By Diane A. Dodin, D.V.M.
There are a few rules of thumb that can help make your new puppy experience fantastic. Vaccinations are a very important part of your puppy's life. Puppies should receive their first round of vaccines starting at 7-8 weeks of age. Different veterinary clinics may have protocols that vary on how many vaccine boosters and dewormings to give, so always check with your veterinarian. Puppies are too young to be tested for heartworm disease. It is recommended that they are put on some type of heartworm preventative, which can be started when they are old enough to receive their first vaccine booster. If your puppy spends time outside, a good flea and tick preventative is essential for him/her as well as your home. Once fleas get into the home, it does take time and effort to rid your entire house of them.
Puppies are amazing eating machines. You should feed your puppy three times a day and weigh them periodically. Since they are growing fairly quickly, it is a good idea to have an accurate weight to determine how much food they should be eating. Always check with the back panel on your puppy food bag to see how much food your puppy should be eating daily. If your puppy tends to eat too fast, you can try giving multiple smaller meals throughout the day. Another trick you can try is placing a ball that is too big for your puppy to swallow in the bowl with food. This will force them to eat around the ball, which causes them to eat slower.
Water is a very important factor in a puppy's life. Make sure that your puppy has plenty of fresh water. Since puppies are running around constantly, they need to drink more. With drinking more comes urinating more. A way to determine how often to take your puppy out is to count how many months old they are. Each month represents an hour that they can wait until they need to urinate. Then add one hour to that number. So, for example, if your puppy is 3 months old then they can hold their urine for 4 hours.
Sometimes puppies can do things that might seem disturbing, such as, eating their own feces or even another dog's feces. Don't worry, there are things out there that can help. If your puppy has developed a taste for his/her own feces, there are products that can be put in their food to help with this problem. One product out there is called Forbid. You can place it on their food, which makes their feces undesirable. If your puppy has a taste for other dogs' feces, keep a bottle of tobasco sauce, meat tenderizer, or lemon juice on hand during walks. You can sprinkle a little on some unknown feces and when your puppy gets a taste of the spiked sample it will deter them from eating unknown stool. It's good to prevent puppies from eating other dogs' stool, since that can lead to contracting intestinal parasites.
These are a few tidbits that will hopefully help make your puppy experience an enjoyable one.