Bringing Home a Puppy: Your First Week

The first week is for three things: a routine your puppy can predict, a toilet habit, and a gentle start on meeting the world while the vaccines are still under way. This guide follows three UK animal charities (PDSA, Dogs Trust and Battersea), a house-training handout from the behaviour service at the University of California, Davis vet school, and the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB), all checked on 21 October 2026. Your vet sets your puppy’s vaccine and deworming plan.

Before you collect your puppy

Ask the breeder or shelter for:

• What, when and how much your puppy eats (PDSA). Keep to that food for now: UC Davis advises no sudden changes to a puppy’s diet unless your vet says so (UC Davis).
• The vaccination and deworming record, so your vet can carry on from there.
• Something that smells of the mother, such as a blanket. PDSA says breeders usually give one; put it where your puppy sleeps.

Set up a small, safe area with a bed, water and toys: a crate, a puppy pen or a small room. UC Davis says a puppy comes to see a small space like this as its den, which it prefers not to soil.

Put away foods that are dangerous to dogs. The ASPCA’s list includes chocolate, grapes and raisins, onions and garlic, macadamia nuts, and xylitol, a sweetener in some gum, sweets, baked goods and toothpaste (ASPCA).

The first day

PDSA’s advice for day one:

• Keep everyone calm, and avoid visitors for a few days while your puppy adjusts.
• Don’t give your puppy the run of the whole house yet.
• Keep to the feeding times your puppy is used to.
• Short play sessions are fine. Expect a lot of sleep: PDSA says some puppies sleep 18 to 20 hours a day.

The first nights

• Sleep close by at first. PDSA suggests sleeping in the same room for the first few nights, and keeping your puppy’s sleeping spot the same. Dogs Trust offers two ways to move apart slowly: start with the bed in your bedroom and move it further away every few nights, or put the bed where it will stay and sleep near it on a temporary bed, moving yourself away bit by bit (Dogs Trust).
• Comfort is fine. PDSA says it’s OK to comfort a puppy that’s upset, and to keep bedtime calm and at a set time.
• Expect night toilet trips. It takes time before a puppy can last the night, says Dogs Trust, so be ready to let yours out.
• If you use a crate, make it a good place to be. AVSAB says crates should serve as comfort or play areas, and puppies used to one are less stressed if they later have to stay at the vet or travel (AVSAB).

House training

Puppies can’t hold on for long: UC Davis notes they haven’t yet developed the bladder control of an adult dog. Its handout suggests this many toilet breaks a day:

What works, from the same handout:

• Go out after eating and drinking, after a nap, and after play. PDSA says after meals and naps is when puppies most need to go.
• Use the same spot each time, and save play until your puppy has been.
• Praise while your puppy is going in the right place, and give a small treat right then.
• Watch your puppy indoors. When you can’t, use the den area.
• Clean accidents with an enzyme cleaner, which removes the smell that draws a puppy back to the same spot.
• Don’t punish accidents, by scolding, hitting or rubbing your puppy’s nose in it, and not afterwards either. UC Davis says it doesn’t work and may lead to worse behaviour problems. Accidents will happen.

The first vet visit

Battersea advises a check-up a few days after your puppy comes home (Battersea). Take the breeder’s or shelter’s records and a list of questions. Topics to cover, from Battersea’s list and the vets’ life-stage guidelines of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA, 2019):

• A full check, including for problems a puppy can be born with.
• Vaccines. Your vet sets the schedule, because which vaccines a puppy needs, and what the law requires, depend on where you live. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association advises repeating the core puppy vaccines every 2 to 4 weeks, with the last dose at 16 weeks or older and a booster at or after 26 weeks (WSAVA, 2024). For one country’s schedule, see the puppy vaccination schedule in India.
• Worms, fleas and ticks. AAHA advises deworming puppies from 2 weeks old and every 2 weeks until monthly treatment begins, so yours may already have had a few doses. Where heartworm is a risk, AAHA advises starting a heartworm preventive by 8 weeks of age; ask whether it’s needed where you live.
• A microchip. AAHA counts it as part of puppy care, and in some countries it’s the law: in the UK, every dog must be microchipped and registered by 8 weeks old (gov.uk).
• Feeding and growth, when to neuter, and who to call out of hours in an emergency (Battersea).

AAHA suggests puppy check-ups every 3 to 4 weeks while the vaccines are under way. Make the visits pleasant: a Battersea behaviourist suggests going slowly, letting your puppy meet the staff, playing and giving a few treats, because some dogs develop a fear of the vet.

Call your vet straight away if your puppy vomits or has diarrhoea, especially with blood in it, or goes quiet and stops eating. These can be signs of parvovirus, which commonly affects puppies between 6 weeks and 6 months old, and Cornell’s vet school says any puppy with vomiting and diarrhoea should be tested for it (Cornell).

Socialising: start now, safely

AVSAB calls the first three months of life the most important time for socialising, because sociability still outweighs fear. It says puppies should meet as many new people, animals, places and sounds as can be done safely, without overwhelming them, and that this should start before the vaccines are finished.

Until your vet says the vaccine course is done:

• Skip dog parks and other places busy with dogs whose vaccines you don’t know. AVSAB says to avoid them.
• Meet the right dogs. WSAVA advises keeping puppies that haven’t finished their vaccines away from places outside the home that may be contaminated, and letting them meet only healthy puppies and fully vaccinated adult dogs.
• Join a puppy class. AVSAB says puppies can start as early as 7 to 8 weeks, at least 7 days after their first vaccines and a first deworming, in classes held on surfaces that are easy to clean.

Once your puppy has had a few calm days at home, ideas from AVSAB’s statement:

• Meeting different people, without overwhelming your puppy
• Being touched all over: paws, ears, mouth, tail, with a treat each time
• Short car trips
• New floors and surfaces, steps, and safe toys to explore
• Training with rewards (praise, play, treats). AVSAB says reward-based training is linked to fewer behaviour problems than methods based on punishment.

Watch how your puppy reacts. AAHA warns that exposure without paying attention to the puppy’s response can lead to more problem behaviour, not less, and that puppies generally don’t grow out of their problems. If your puppy seems scared, AVSAB advises asking your vet for help.

Time alone

Start practising now. AVSAB says puppies need time to play alone with a favourite toy, such as a toy stuffed with food, or to nap in a crate or pen. It teaches them to amuse themselves and may help prevent them becoming overattached to you. Begin with a few minutes while you’re in another room.

For later, when you travel or work long days, see pet sitter vs dog boarding.