Welcoming Your Pet

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Prepare your house for your puppy's arrival. A special place should be designated for it to eat, sleep, and eliminate. Obtain any necessary accessories (eg, collar, leash, ID tag, crate, and dishes) before you bring your pet home. If you are adopting a puppy, you will need to puppy-proof your home just as you would child-proof your home to avoid accidents. Harmful cleansers, plants, electrical cords, and breakable objects should be kept out of reach. Open windows should be screened.

Crate Training

A crate is a combined sleeping area, housebreaker, and preventer of bad habits. If you adopt a puppy, a crate may be one of the best investments you'll ever make for your pet. Select a crate that is large enough to house the dog when fully grown, and insert a divider to make it smaller for housebreaking. The reduced area should be small enough so that the puppy can't eliminate in one end and sit or sleep in the other. To make the crate a friendly place, appropriate chew toys (choose carefully and consult your veterinarian) can be placed within it and the puppy can be fed inside of it. Puppies should be left in their crates only for short periods initially, so that they learn that they will not be confined in them permanently.

Cats   Top

There's nothing like a new kitten in the house; they're affectionate, entertaining, and curious. As a responsible pet owner, a variety of concerns must be addressed to make sure your kitten grows up to be a healthy, well-adjusted cat.

Housing

Roaming cats are prime candidates for fights with other animals, traffic accidents, and communicable diseases from other cats. Their life span can be expected to be considerably shorter as a result.

Many cats are strictly indoor pets and are perfectly content, as long as they have access to a clean litter box and fresh water at all times. AVMA strongly recommends that for a healthier, happier pet you consider keeping your kitten indoors only. If your pet must go outside, make sure you know where it is at all times, that the kitten is old enough to manage on its own, that it is identified in some fashion (microchip ID or breakaway collar and tag), current on vaccinations, and not outdoors in extremely cold, hot, or inclement weather.

If you don't want your kitten in certain areas of the house, start training it immediately to avoid those areas. When choosing where your kitten will sleep, keep in mind that cats are nocturnal animals and will be active at night. Placing soft bedding materials in secluded corners will help your kitten to feel at home.

Toys

Toys should be strong enough to withstand chewing, not have bells or squeakers that could be torn off and swallowed, and large enough so that the entire toy cannot be swallowed. String, thread, balls of yarn, and ribbons are deadly toys that can be swallowed and become lodged in the digestive tract; do not allow your kitten to play with these items.