My five favorite products for your puppy
Being a new puppy parent in 2024 means there are many products for you to choose from to help make life with your puppy as easy and fun as possible.
One of my favorite parts of my job is discovering new products to recommend to my clients. It’s been fun to watch these new products come to market, especially considering, when I first started training dogs the only two food dispensing toys that existed were Kongs and buster cubes. (Did I just age myself?)
While there are dozens and dozens of products that I recommend to my new puppy clients here are my top five:
The Omega Treat Ball. This food dispensing toy has been a favorite of practically all the dogs I’ve ever had the privilege of sharing my life with so it’s no surprise that Pierogi, my current 4.5 month old puppy, is also a huge fan. In addition to recommending this toy to all of my dog training, clients, I give this to the guest who stay at my vacation rental with dogs. It’s always a huge hit! Use it for meals (kibble or other “dry” type foods) or throw a handful of your dog’s favorite treats in there for a midday boredom buster.
Canine Enrichment book. Honestly, this is a must read book for anyone with a dog not just a puppy. The more enrichment, you can give your pup or adult dog, the happier, more content, and easier to live with they will be.
Crate and Pen. Giving your puppy too much freedom, freedom to chew things they shouldn’t, freedom to nibble your toes while you do chores and put laundry away, freedom to potty where you can’t see them, freedom to chase the children, is one of the biggest mistakes I see puppy parents make. Using a pen and a crate or, a pen, crate combo like I have shown in the photo at the bottom of this post, is a great way to provide your puppy with not only a safe place to rest, play with toys, eat their meals, have a chew, but also provides them with a calm and quiet environment to take the frequent naps that they need.
A security camera. The last time I had a puppy the option to have a cheap easy camera that you could simply plug-in and watch your puppy from another room or from when you leave the house didn’t exist. (Oh jeez, grandma talking again 😂) Using a camera gives me peace of mind that my puppy is only having positive experiences, when I leave him to run errands, take a shower, or work in the yard.
The soundproof puppy training app. For anyone who has lived with a dog who was sound sensitive you know how stressful this can be not only for your dog but also for you. There are things we can do to help prevent our puppies from turning into dogs with sound sensitivities and there’s an app for that! The app can also be used to counter condition dogs with existing sound phobias.
My pen/crate setup for Pierogi
Sara Sokol is owner of Mr. Dog Training in Brunswick Maine; A positive reinforcement dog training facility, offering both virtual and in person classes, that has been voted best training in Maine for 9 years in a row.
