Bringing Puppy Home Checklist

  • PUPPY FOOD

    At Alberta Bernedoodles, the puppies are fed TLC for Puppy. We suggest you order this from TLC so as to not change the puppy's diet too quickly upon their transition into your home.

  • PUPPY SUPPLEMENTS

    We firmly believe in supplements for your puppy’s growth and development. We require our families to purchase at least one 3-month supply to keep puppies healthy while they are growing. For orders in Canada, you have to call 1-800-474-7044 and order using the code and button below. USE CODE 51092

  • PUPPY INSURANCE

    We require that our families sign up for their 30-day free Trupanion puppy insurance. You sign up for this a week before you bring your puppy home, but we require it because puppies can get really hurt being curious or during teething and rack up thousands of dollars worth of vet bills. Keep your puppy safe and be prepared for accidents with pet insurance. We provide you a certificate upon take home.

Shopping List

  • Wire crates are better suited to the home and they flat pack for easy storage. They also have an interior divider, so the crate can get bigger as your puppy does. We recommend the 36L x 24W x 27H for medium to large puppies.

  • An Exercise Pen is somewhere where your puppy can hang out, free-ish, for longer periods of time. It’s not wise to immediately give the puppy free rein of the entire house. They need to begin with boundaries, and your Ex-Pen will help with that. You can put their crate in the Ex-Pen for a space within a space, along with toys, to create a zone for your puppy to be a puppy. We recommend a 36” version.

  • Your puppy will like a cozy place to sleep and rest. There are beds that sit inside the crate, and there are beds that stand on their own. Puppies can have some accidents on their beds, so we recommend something easy to clean. There are cozy donut versions and a lot of options on Amazon or Costco. We swear by Vagabond Beds from Red Deer, AB.

  • Dog bowls with a skid-free base are nice to have.

  • Your puppy will be leaving their mama, their siblings, and their human friends when they join you in their forever home. This is a big change for them over the first night or two. To make this transition easier for them, we have had a lot of success with the Snuggle Puppy. This is a small stuffed puppy that has a little “heartbeat” and small, safe heat pack. So your puppy will have something warm to snuggle up with for the first couple nights.

  • We recommend a simple 5-6 foot long leash and a simple flat collar. We do NOT recommend retractable leashes, as they relinquish too much control to the dog and can be dangerous.

    It is good to get your puppy used to a harness as soon as possible. Some puppies struggle with harnesses, so it is helpful to try some on at your local pet shop. But we have had success with RC Pets and Rocky Mountain Dog. We recommend harnesses because puppies will eventually learn how fun pulling is, and it is hard on their delicate necks and can damage their windpipes if they pull the leash with their collar. Getting your dog to walk calmly on leash will be one of your biggest challenges and a harness helps stack the cards in your favour. A harness with an attachment on the chest will help dissuade some of the more pully puppies - it’s tough to pull from the chest.

    A long leash is a requirement for effectively training your dog to come when called.

    For particularly distracted puppies, you might consider a head halter. This is a temporary tool, and you must do your research on the proper way to use it. Start with what dog trainer Susan Garrett has to say on the subject here.

  • We recommend training your dog with their kibble before they realize how delicious dehydrated sardines and beef liver are! But for those high value treats, look for something with ONE ingredient. For training, you really want something bite-sized - the smaller the better. Break it up by hand if needed. Our dogs love liver bites, sardines, beef lung, etc. Companies we love to support are Granville Island Pet Treatery, Crumps, and Puppy Love Pet Products. You’ll probably want a treat bag unless you want your hoodie pockets to be full of liver dust and sardine oil!

    For chewing treats, again look for one ingredient. “Bully sticks” are a go-to for our dogs, but they’ve been known to gnaw on the odd pig ear here or there. Don’t let your puppy eat too much in one sitting, as it will cause an upset tummy.

  • Our puppies start with kibble and we recommend high-quality kibble. It is important to study the ingredient list of the kibble you are thinking of buying. Dogs are carnivores, so meat should be the majority of the content. There are resources and ratings available online. Some brands we recommend are TLC, Acana, Petcurean Now Fresh. Raw food is something that is best discussed with your vet. There are pros and cons to both and raw food and kibble, and the choice is yours to make. If you opt for raw, we recommend . Grand Cru and Smack for dehydrated raw.

  • Engagement toys reward your puppy for working for their food. Wild dogs spend 90% of their waking hours searching for food, so it’s a good idea to let your dog work for their food instead of just plopping a big bowl in front of them to be wolfed down in sixty seconds. There are a ton of fun toys out there that will exercise your puppy’s brain. We love the Snoop, the Kong Stick, Kong Spiral, and Kong Wobbler, Nina Ottosson Puzzles, and From Beads to Yarn Snuffle Mats. There are also some excellent DIY options. Keep an eye out for blog posts and videos where we suggest brain games for your puppy.

  • Puppies like (and need) something to chew. Proper chew toys teach your puppy what to chew and what not to chew. The best chew toys are those that can be stuffed with food (like Kongs) and thus reward your puppy for chewing on the proper thing, and they are a mental workout as well. Chew toys help with dental health and the teething stage. Your puppy will need a smaller chew toy at first and will eventually graduate to a bigger one as they grow. There are plenty of DIY options as well, including one of our dogs’ favourites - a plastic bottle stuffed into an old sock!

  • Bernedoodles don’t shed! You know this already, of course. But the flip side of clean sweaters and nasal passages is the maintenance involved in caring for your puppy’s coat. You should be brushing your puppy as soon as you bring it home to get it used to the feeling of getting groomed—particularly the legs, paws, armpits, and tail. Your puppy is in for a long life of trips to the groomer, and you want these trips to totally stress-free for you, the groomer, and your dog. There is a critical stage (around six months) when your puppy’s coat will begin to change. This is where you will likely meet your first mats! To minimize these (and avoid a close-cropped haircut), you want to brush/comb on a regular basis - daily, once it gets long. We have had good success with a furminator brush, but once the hair gets longer than the “teeth” on the brush, then you are brushing top coat only, and the bottom coat gets matted. At this point, only a comb will do a proper job. We recommend poodle combs with rounded teeth. Be diligent under the collar, behind the ears, and on the legs/paws. The more often you brush and comb your dog, the more gentle you can be, the happier they will be. Reward with treats!

    They will need a bath from time to time. We like Burt’s Bees puppy shampoo. Don’t shampoo them too often as puppies.

    In addition to their coats, you want to brush your puppy’s teeth. Again, get them used to this feeling as early as possible. It is NOT fun to brush an adult dog’s teeth for the first time. You will also want to invest in some nail clippers. Even if you just “fake” clip your puppy’s nails - this gets them used to the grooming process. The earlier your puppy is exposed to hygiene practices, the better.

  • One of the most helpful resources we have found is the free e-book by Dr. Ian Dunbar - “BEFORE You Get Your Puppy” and “AFTER You Get Your Puppy.” These books are a valuable source of information, and we highly recommend you read them before you get your puppy and during the first few months after you get your puppy. You can find the books here and here. For a deeper dive into training, we recommend “Don’t Shoot the Dog” by Karen Pryor. Susan Garrett’s website has a plethora of information.