Prepare Your House for a Puppy

Do not leave trash or chemicals lying around for a puppy to get into!

When you're preparing to get a new puppy, you will want to make sure that you prepare your home. The most simple thing to do, is to go ahead and remove things from the floor and lower shelves that you don't want a puppy to get into. Move chemicals and cleaners into cabinets, move fragile and breakable things to a higher shelf, etc.

You'll want to find a few rooms where the puppy will have the most access to. Remove the rugs in those rooms, tie up anything that may hang or move, and basically put away anything that may look attracting to a puppy. You can figure out what to move or store away by getting down on the floor and looking around at a puppy's level.

It's best that you use rooms that do not have carpet as the puppy's main room. Consider the kitchen as a good room, as if accidents occur, they're easier to clean up. Plus, carpet seems to be an attractant to soil.

You want to go ahead and set up puppy gates in doorways and at stairs.

Purchase bitter spray for furniture, but do not spray all furniture with the spray just yet. You really want to wait until you have the puppy, so that you can test out the flavor and brand that you purchased, as for some dogs, bitter cherry may not taste too bad, whereas bitter apple may be horrible, and vice versa.

For the most part, you'll want to puppy proof your house, just like you were preparing for a child.