Deciding to welcome a puppy into your family is a big decision but once you know your puppy is on its way, you’ll be excited and perhaps a little worried? There is lots to do to prepare you, your family and your home for the new arrival! Here are some books that will help. 

Buying a car crate, a collar and lead and a few toys is a start but there’s a lot more preparation needed. If you haven’t been a dog owner before it helps to do your homework before your puppy joins your family.  Even if you have had dogs before, every puppy is different and so once you’ve found your new furry friend it pays to spend a few weeks researching and preparing your family, and home, for the new arrival.

I spent several weeks preparing for our dog to join us and it was time well spent. These three books were particularly helpful (and remain so), and I can’t recommend them highly enough.

The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey. Published by Hamlyn.

• A book designed to help you understand your puppy and his view of the world.
• Advice on how to teach your puppy good manners and build his confidence.
• A well laid out, book with top tips and photos to clearly explain what to do at every step of your dog’s development. The book takes you through breed characteristics, preparing to bring your puppy home, house training, socialization, controlling aggression and chewing, and training.
• A must read for any new dog owner!

I read this book from cover to cover before our puppy came home with us, referred to it frequently in the first year and still have it hand to help when new issues arise. Gwen is an experienced dog behaviourist, committed to improving the lives of our dogs. Her advice helps you to bring up a well behaved, happy and confident dog. She believes in reward-based training and this book has been helping to train owners since 1995. You’ll soon learn the training job is never finished and Gwen helps you to see things from your dog’s point of view so you can understand his behaviour and work with him to correct it in a kind way, if need be. This book is the next best thing to having Gwen on hand for advice and is a ‘must read’ for every dog owner.

The Happy Puppy Handbook by Pippa Mattinson. Published by Ebury Press.

• A complete guide to puppy care and early training
• Organised into three sections covering preparing for your puppy, living with your puppy and problem solving.
• Covers diet and health as well as training.
• Another helpful source of sensible advice.

The breeder of my dog recommended this book, and it has been extremely useful. It covers different information from the Gwen Bailey book, including diet, nutrition and health care advice, and goes into some detail on introducing your new puppy to other animals and on toilet training. She also has a section on solving issues such as noisy or destructive dogs.  I’m the sort of person that loves an instruction manual, so these 2 books together have been a great guide to me as a novice dog owner.

Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson. Published by Quilter.

• Fabulously detailed guide to training your dog to obey your every command.
• Simple to follow exercises with pictures.
• Sections exploring problems you might encounter, why they happen and what to do about them.

This book is one I need to read again! The training advice is all reward based, and with determination and hard work is designed to ensure your dog is rock solid and always does as you say. Her guide is easy to follow with illustrated games and exercises you and your dog will enjoy, making learning fun. My dog is not that food orientated so this book is a helpful guide to training that I hope will make me more interesting to my dog than other dogs are. Here’s hoping!

Good luck with welcoming your new puppy to your family and making them feel at home. Don’t forget to refer to our pet insurance reviews when choosing the right policy for you and your new friend!