New Puppy Starter Guide
Hello, and welcome to our new puppy starter guide, which was created to try and answer some of the questions you may have when looking for the perfect small dog for you and your family.
I can remember having almost an unlimited amount of questions when we were researching dogs, and it felt like our knowledge gap snowballed! The more we researched and the more answers we found, the more questions we had!
In this article, I try to include all the questions and answers I’ve had in the past, as well as update it whenever I have any new questions. I hope that this can become a helpful and useful resource for anybody who is looking at introducing a new dog to the family.
How to make choosing a dog easier?
Once we started looking for a dog and the search started, random questions would pop up in our heads that otherwise wouldn’t have been obvious, including things like what are dog breed groups and why do they exist?
It was then that I discovered that each dog breed has different characteristics and traits, which can be used to help determine the suitability of a dog breed for you and your family, depending on your needs. Especially things like dog breed suitability for things like:
- If a member of your family has allergies, choosing a dog breed that is less prone to shedding fur, produces less dander (dead skin cells), and is less likely to drool should be a primary factor.
- If you have young children, some dog breeds just aren’t suitable. This could be because the breed is small and delicate, which could easily be injured by unintentional rough play.
- If you want a breed that is easy to train, you’ll need to pay attention to the trainability of specific breeds, and as a breed, how eager they are to please their owner.
There are many more factors that can (and should) be considered, but we wanted to give some examples of how you can use a dog breed’s common characteristics and traits to help choose the right dog for you, your family, and your lifestyle.
What things do I need to buy for my new puppy?
As a family, once we agreed on a dog breed (miniature dachshund), we then needed a shopping list of puppy essentials just to get us started on our new journey! This list contains things like a dog collar with a name tag, poop bags, dog bowls, puppy food, treats, a dog crate, etc. Many things on the list are obvious, but there are also things that don’t seem to be essential until you need them!
We quickly realized that with so many essential items on the shopping list, this was going to take a lot of time, and money. Every item on the shopping list would require research, reading, comparing, buying various options, and thoroughly testing every single one of them over a period of time.
Only the essential items that we bought and rigorously tested exist on the shopping list.
Need help with naming a dog?
Can you guess what the next job was? Yup, that’s right, choosing a dog name! This task was seemingly no easier than any of the previous tasks!
Luckily for you, we’ve created a bunch of helpful articles on this website. So be sure to use the search bar at the top of this page if you can’t find what you’re looking for!
What are Dog Breed Groups?
Did you know that all AKC-recognized dog breeds fall into one of seven distinct dog breed groups based on their physical characteristics and temperaments?
Find out more about dog breed groups, and how you can use this information to help you choose the right dog breed for you, your family, and your lifestyle.
New Puppy Essentials
There is so much to think of and plan when you have a new furry friend, so we want to make this step as easy as possible, enabling you to enjoy every moment with your new dog.
Our new puppy checklist is basically an essential shopping list and is broken down into easy-to-read chunks to make things even easier.
What Defines a Small Dog?
As with dog breed groups, dogs are also categorized by size. But do you know why?
Discover what defines a small dog, and how this information is used, including things like the scale of job a dog was bred for, and in more recent times, how it’s used in diet, health, and wellbeing.
List of Small Dog Breeds
In this article, we list all small dog breeds, and you can discover the top 10 most popular small dog breeds, as rated by the AKC.
We also cover details including purebred, crossbreed, mixed-breed, designer dogs, and more.
Dog Calorie Calculator
As dog owners, we all want to keep our furry friends happy and healthy, and one of the best ways we can achieve this is to ensure our dogs get the right amount of calories from their diet.
Luckily for you, we’ve got a handy dog calorie calculator to help!
