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    • Home
    • 2025 Puppy Pricing
    • The Puppy Nursery
      • Cavapoo Nursery
      • Goldendoodle Nursery
      • Maltipoo Nursery
    • Cottage & Coop Farmstead
      • Beyond The Doodle Cottage
      • Mini Goats
      • Teddywidder Bunny’s
    • Taking Your Puppy Home
    • Payment Policy
    • Visitation Policy
    • Planned Litters
    • Delivery Options
    • New Puppy Essentials
    • Testimonials
    • Contact Us

  • Home
  • 2025 Puppy Pricing
  • The Puppy Nursery
    • Cavapoo Nursery
    • Goldendoodle Nursery
    • Maltipoo Nursery
  • Cottage & Coop Farmstead
    • Beyond The Doodle Cottage
    • Mini Goats
    • Teddywidder Bunny’s
  • Taking Your Puppy Home
  • Payment Policy
  • Visitation Policy
  • Planned Litters
  • Delivery Options
  • New Puppy Essentials
  • Testimonials
  • Contact Us

What to Expect When Bringing Your Puppy Home

Helpful guidance for your first days home.

Bringing home a new puppy is an exciting and heart-warming milestone. To help you feel confident and prepared, we’ve put together an educational overview of what those first days and weeks typically look like. Every puppy is unique, but these are the common stages families experience as their new little one settles in.

1. The First 24–48 Hours: Adjustment & Decompression


Your puppy is leaving everything familiar — their mother, littermates, and the routine we’ve created for them. It’s normal for them to feel unsure at first.

Common behaviors:

  • Extra sleep as they process their new environment
  • Whining or “following you like a shadow”
  • Slight decrease in appetite
  • Wanting reassurance and closeness

These first days should be quiet, slow, and comforting.


2. Eating & Drinking

Puppies thrive on small, consistent meals. Please continue feeding the same food we send home and transition slowly if you plan to switch brands.

Tips:

  • 3–4 small meals per day
  • Fresh water available at all times
  • Avoid sudden new treats or table scraps

A skipped meal decreased appetite the first 1-3 days is normal.


3. Puppy Sleep (It’s A LOT!)

Puppies sleep 18–20 hours a day, and rest is essential for healthy growth.

Expect:

  • Short play → deep naps
  • Early bedtimes and early mornings
  • Crate naps for structure and confidence

An overtired puppy often acts hyper — rest is training!




Puppy Parasites: What’s Normal & What to Expect

This topic can catch new owners by surprise, so we want to provide honest education from the start.

It is extremely common and completely normal for young puppies to test positive for internal parasites early in life — even in clean, carefully managed breeding programs like ours. Puppies have brand-new immune systems and a natural exposure to parasites that is simply part of biology.


Why Parasites Are So Common

  • Some parasites are passed before birth
  • Others can be acquired through the mother’s milk
  • Immature immune systems make puppies more susceptible
  • Stress (such as going to a new home) can activate dormant parasite eggs
  • Some parasites don’t show up on fecal tests until the puppy is older

Even with routine deworming, it’s not unusual for a puppy to test positive at their first vet visit.


What You Might Notice

Many puppies show no symptoms at all, but if they do, the signs are usually mild:

  • Soft stool
  • Occasional loose bowel movements
  • Slight belly bloating
  • Mucous or bright red blood with stool

These are common and easily treated.


What You Should Do

At your puppy’s first vet visit (which should take place within the first few days), your veterinarian will:

  • Perform a fecal test
  • Review your puppy’s deworming history
  • Provide any needed follow-up treatment

Parasites in puppies are not a sign of poor care or poor health—  they are a normal, treatable part of early puppyhood.


Our Commitment

We follow a strict deworming protocol, maintain clean environments, and work closely with our veterinarian. And we promise to support you with transparent education every step of the way.

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