Hey everyone! :] I'm waiting to bring my PWC puppy home on Wednesday, and I'm wondering what everyone's preferences are for collars, leashes, toys, food, etc. I'm super excited and I want to have everything ready for the puppy before he comes home :D

Thanks in advance! <3

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I was like you, and I bought a lot of stuff Waffle has never used. ...

 

But, here are things he did use and we both like a lot:

 

Stainless steel bowls.  (Ceramic ones crack and can harbor bacteria.)

Chuck-It STUFF.  The launcher and the flying squirrel are personal favorites.

A Kong.

A british-style slip lead (clip leads can suck it--I'm never going back)

A detachable collar-- his comes off often enough that he doesn't wear it anymore though

A REALLY GOOD VACUUM.

A high quality food. I started him off on Wellness/Wellness Core and moved up though the ranks, now he eats raw meat/The Honest Kitchen/Orijen

One or two stuffed squeaky toys.  Kong makes a great squirrel toy.

A cat feathers-on-a-stick toy.  Trust me, this will be a huge hit.

Some antlers to chew on--less messy than bones/bully sticks and no smell

A crate.  We have a Furarri plastic one, but a life stages crate if probably best for your puppy

A clicker

Charlee bear treats for training

Other, more substatial treats for "cookies"

 

The beeeest thing you can do for your new puppy is to begin training him the second you bring him home and then never stop.  A well-trained dog is for life.

AHHH, thanks for the list!! :D I really appreciate it! I'm not too familiar with Charlee bear treats. Are there any other treats that you'd recommend? :]] thank you againn!!

I like to buy any dog cookies that I can eat and say I would not mind eating if I absolutely had to.  I bought Waffle some dog Oreo's once-- they were so delicious.  This stipulation of mine limits the treats to being made out of non-meat ingredients because meat ingredients in baked goods often end up having a stupid amount of preservatives or other unsavory crap in them.  Basically, if it's based in flour and fruit, I will buy it for him.  

 

Sojo's makes some great little cookies. Pumpkin Crunchers are one of my favorites, and Fruitables are another good cookie. But, you won't find any of these type of treats at PetSmart. I tried the Blue Buffalo banana health bars, Wellness Well Bars, and Natural Balance sweet potato things, but they were both textured very poorly and tasted very unlike what they claimed to taste like. I tend to buy my treats (and food) at specialty pet stores because they do usually stock them. However, they DO sell Charlee Bear treats at PetSmart; you have to look hard.  I would never eat them, though.  They're 2-4 calories each, are hard and small so they don't break in your pocket, and are the perfect size so as not to distract your dog from his lesson.

 

I do like to give him an extra special cookie before bed (the Oreo's were bedtime snacks).  For the past few months, his bedtime treats have been chicken jerky made by Canyon Creek, found in PetSmart.  He likes them a lot, but I'm not sure if I will buy them anymore because they are made in China and that doesn't sit well with me.  

 

 

 

The Kong items are all awesome. They also make a tiny tennis ball that squeaks. Perfect corgi puppy size. 

 

Antlers are awesome too. Another great chew that Baxter loved was the nylabone key ring. I went through four or five of those things.

 

Food-wise, Orijen is my favorite. Baxter was fed Organix by Castor and Pollux throughout puppyhood. As he got older, I noticed his fur would always have flakes in it when I brushed him. I did some research and added a supplement. When that didn't work, I did some more research and decided to try another brand, Orijen. After switching the food, his skin problems went away. The 6-Fish formula is the best, even though it sort of smells like there are actually 6 fish in the bag.

 

One of my favorite treats is called Wet Noses Tiny Training Stars. Like the name implies, they are really tiny and are perfect for training. Zuke's Mini Bakes come in a pack of 325 and you can break them in half. Baxter's favorite puppy treat were these moist cookie-like treats called Sniffers. They were sort of big, but they were easy to break up and use for training. I never realized how much Baxter liked them until we ran out and I bought something else. He ate the new treat just fine, but when I bought a bag of the Sniffers and he smelled them he practically did a little dance.

All of those treats look like something I may want to buy for Waffle. :0  Thanks for the recommendation, haha.

 

Also, yes. Supplements.  Not required, but highly recommended.  As someone who believes firmly that nutrition is the basis of health, humor me and read about this stuff even if you never plan on buying any supplements for your dog ever.  

If you're going to buy supplements for your dogs diet, fish oil is a must.  My favorite fish oil product is Grizzly Fish Oil because it is pure fish oil.  Other fish oils you buy are cut with soy or other oils that dilute the product and may be a source of allergen for your dog. Other fish oils also require you to supplement with Vitamin E, even though most people don't.  Fish oil limits the amount of Vitamin E available to the body, but Grizzly has stated specifically that Vitamin E supplementation is not necessary with their product. Benefits of fish oil include: higher amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids available for your dog to care for its skin and coat.  PUFA deficiencies lead to flaky skin, dry/stiff coat, hair loss, and even bacterial infection.

That said, I supplement vitamin E anyway.  You want a product not based in soy.  The one I use is a liquid product made by Solgar which has Vitamin E suspended in a wheat/sunflower oil mixture.  Vitamin E is an antioxidant which helps to break down fatty acids, keeps away Oxygen free radicals, and stabilizes cell membranes.  The reason I supplement VitE is because most diets only have enough VitE to keep away symptoms of deficiency. Optimum maintenance levels are higher than those found in raw meat, also. 

A probiotic is necessary if you feed raw meat.  It helps keep the friendly gut flora at a high level which limits the nutrients available for the growth of pathogenic gut bacteria.  Right now I am using a product by Spectra.  I open up the capsules and he gets about 1/2 a capsule a day.  More is best if your dog is on antibiotics.  I used to be slack about this, but then Waffle got a campylobacter infection so I bought the best one I could find. Any supplement is cheaper than that $500 vet bill I got.

I like to give a digestive supplement to tackle the digestion of strange or powerful foods (like that rotting bird in your yard).  He gets it in one meal a day, and he's never had a single tummy upset because of difficulty digesting something.  He got a combination of probiotic and enzymes, made by Dogzymes, for a while.  The Spectra probiotics don't have any enzymes in them, so he gets Prozyme now.  Digestive enzymes help your dog to fully utilize what he is eating.

 

Anyways, that's my spiel.  If you made it this far, congratulations!! haha.

I use very little stuff that I bought. Mostly scrounged, improvised.
tennis balls, soccer ball, Nike Jr. 7" dia. child's basketball (garage sales, thrift stores).
Fanny pack dedicated for dog stuff. Pill bottles or similar for training treats.
Notebook for training plan, logbook, calendar. Plan your work and work your plan. Your training plan is the most important item.
Avoid foods that contain corn.
See the collar FAQ. I like my modified Martingales slip over-the-head. Keep the dog's baggage as lightweight as possible -- a corgi collar doesn't need to be strong enough to tow a car.
Get your cell phone # on the collar. I like silent collars that don't rattle.
We do have two safety harnesses for the car. The bayonet buckles are unnecessary; the harness slip over the head if you fold the foreleg through the chest loop; you never need to open the harness.
thank you for your reply!! do you have any suggestions for training in the beginning? and do you have any tips on training corgis to heel/walk with a loose leash? thank you again! :]

Puppy classes would be my #1 recommendation. :)

 

As far as supplies that we use a lot:

martingale collars

kongs

Planet Dog Orbee ball

fleece braided ropes (you can make these really cheap with some fleece fabric)

Large breed puppy or an all life stages food. I use Fromms but there are plenty of good ones

Antlers are a favorite for chewies, www.bestbullysticks.com has tons of good quality chews as well

Crate - I prefer the plastic ones

For training treats I like to use Zuke's minis, they are super stinky and the dogs love them

I got some of those Zuke's treats for free at a pet show I went to.  MY GOD, they stink to high heaven.  I can't stand it!  D:  I don't even want to hold them.  I've just been throwing a few on top of his food to get rid of them.
Congrats on your new puppy! So exciting! I was just like you, wanted everything prepared and set up before my puppy came :)

As far as collars go, I got Schatzi a simple nylon one that was adjustable, because I knew she'd grow out of it fast. She's 5 months now, and it still fits. However, she tended to pull ALOT when I walked it, meaning she was pseudo choking herself on her collar (not anything life threatening, she just sounded like an old man wheezing.) So a couple weeks ago I picked up a harness for her at Petco, don't have the box anymore but the harness has a "Yuppie Puppy" stamp on it. It is really simple, goes on over her head and then her front legs go through little loops and there is a kind of drawstring to tighten it. It is GREAT. It gives you much more control when walking the puppy, and she won't choke herself on it. Schatzi got used to it immediately and is eager to put it on for her walks!

As for training to walk nicely...this is how my boyfriend trained his family dog, and how we have been working with Schatzi. Hold the end of the leash in your right hand, and with your left hold the slack, so the leash goes across your body, and the puppy walks on your left side. Hold it tight enough so that the dog must walk right next to you, but slack enough so that they can move about a foot ahead and a foot behind - rule of thumb is you always want them to have you in their field of vision, they will get used to this and this gives them a range of space to walk in when they are unleashed, or on a slack leash. They will pull ALOT, you just have to be patient. If they are really lunging forward, stop and make them sit, don't move forward again until they are nicely by your side. If you have a problem with them moving forward, use treats to entice them. If your puppy is like mine, she will not really get the walking thing for a few weeks - either because they tire easily, or they just want to sit and enjoy their surroundings. Just keep at it!

I feed Schatzi Blue Buffalo, and really like it. After transitioning her from the breeder's food, there was a clear change in the quality of her coat, and she seems to like it.

I get her little biscuits as treats (really any kind will do, most dogs will eat anything lol), and use chicken liver treats for training, and she LOVES those. I've gotten them from Petco and from boutique dog stores, and there wasn't much difference between them. Highly recommend them.

As for toys, definitely get a rope toy, the puppy can chew on that, and you can play a little tug - of - war :) This was Schatzi's favorite toy. Also the kong balls are great, any kind of little tennis balls as well. Schatzi really liked the nylabone key rings as well, especially when she was teething. Another thing that was really good for teething is just taking an old towel or rag, soaking it in water, twisting it up like a little rope, and freezing it, then giving it to the dog to chew on. Schatzi loved that, she'd chew it for hours, and it would help sooth her gums. Get a Flossie as well (by Merrick - the other brands smell horrible), they are beef tendons twisted in a spiral and every dog I've seen with one just loves it. Schatzi was super energetic and went crazy any time anyone came over, but we gave her a flossie one time and she was content chewing on it for hours.

Good luck!!! :)

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