Essentials you need to buy before you pick up your puppy - tried and tested by us!
Sections
5
Food and Treats
Toys
Care
Other
Bed
Food and Treats
The best food!! It’s delivered frozen, whack it in straight in the freezer and defrost to serve. Much more nutritious than dry kibble, and less risk vs feeding raw.
Different Dog | Fresh Dog Food Delivery Subscription UK
The best treats - nutritious and fun! Use code DORA15 for 15% off your first £20+ spend
Denzel's | Dog Treats
We fed Dora this 50/50 alongside her fresh food so that we could use it for training rewards. It’s a great high quality kibble.
Orijen | Puppy Kibble
Great to give enrichment on for either calming pup down, or as a walk alternative pre-second vaccines.
LickiMat UK | Enrichment Mats
Toys
The latex toys from this brand are Dora’s favourite. Easy to throw around for playing fetch, and have a loud squeaker!
Top tip: add a hole or two with scissors to make the squeaker quieter 🤫
Petface | Dog Toys
For an avid chewer
Benebone | Durable Dog Chew & Play Toys
Great to divert puppy bitey-ness, this pack has 3 different levels of hardness so you know you won’t hurt their teeth/gums.
Nylabone | Puppy Starter Kit
These are great to decompress puppy and keep them busy - we split Denzel’s training treats in half to stick in the gaps, and also used kibble.
Amazon | 2Pcs Dog Treat Dispenser Ball Toy
Another great enrichment toy to keep puppy busy - Dora would roll this around for an hour trying to get the treats and kibble out! You can also pull it apart and put enrichment on one side of the disk, like dog-safe peanut butter or yoghurt.
Amazon | Treat Dispenser Dog Toy
Care
We love the Buddycare plaque powder, shampoo, cologne and no-rinse shampoo. Dora smells amazing, and her breath isn’t gross 🤣
Buddycare | Shampoo and Plaque Powder
Great for getting puppy used to having their teeth brushed as they’re soft and less unusual to them as it’s on your finger.
Bugalugs | Pack of 3 Silicone Finger Dental Care Brushes
These work great, get them used to it young! We have no issues with Dora.
Thunderpaws Dog Nail Clippers Small/Med Blue
Did not know Arm & Hammer did puppy toothpaste, this is what we’d use if we got another puppy!
Arm & Hammer | Puppy Toothpaste
Other
Where we get all of Dora’s tags from - they’re super lightweight so perfect for puppies
OhSoSadieHandmade - Etsy UK | Dog Tag
The best poo bags - super strong and a decent size. Longer handles than standard too
Beco Pets | Strong Dog Poop Bags
The exact first harness and lead we used. There’s lots of cuter ones out there but we knew she’d grow out of it quickly so didn’t want to spend too much.
Bell & Pal, Amazon | Harness
The other harness brand we used when she grew out of her puppy one - these are adjustable but we now prefer 3-click which i’ve also linked
Furry Tails | Dogwear
This is the 3-click harness brand we use now. Dora wears an XS but they do sell XXS which would probably have fit Dora when she was younger.
The aDoraBle Pooch Company | Dogwear
This is the book we used and got most of our training from in the early days until we went to puppy classes and saw a trainer. She didn’t have to correct anything we’d taught Dora which is great!
Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy: UK's No.1 Dog Training
Bed
Great crate, we used half for her bed and half for water & food
Pets At Home | Kong Two Door Dog Crate Small Black
The exact first bed we got for Dora. It had a removable cushion which we’d wrap with a puppy pad and cover with a blanket in the early days. She soon clued up and loved to take the cushion out 😅 Cheeky girl
Amazon | Puppy Bed
We also used this in the bottom of the crate, it’s machine washable which was great for any accidents.
Amazon | Crate Bed
A lovely blanket is a great addition too. Especially if you have a dog who likes to burrow like Dora! She loves being covered in a blanket.
Scruffs | Dog Blankets
We had one similar to this for Dora, we wrapped it in one or our dirty t-shirts for overnight crate training.
