Bringing home a Christmas puppy
A puppy at Christmas arrives in the busiest week of the year. Here is how to keep the first days simple, and a free plan for the month after.
Pick the day
Think about bringing your puppy home a few days before or after Christmas Day, when the house is quieter and someone can stay with them.
If the puppy is the surprise, a wrapped bed, bowl or collar under the tree can stand in for them until the day you bring them home.
Set up one quiet room first
Before they arrive, set up one room with their bed, water, a few toys and a crate if you use one, away from the tree and the busiest part of the house.
A small space of their own is easier for a new puppy than the whole house at once. Open up more of the house a little at a time.
The tree at puppy height
Get down on the floor and look around: whatever a puppy can reach, they will try.
- Tree lights and extension cords: tuck them away or cover them.
- Glass ornaments and hooks on the lowest branches: move them up.
- Ribbon, tinsel and wrapping paper: pick them up as the gifts are opened.
- Food on low tables, and gifts with food inside: keep them up high or behind a closed door.
- Candles: keep them where a wagging tail cannot reach.
If your puppy swallows something they should not have, call your vet or an animal poison control line straight away.
Agree who does what
Before the day, agree who feeds them, who takes them out and who gets up in the night, so nothing is missed in the excitement.
Write it on a sheet by the door where guests can see it too.
Visitors, a few at a time
Let visitors meet the puppy a few at a time, sitting on the floor, and leave the puppy a way back to their room.
Ask children to let the puppy come to them, and to leave a sleeping puppy asleep.
Then, the first 30 days
Our free First 30 Days Kit plans the month after, one small thing a day: the shopping list in the order you need it, cards with their name, and a sound for the first nights.
Get the free kit