How to prepare for a puppy’s arrival at home
first puppy course
Before you start training your puppy, there is something even more important: its first days at home.
When is the best time to bring a puppy home?
The moment a puppy leaves its mother is crucial for its physical and emotional development. Choosing the right time helps prevent future behavioral issues and makes adaptation at home much easier.
How to prepare your home for a puppy’s arrival
Before your puppy arrives home, it’s important to prepare the environment so it feels safe and calm. Proper preparation helps prevent problems from day one and makes the adjustment much easier.
Before bringing your puppy home, it’s important to understand three key things: what documents you should receive, which vaccinations it will already have, and how to transport it safely.
🏠 Puppy adjustment to its new home
The first days at home are not just a period of adjustment… they are the best time
to start training. The puppy arrives in a new environment, without clear rules, and is ready
to learn how this new world works. Everything you teach at this stage will become the
foundation of its future behavior. This is when you should show it:
👉where it can be, 👉where it cannot, 👉what is allowed, 👉and what is not.
The clearer the rules are from the beginning, the easier life together will be.
💡 Key idea: A puppy doesn’t need time “to do whatever it wants”… it needs to understand
how to live with you from day one.
🐶 How to behave with a newly arrived puppy
Bringing a puppy home is an exciting moment, but also a very important stage in its development. From day one, your behavior will shape how the puppy understands its new home. What to do from the very beginning:
1. 🧘 Stay calm. Avoid shouting, excessive excitement, and intense stimulation. 👉 The puppy needs calm, not overload.
2. 🏠 Give it a clear space. From the start, it should understand where to sleep, where to rest, and where it can stay.
👉 this helps reduce anxiety.
3. ✋ Don’t overwhelm it with attention. It’s natural to want to touch it all the time, but:👉 it needs to observe,
👉 and adapt at its own pace.
4. 🧠 Start setting gentle rules. No punishment, but consistency: if something is not allowed → it’s never allowed.
if something is allowed → it should always be the same 👉 clarity from day one.
🚽 How to teach a puppy to use a pee pad
During the first weeks after arriving home, puppies cannot go outside. That’s why it
is essential to properly teach them how to use a pee pad.
🐾 Starting point
Our puppies usually already know what a pee pad is and what it is for. However,
after moving to a new home, they still need to relearn where to go.
🪜 How to teach it step by step
1. 📍 Place several pee pads. At the beginning, put 2 or 3 pee pads in different areas of the house, and 👉 the puppy will choose the place that feels most comfortable. 2. 👀 Watch for the key moments. A puppy usually needs to relieve itself: after sleeping, after eating,
and after playing. 👉 at those times, take it to the pee pad. 3. 🗣️ Reinforce immediately. When it does it correctly: 👉 “good job!”
4. ❌ Avoid punishment. If the puppy makes a mistake: 👉 don’t shout, 👉 don’t punish, 👉 simply clean it up and keep going.
⚠️ Common mistakes: using only one pee pad, moving it around constantly, not supervising the puppy, and punishing mistakes.
💡 Key advice: 👉 consistency is more important than speed.
🛠️ Kennel tip (very important). To help the puppy choose the pee pad: 👉 clean the entire floor with a scented cleaning product,
👉 without chlorine or ammonia, 👉 and leave the pee pad unscented. The puppy will perceive the floor as an “unpleasant area”
and the pee pad as the only neutral place. 👉 This makes learning much easier.
🎾 Fetch
This exercise teaches the dog to retrieve an object and bring it back to its owner.
It is one of the most useful and fun games, and it also helps burn energy.
🎯 Goal
For the dog to:
👉 go after the ball
👉 pick it up
👉 bring it back
👉 and release it
🪜 How to teach it step by step
1. 🐶 Start close. Don’t throw the ball far at first. 2. 🎾 Throw it a short distance. Just a few meters. 3. 🗣️ Encourage the dog.
👉 “come on!” 👉 “bring it!” 4. 🖐️ Receive it correctly. When the dog comes back: 👉 don’t grab the ball suddenly.
👉 teach it to let go. 5. 🍖 Trade. Use a reward so the dog releases it: 👉 ball → treat. 6. 🗣️ Mark and reward. 👉 “good job!”👉 reward.
7. 🔁 Repeat several times. To build the full habit. 🧠 Add the command. Once the dog is doing it well: 👉 “bring it” / “fetch”.
👋 Recommended cue: Word: “fetch” Gesture: hand motion calling the dog toward you.
⏱️ How long to practice: Keep sessions short, make it a lively game, and stop before the dog gets tired.
⚠️ Common mistakes: 🎾 Throwing the ball too far at the beginning → the dog doesn’t come back.
🏃♂️ Chasing the dog → turns the game into running away. ❌ Not teaching “release” → the dog keeps the ball.
🔁 Repeating too much → the dog loses interest.
💡 Key tip: 👉 The trick is not running… 👉 it’s coming back to you.