Your home is a brand-new world for your puppy.
During the early weeks, it is very important that you take the time and the patience to help your puppy acclimatise to their new surroundings and to settle them into their new routine.
As well as your home, and all its domestic hustle-bustle, there will be the new world outside, the street, the park, and other locations.
Take time to carefully expose your puppy to all these new people, places and experiences and you will reap the rewards later.
How to help settle a puppy into a new home
Use this time to calmly introduce your new puppy to your family and friends. If you already have other pets, your new puppy will need to need to gently get to know them and learn how to interact. Their surroundings are important too.
Remember, your puppy needs to be fully vaccinated before they can safely go outside. This second vaccination (your puppy should have already received their first vaccination before leaving the breeder) should not be administered until your puppy is 10 weeks old. It must also be at least 2 weeks and no later than 4 weeks from the first vaccination.
New puppy recommendations
It is recommended that all puppies are wormed every 2 weeks from birth until 12 weeks old and every three months thereafter. Dogs will also require flea treatment.
Read our guide on puppy health and well-being
All these new experiences need to be totally positive for your puppy. It stands to reason that a puppy who has grown up in a positive, calm environment with good life lessons is far more likely to develop into a confident and well-behaved family dog and less inclined towards bad behaviours.
Remember to start as you mean to go on. All the good habits you can instil in your puppy now will reap benefits later.