Preparing your home for a new puppy

A puppy will find the one thing in your house you forgot about. That's not a criticism of you — it's a job description. Setting up before they arrive turns the first week from crisis management into something you might actually enjoy.

Get down on the floor

Genuinely. Sit on the floor of each room and look at it from twenty centimetres up. Cords, shoes, bin lids, the gap behind the fridge, the wobbly bookshelf — they all look different from down there.

Room by room

Living areas

• Bundle and hide power cords and phone chargers.
• Move houseplants up high — lilies, sago palm, philodendron and many others are toxic.
• Clear the coffee table of anything small and swallowable.
• Decide now whether the couch is allowed, and tell everyone in the house.

Kitchen and laundry

• Bin with a lid, or better, a bin behind a door.
• Cleaning products, snail bait, rat bait and dishwasher tablets up high or latched away.
• Know the big food hazards: chocolate, grapes and sultanas, onion and garlic, macadamias, cooked bones, and anything with xylitol.

Outside

• Walk the fence line looking for gaps a determined marshmallow could squeeze through.
• Check pool fencing and gate latches.
• Remove or fence off toxic plants, and stow fertiliser and snail pellets.
• Shade and fresh water in more than one spot — Australian afternoons turn quickly.

The shopping list, minus the nonsense

• Bed and a crate or pen — a safe, boring space that's theirs alone.
• Flat collar with ID tag, plus a harness and a 1.2–1.8m lead.
• Stainless or ceramic bowls, and whatever food the breeder or rescue has been feeding.
• Enzymatic cleaner — ordinary cleaners leave a scent that says 'toilet here'.
• A couple of chew toys and a lick mat or food-stuffable toy for settling.
• Grooming basics and a soft brush, used gently and often from week one.

Set up a puppy zone

Pick one easy-to-clean room, gate it, and make that the puppy's world for the first week or two. Free run of a whole house is overwhelming for them and unmanageable for you. A smaller world means fewer accidents, faster toilet training and a puppy that learns to settle rather than patrol.

Plan the first 48 hours

Arrive home in the morning if you can, so there's a full day before the first night. Keep visitors away for a few days — everyone can meet the puppy next week. Toilet outside after every sleep, meal, drink and play session, and reward it outside, on the spot, every time.

Expect broken sleep for a week or two. A crate beside your bed for the first nights usually beats a puppy howling down the hall for both of you.

Boring is the goal for week one. Excitement is easy to add later; calm is much harder to retrofit.

The bit people skip

Book the first vet check, confirm the vaccination and preventative schedule, update the microchip details into your name, and register with your local council. Then book a puppy class. That's the boring administrative afternoon that makes the next fifteen years smoother.