New Puppy Home: A Complete Pitfall-Avoidance Guide

1 Overview

1. Do not bathe, do not bathe, do not bathe! Important things said three times.

Reason: a puppy leaving its mother and siblings for a totally strange place has some stress reaction. Including but not limited to long or short transport (even a short move), temperature differences, food and water changes (dogs get travel sickness too), psychological changes – all lower the dog’s immune level. If you bathe it because it looks dirty and smelly, that is a terrible decision, sharply raising health risk and possibly causing colds, fever or other complications.

2. Do not feed randomly.

A puppy’s gut is relatively fragile. After arrival, let it get used to the new place; after two hours give a little water (best cooled boiled or bottled water, warm boiled also fine), then after about an hour a little food. Generally soak kibble in warm water; never use boiling water, which destroys nutrients. (For kibble, buy from physical stores – Taobao fakes and toxic food are many; do not be fooled by flagship stores.)

Early in a new place, avoid overfeeding.

Simply, a puppy does not know full from hungry and eats what is given; once it eats too much and cannot digest, diarrhea is easy. So as owner do not think ‘it is not full’ and keep feeding – that backfires badly.

3. Do not interact with the puppy too often.

First-time owners, when you bring the little one home, cannot keep hands off, always kissing and hugging. But I tell you this is not good for the puppy.

Per the first point, a new puppy has some stress; best is let it adapt slowly. Proper interaction helps, but over-play keeps it excited, and once that fades it also lowers resistance. Puppies need enough sleep; a stable sleep environment helps them adapt.

(Some experienced owners say my dog was fine without all this and grew up healthy. But I say each dog differs; maybe 9 of 10 are fine and you meet the 10th. So care for it safely.)

4. About environmental temperature changes

A dog’s normal body temperature is generally 1C higher than humans; after arrival keep its environment neither too hot nor too cold, give a suitable temperature.

Example: it adapted to 15C; suddenly at 25C raises the difficulty of adapting. Conversely, from 15C to 5C or lower also easily makes it sick.

So friends, avoid this.

5. Do not deworm and vaccinate immediately

Generally our pet vaccines are Intervet (Netherlands) or Pfizer (USA); both are modified-live vaccines. Simply, weakened virus is injected so the dog builds antibodies gradually.

As said, a just-relocated dog has low immunity and resistance; vaccinating then may backfire, letting virus in through the weak spot.

About deworming: always deworm internal and external first, then after 5-7 days vaccinate. If the dog has parasites, vaccine efficacy drops and immunity fails – wasted.

6. Avoid contact with other pets and the outside

Before a puppy finishes vaccines, it has little resistance to distemper and parvovirus.

Other pets, even vaccinated, may still carry virus; they may not get sick but can pass it by contact.

The outside too: e.g. a virus-carrying dog defecates somewhere, virus survives on it; your dog contacts it and may be infected.

7. Do not train the dog without a bond

Focus on play interaction; just develop the dog’s character and sense of participation. But keep early interaction short.

Later training also needs method – positive training, avoid hitting or scolding.

8. Avoid the puppy sleeping on the floor

A puppy sleeping on the ground easily gets diarrhea; I suggest early crate training. One, avoid chill; two, prevent eating random things (a puppy thinks nothing is inedible – a bottle cap, screw, shoe, even a mop); also avoids home items wrecked.

Finally, understand: dog-keeping is a sincere responsibility. Like parents raising us, not for repayment; they do not raise us only if we are good.

Some ask me about 1-2 month puppies defecating anywhere. I only say a two-month puppy is like a human just over 1 year old. Which 1-year-old goes to the toilet alone? We do not demand that of a human child, so why of an animal?

Love is tolerance, bearing, responsibility. Once you keep disappointing the dog, it gets more insecure, less confident, more at a loss – backfiring. Be tolerant.