small when she comes home, so she may benefit from a smaller puppy collar in the meantime. For adulthood, GoTags-type collars (here‘s a cheaper alternative on Amazon) that are embroidered with your pet’s ID information can be nice, as tags can fall off, be a safety hazard if caught on things, or simply get worn out if your dog is especially rambunctious. Your puppy will go home with a microchip, but having an ID on her collar helps ensure she’s easy to identify even without a microchip reader!
• Flat Lead
  • A 6′ flat lead is helpful for leash training your puppy. We find flexi leads not to be the best choice for young puppies. We like having a clip-on poop bag dispenser on our leashes as well!
• A 30″ – 36″ Dog Crate
  • We primarily use metal crates with our dogs, as they are easy to clean, but your puppy will be exposed to both plastic and metal in their time with us. We recommend 30″ or using a crate divider while your puppy is small – if dogs have too much room, they may designate part of their crate for sleeping and another area for pottying, so especially while housebreaking your pup, you want to encourage them to hold their potties until you can get them outside!
• Training Treats
  • Treats for a puppy should be soft and easy to chew, so we love cutting up hotdogs and offering pups little bits as rewards. We also love freeze dried beef liver, but it needs to be broken into itty bitty pieces to be easily manageable for tiny teeth. If your puppy seems like he doesn’t care for a treat you’re trying, it’s worth experimenting to find things that are high-value, especially while he is little and you have the ability to instill behaviors in him that will affect him as a grown-up dog!
• Puppy Food
  • Your puppy will go home on TLC puppy food, and you’ll receive an email from them prior to bringing your puppy home to place an order for your first bag. You can of course transition them to any food you want, but don’t forget to check out this blog post on choosing a dog food! We personally use TLC for a few reasons: it has multiple protein sources (can help prevent allergies from developing), limited legume content (research shows legumes and sweet potatoes may be tied to diet-related dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs), includes probiotics to keep the digestive system happy, has never had any recalls ever, and is delivered straight to our house, which helps ensure that it’s fresher than a food that has been sitting on a shelf.
• Dog Food Storage Container
  • To keep your puppy’s food fresh, it’s important to have an air-tight container. We like these BPA-free containers, personally!
• Bell or Doggie Doorbell
  • A bell hanging on your doorknob can be helpful for housebreaking your puppy – or our dogs use a doggie doorbell fixed on either side of our door, so they can ring to go out or in. Either are great options.
• Basic Grooming Supplies
  • We find it handy to keep a curved slicker brush, electric clippers, nail trimmers or a cordless dremel, and blunt-tip scissors on hand, even though we don’t personally groom our dogs. It’s nice to be able to trim up their faces (blunt-tip scissors), paws, and sanitary areas (clippers) between appointments, plus brushing their coats helps to prevent mats and tangles. It’s important to keep up with trimming their toenails as well! Your puppy will go home familiar with having this done, as we trim them frequently while they’re here with us.
• Carpet Spray
  • Accidents happen while your pup is learning where to go! We find it’s nice to have an odor-eliminating carpet cleaning spray on hand for just such occasions.

We hope you feel a little more prepared to get your home ready for your new little family member! Happy puppy shopping!