Puppy Prep

I've been trying to get ready for our puppy.

I've read as many 'Bringing Your Puppy Home,' 'Housebreaking Your New Puppy,' and 'Training Your Puppy' articles* as I could find. Especially ones specific to Danes.

I think I've bought all of the 'Essential Items for Puppies!' (except that I don't like the food/water dish that I got, so I'm not going to use it.) Puppy has:
- a crate** for crate training;
- a towel that smells like me (sort of)***;
- a soft toy ("as a poor substitute for her missing littermates," one website said);
- a puppy Nylabone (and a Kong with special treats, to pull out for her sometime soon);
- a clicker (and a book about training);
- a lot of liver treats****;
- a big bag of large breed puppy food (so I don't ruin her joints, or something);
- a spraything full of enzymatic cleaner for accidents (which hopefully hopefully won't happen, but actually realistically most likely will);
- a collar and leash to grow out of in the next couple months...

I forget what else.

I think we're prepared.*****

But Puppy still does not have:
- a name; or
- a tag for her collar, since she has no name.[******]

I'm leaving now to go pick her up. The girl is driving her down to Salt Lake, and we're meeting at Puppy's dad's house, so we can meet him, too.

Wish us luck!




* Do real websites with actual information exist anymore? I found so, so many generic websites. The articles are almost always useless, because they're more about search optimization than anything else. They go like this:
"Bringing Your Puppy Home is an important time because when you Bring Your Puppy Home you hope that you are prepared to Bring Your Puppy Home. Try to be gentle with your puppy when you Bring Your Puppy Home because he is nervous. Since Bringing Your Puppy Home is stressful for the pup, do not expect much; when you Bring Your Puppy Home you may find that your puppy is happy or it may be sad. Your puppy may be hungry or it may want to sleep...[etc.]"
Gee, thanks.
** I suggested J and I stop at a big big yard sale on Redwood Rd. a couple weeks ago, to see if we could find a crate. Because on KSL they're usually like $30-$40 and at Walmart they're $70ish. We found an old dog crate that was dirty and a little rusty (but a pretty good one anyway), and when I asked how much it was, the lady said to make an offer. So I offered $5. And she said we had a deal. (Heck yeah, we did!) So I cleaned it, sanded it, and primed it, and J and I decided it would be fun to paint it pink, since we knew we wanted a girl puppy. Today I brought it in from the garage, and actually, it turns out it doesn't match ANYTHING--not our house, not Puppy's toys, NOTHING. But [*shrug*] it was still kind of fun, and it makes her little homecoming special. And it was lots cheaper than $70.
*** This was a suggestion from either the worker at Walmart or the lady we're buying Puppy from. Both people gave lots of suggestions. We were advised to take a blanket or something kind of worn out and let Puppy have that in her crate so she can feel comforted and get used to our smells, and because puppies ruin the fancy dog beds their owners buy anyway. We didn't really have a worn out blanket, though, so she's getting a towel instead.
**** When I really, really wanted a dog before, I one time went to a dog show with this lady my dad knew. I remember everyone gave their dogs liver treats. And now that I'm so used to reading every label on everything J and I eat, it's hard to knowingly poison our puppy with the stuff I saw on ingredient lists for dog treats. Liver treats are ONLY freeze dried liver (and nothing else) so they seemed like a good place to start.
***** I am so, so nervous. I don't want to ruin Puppy! I removed a bunch of things that are down low, but I'm sure I didn't get everything. I keep remembering: It's OKAY. She will be under CLOSE SUPERVISION until she is housebroken anyway, so I can still move things up higher, etc, for a little while. She [most likely] won't be ruined just because I'm not an experienced puppy-proofer.
****** [We don't know what to coll-er.]