Meet our little Yadi!!! Oh my gosh, I’m super excited and can’t wait for May to get here. I have a lot of work to do before his come home date though. 
Since I am a dog trainer and keep everything!! I do have a lot of the things that are needed for bringing a puppy home but there are still some things I need we started out with a basic list of the supplies we would need.
Let’s start out with just a few items at a time and talk about them and how we will use and train with them.
Collar, Leash, and Tags – Our puppies HAVE to have identification on them. In the horrible case that we do not discover the escape route before they do, we need a way for whoever finds them to contact us. I get asked all the time about what to put on a tag. The most important thing is your dog’s name and your phone number. I have also included on Loki’s that he is Microchipped. I will do the same for baby Yadi when he is old enough to get chipped. This way if for some reason someone can’t read my phone number they can always go to any vet or shelter and have my pup scanned and they will have all of my information.
Crate / Playpen – This is something that I firmly believe in. I’m going to try something just a little bit different with Yadi than I did with Loki because I want to know for myself how it works.
I’ve always used a playpen outside my dog’s to secure them when I could not be watching them. (that’s when they get into EVERYTHING)
This time I have an Iris Playpen that I used with Loki that I will set up around Yadi’s crate. His crate will be a 2 door crate with a divider inside, on one side with the door that opens on the front will only be large enough for his bed. The other end will have a potty pad in it.
The Iris Playpen has additional panels that can be added. It’s a hard plastic that can be sprayed off outside if need be, and best of all, you can zip tie small toys to the joints so that puppy can play tug with his toys. and they are not just laying on the floor. They become interactive with him.
The idea is called a Puppy Apartment. I’ve always said not to put puppy pads in the crate before because we don’t want out puppies to learn to lay in their accidents and learn that it’s ok. This idea helps them to not lay in it and keep their bed away from their accidents as well so it might just actually work. I’ll update more on that as we go.
Bed – I want to give Yadi a big plushy bed that will help him rest comfortably but the truth is, he is a puppy and he will have an accident on his bed at some point. Until we are potty trained he will need to have a crate pad, similar to the one in the picture above. The pads and mats can be put into the washer and washed with an enzyme killer to help keep him from wanting to potty on it again.
A crate is your friend – One of the things I hear a lot is that people think that putting their puppy in a crate is mean or is punishment. Honestly, you have to look at it like this, when your toddler was learning how to explore the world around them, what did you do? You put them in a playpen or a bouncy chair. So that we knew they were safe.
On the back or side of your back of dog food are a bunch of acronyms for groups that regulate dog food. We are going to take a look at some of those groups and what they do when it comes to our dog food.
The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act require that just like our food, pet food is pure and wholesome. It is not allowed to contain harmful substances and must be truthfully labeled.
problems with Loki is that I can not do his nails. When he was little I started doing his nails right after bringing him home. My last dog Tazie was horrible to do his nails and I really didn’t want to have to go through that again. While he was a puppy he was really squirmy so I wrapped him in a blanket and did his nails. Somehow I scared him really bad and caused him to have a fear reaction. So now he won’t let me touch his feet with anything in my hands.
to their members that apply for and pass the test/application for them. Such as my behavioral consultant certification from IAABC.
There is also The Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT) that tests dog trainers for their level of proficiency with learning theory and husbandry skills. This test is only given twice a year.
can cause even more problems. Be aware of the doors as your guests are coming and going. If your pup seems to be stressed, give them some time alone in a room by themselves. A special chew toy or treat to keep them busy will help them feel more relaxed.
We were blessed with getting to hear Retired Brigadier General Dan Cherry the author of “My Enemy My Friend”. His story of what it was like in Vietnam made me think of my own dad. He was one of the lucky ones that got to come back home. My father came home in 1972 and married my mom 4 years later I was born. As a child growing up my father was what I have always described as emotionally absent. He didn’t show much emotion and I didn’t really know much of anything about what he went through as a young man in the Army in a foreign country fighting a war for his country. The first time I ever talked to my dad about Vietnam was after going to a college history class and hearing my teacher tell us to forget everything our history book told us about Vietnam because that’s wasn’t what
One of the more common sayings about dog trainers is that we often have some the worst dogs. Wither that is because we take on the more behaviorally challenging dogs, or we spend all day training everyone else’s dogs and when we get home we are often too tired to work with our own dogs as much as we would like.
