One Month with Kenobi | New Puppy Essentials
One month has come and gone since we brought home Kenobi and what a month it has been! This little pup has brought so much love and joy into our home and every day is a new adventure with him. We are watching him grow and develop a hilarious little personality and it feels as though our lives revolve entirely around him, which we don’t mind in the slightest!
This may be a very biased opinion, but Kenobi is the BEST DOG EVER. He is an incredibly friendly pup that doesn’t know a stranger (human or animal) and wants to love and be loved by all. Everywhere we take him, he is a bundle of happiness and excitement and wants to play with everyone! He is super smart and picked up on certain commands instantly. He is willful, hilariously cunning, and he sometimes harrumphs in frustration and throws himself onto the ground when told “no”. We learned that he hates peanut butter, adores being bundled in a towel after a bath, and gets very jealous when Mr. San Diego kisses me.
Top and Plaid Bandana from Grounds and Hounds!
Now that we’ve had a few weeks of puppy kisses, scratches, and sleepless nights, I wanted to share what I think are important new puppy essentials! We did tons of research prior to adopting but this experience has taught me what we actually needed, what we didn’t need at all, and what helped us save money.
The Essentials
Most of the basic items you’ll need for a new pup are pretty common sense , i.e. bed, food, poop bags. Instead of listing them all out, check out these guides from Petco: Petco | What Your Need for Your New Puppy and Petco | Dog Parent Guide.
money saving tips
rescue and save
We rescued Kenobi from Cody’s Friends Rescue, which is local to the DFW area. Since we got Kenobi at only ten-weeks old, he hadn’t received all his shots yet. With the donation we made to the rescue, his additional required shots, microchip, and neutering will all be fully covered. If you rescue an older dog, all of those things will have already been taken care of prior to adoption. Save a pup and save some money! It’s a win-win!
COUPON BOOKS!
Did you know that Petco and PetSmart have New Puppy Guides that include A LOT of amazing coupons on essentials you’ll need for your new pup?! The guides are around $20 each but they are FREE if you can show proof of rescue adoption! We got the guides from both stores and saved SOOO MUCH MONEY on everything from his crate, to his food, to his toys. Seriously, it was a life saver because we had nothing and needed everything! We saved over $100 on our first trip.
things we love
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TEETHING TREATS
Puppies have SHARP FRIGGIN’ TEETH and they don’t know not to bite you or your belongings yet. Every time Kenobi started to bite us, we immediately gave him a teething treat or toy to chomp on instead. We wanted something that wasn’t a rawhide and could easily be digested. We bought several different types but the two below were his favorites, and the Kong Tire filled with treats worked amazingly as well. They kept him BUSY for a while, which gave us time to do other things.
Exercise Pen
Having an exercise pen was the best investment we made. We’re able to give Kenobi a safe space to roam that is larger than his crate, and it lets us do things like use the restroom or work without having to lock him up. It also helps with potty training, teaching him how to entertain himself, and keeps him away from dangerous objects.
Potty Training Bells
We bought puppy pee pads and Kenobi has never once used them since we brought him home. We were diligent about potty training by taking him outside every two hours (at night too) and rewarding him with a treat THE MOMENT he finished doing his business. After a few days, we added potty training bells to our back door and rewarded him when he pressed the bells on his own. It took only a day for him to figure out that ringing the bells equated to going outside for potty breaks. He only ever pooped in our house once, which was the very first day we brought him home. Peeing, on the other hand, has been minimal and usually a result of our oversight in hearing the bells.
Enzyme Spray
Look, your puppy is going to have an accident in your home because they’re just little babies and they can’t help it, even with diligent training. Be prepared on Day 1 to have a GOOD enzyme spray to clean up the mess. We bought a $6 one that DID NOT take out the smell and I refuse to let my house smell like pee or dog. I found a more expensive one from Amazon that had amazing reviews and I can confirm that it really works on fresh accidents and stubborn older ones.
Feeding Placemat
Eating and drinking can be messy and a cheap mat to place under your dog’s food bowls will make cleaning up A LOT easier. It’s so simple and every time I feed my dog, I’m grateful I made the investment because he splashes his water everywhere! Seriously, it’s insane how much water ends up all over the floor. Ours has a small lip and I can easily lift it and pour out the excess water.
Fetch Toys
Not all dogs are the type to fetch and not all dogs are super high energy. However, mine definitely is and playing fetch with him is super fun and wears him out fast (which is good). He NEEDS to play hard several times a day, otherwise he starts biting at things he shouldn’t. Maybe it’s because Kenobi is part Retriever, but he LOVESSSSS playing fetch in the backyard with us and it’s the cutest damn thing in the world. His frisbee is his all-time favorite and it’s held up pretty well, even with his sharp puppy teeth. It requires minimal effort on my part and gives him a great workout.
Dog Seatbelt or booster seat
Hear me out – I know that buying a car seat for the dog is ridiculous, but to me, it’s incredibly practical for two reasons. First, it contains the puppy in a safe place and eliminates the dog as a possible dangerous distraction. Second, the elevated car seat does not trigger the airbags in the passenger seat, which could cause serious damage to a small dog if an accident were to occur. It was perfect for Kenobi when he was tiny and allowed him to see out the window!
2021 Update: Now that Kenobi and Koufax are much bigger, they do NOT come close to fitting in the booster car seat. We bought them these awesome seatbelts that keeps them secured to the backseat. We slide one end into the seatbelt buckle and attach the other end to their harness. It’s safer for us while driving and it ensures that they don’t run out of the car when we open the door or fly out the window if we open it all the way.
Harness
Kenobi refuses to walk on a leash if we attach it to his collar, but if he’s wearing a harness, it is A LOT easier to get him to cooperate and guide him. Plus, I don’t feel as though I’m choking him if I hold him back! We initially bought him a super cheap one with just straps which he hated and it was pretty difficult to put on him. It was a waste of money. There are lots of companies that make comfort harnesses and Lucy and Co. has super cute reversible ones with adjustable straps that Kenobi seems to be very comfortable in. It was definitely worth the price and the patterns are so damn cute,
Things I Didn’t Need
Puppy Pads
I mentioned it above, but I bought puppy pads and didn’t need them because I knew I was going to focus on training Kenobi to go outside to potty. It was more effort on my part but absolutely worth it. If you are going to buy some, don’t invest in a large package unless you choose to pee-pad train them instead. Most rescues won’t let you adopt a pup until they’ve had their second round of shots at around 10 weeks (puppy parvo is serious), so you probably won’t be dealing with an infant puppy if you go that route.
Fancy Dog Bed
Kenobi has two dog beds and he spends most of his time on our tile floor in the kitchen. He has already outgrown one of the beds and he loves to chew on the tags on the other one, which I doubt will last long. We should have just bought him a basic bed to start with and saved some money!
Nail Clippers
If you’re lucky enough to have a dog that is cooperative during a nail clipping, feel free to ignore this. My dog, however, yells like a tortured pigeon and literally runs from me whenever I have attempted to clip or grind his nails. I will be investing in bi-weekly trimmings by either his vet or a groomer for the foreseeable future.
Hope this has been helpful and thank you for reading! If you can think of anything else I should add here, let me know in the comments below!