With careful planning, bringing home a puppy to share with your family can be a wonderful experience. However, a new puppy is a lot of hard work.

Before you ever bring your new puppy home, you must prepare your home for the new member of the family. To "puppy proof" your home, it is a good idea to get down on the floor where the puppy will be and look around from his eye level. Electrical cords, houseplants, "lost" items under furniture, and stairs are some of the things that could seriously hurt a puppy.

As soon as you bring your puppy home, it's important to call your vet and make an appointment to have the puppy examined. Your vet will want to start vaccinations and de-worming at this time, and will help you schedule the series of shots your dog will need at this young age. If you are concerned about flea prevention, your vet can help you choose a product that is safe to use on puppies.

Your puppy will need a puppy food that is 100% balanced nutrition for puppies. This will be found right on the label. With a high quality puppy food, tailored for a growing puppy's nutritional needs, it won't be necessary to add any vitamins to his diet. At all times, clean water should be available for the puppy to drink.

A real challenge for any new puppy owner is house training. The best way to begin this process is to confine your puppy to a very small area of the house at first, or perhaps purchase a crate. Half of this area should be covered with newspaper, while the other half should be created as his sleeping area. Puppies don't want to sleep in a wet or soiled bed, so they will go to the newspaper. When you see this behavior, praise him and offer him a treat. As the puppy begins to understand the process, you can gradually give him more space and begin to work on out-of-doors training.

A puppy is a baby! He needs proper rest and playtime stay happy and healthy. Providing your puppy with a soft, comfortable bed and several puppy-friendly toys will help with this. Get down on the floor with your puppy at playtime.

Puppies are a joy to have in the home and as we all know, they're so cute. With just a little effort, your puppy will be a problem-free member of the family in no time at all.