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Your New Puppy: Dog Training and Dog Behavior Lessons to Help You Turn Your New Puppy into a Well-Behaved Dog

YNP #108: What It Means to Prepare for Your New Puppy

Your New Puppy: Dog Training and Dog Behavior Lessons to Help You Turn Your New Puppy into a Well-Behaved Dog

Debbie Cilento: Dog Trainer | Dog Behavior Consultant | Owner of Playtime Paws | Belly Rub Specialist

Kids & Family, How To, Pets & Animals, Education

4.8917 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You’ve prepared for your puppy.

You did the research.You bought the supplies.You read the books and checked all the boxes.

So why does it still feel overwhelming when your puppy finally comes home?

You did everything right, but you forgot one key part of puppy preparation: you.

Good preparation doesn’t eliminate the chaos of bringing a puppy home. It prepares you to handle it when it shows up.

In this episode, I talk about:

  • Why feeling overwhelmed doesn’t mean you did something wrong
  • How preparation helps you recover faster when things go sideways
  • Why “mistakes” are not only normal, they’re part of the process
  • The connection between preparation and the puppy blues
  • What realistic expectations actually look like in the early weeks

If you’re preparing for a puppy, this episode will help you go in with clearer expectations.If you already have a puppy and are thinking, “I wish I heard this sooner,” also check out Episode #104: The Puppy Blues.

Enjoying this podcast?  Please rate and review it wherever you listen.  This helps other puppy parents find it.

Other resources mentioned and related to this episode:

Free Video Series: The Three Phases to Bringing Your New Puppy Home

Your New Puppy’s Podcast: YNP #104: The Puppy Blues

Your New Puppy’s Podcast: YNP #084: My Favorite DIY Puzzle Feeders

YOUR Perfect Puppy: If you’re looking for ongoing guidance with situations like this, this episode is also a great example of the kind of real-life problem-solving we do inside YOUR Perfect Puppy, where I help you turn everyday chaos into manageable routines that work for your household.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You are listening to your new puppies podcast, starting you and your dog off on the right paw.

0:16.3

Here's your host, Debbie Salento.

0:28.8

Thank you. your host, Debbie Salento. Hello and welcome to episode 108 of your new puppies podcast.

0:33.7

I'm Debbie, and today we're going to talk about what it really means to prepare for your puppy.

0:41.3

Because, you know, you've read every book, you bought every supply, you've checked off all your

0:48.2

checklists. But when your puppy comes home, it still feels like chaos. It still feels overwhelming and almost like

0:56.8

you're failing. Like all this preparation you did was for not. And the reality is all that preparation

1:02.1

was really important, but we forgot one key element, you. Because the reality is, is good preparation

1:09.0

doesn't avoid the chaos. It doesn't get rid of it.

1:13.1

It may reduce it. In fact, it will reduce it. But what it does is it prepares you to deal with

1:19.0

that chaos, to deal with the mistakes, to deal with it when it feels really big. Now, I have a

1:25.3

video series. It's free. It's called The Three Phases to Bringing Your New Puppy Home. And it does. It goes over the supplies you need to buy, what training you need to start from day one, when you're supposed to let your puppy just settle in and when you have to actually get to work. So all the logistic stuff, because it is important.

1:46.1

If you want that series, it's playtime pause.com forward slash prep, P-R-E-P.

1:52.8

But here, I'm going to get into more detail on the other side of preparation.

1:59.0

So let's talk about what happens because I want you to know that it's normal. 1,000% normal. That is why I'm here. If it wasn't normal, I wouldn't know to talk about it and know that you probably need to hear it. So when we're preparing to get our puppy, we don't want to mess it up. We want to do everything right from the start. So that's why we read

2:19.6

all the books. We buy all the supplies. We do all of the things. And that comes from the fact that we care

2:26.9

so much about this puppy that's coming home. And we want to be the best human we can and we want to create the best environment

2:35.6

we can. We want to make them happy. We want to give them a loving, happy home. But once they are

2:40.7

home, what we start to realize is puppies are unpredictable. You will be tired, making emotions high

2:49.3

and patience low. And once you are in the moment, even though

2:53.5

you did all this preparation, all the information is just going to fly out of your head. You're going to

2:57.9

be like, what was I supposed to do here? And you're going to remember it a couple hours later and be like,

...

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