Feeding: Get a ceramic water bowl Pet Bowls that attach to the crate or playpen, so they don't get tipped over or chewed up. Just one for water. Your puppy has been eating dry puppy food. You should feed your puppy at least 3 times a day. They usually potty after eating, then play for a while, and then go to sleep for a few hours. When they wake up again they'll need to pee right away. If you have to be gone all day you can leave dry food available free choice. Every few months you can eliminate one of the feedings until your dog is eating once per day at about a year old. Raw chicken is good for your puppy to eat and clean it's teeth. Cooked bones are bad for him and shouldn't be fed. A great thing to do for training, is to take the bone and skin off the meat, cook just the meat until the pink is gone (so it doesn't make YOU sick), and use it for training treats. I use treat training for the puppy only when he's not learning otherwise. Save the raw bone in your fridge for crate time to help put your puppy to sleep, and the raw skin for meal time. You can supplement the chicken with heart and liver once a week. You can give a daily vitamin too if you're only feeding raw meat.

Potty Training: The Carlson Convertible Pet Yard is great for potty training a puppy. You can gradually give your puppy more room without letting him in the whole house. There are no horizontal bars so it's not easy for puppies to climb out. If possible, position the pen near the door you will eventually use for him to go outside to potty. That way the potty tray will be close to the door your puppy will eventually ask to be let out of. As you expand the playpen giving your puppy more room, keep the potty tray in the same spot by the door. If you keep your puppy on a leash you can give them more room in your house to play. You can put a Potty Door Bell on the door knob and let your puppy outside when he plays with them and he will learn to play with them when he wants out to potty.
Your puppy is used to using pine pellet litter, so put some down at first to transition him over if you want to use pads or newspaper. Start off with the pen smaller so there's just enough room for a Small Pet Cot and a litter tray. Or you can make a bed with a chair cushion with strings to tie it to one end of the pen. When your puppy is in such a confined space he will use the proper areas by instinct. If puppy pees on the bed, wash it right away, but let the potty area get dirty, so puppy can tell by smell where the proper place to go is. Then gradually make the pen larger as long as your puppy is using the litter tray correctly. Put the cot on the end closest to where the puppy will jump up and down to see you when you first enter the room. Dogs love the bowl shape a cot makes to sleep in. It also stays off the floor and out of the way of spilled messes. If it's too high for your puppy at first, you can take the legs off. Put the litter tray at the far end, so he doesn't dance in his mess when he wants you to come see him. Put the gate near his litter tray so when the gate is open he can get back in easily if he needs to potty. The same setup can be made with two cardboard boxes. Cut a door hole in each box and connect them at the doors to make a potty area, and a bedroom/play area. Separate the two boxes when you want to let the puppy out to play.

Health Care:
Insurance; Make a Veterinarian appt within the next few days after bringing your puppy home, to establish Embrace health insurance and sign up with them on line.
Vaccinations; Your puppy has had a Parvo vaccine before leaving here. Parvo vaccines at this young age don't always work because immunity from their mom's colostrum interferes with the vaccine so they should be vaccinated for Parvo again at 12, 16 and 20 weeks of age in case any of them do work, and then the last one should work for sure because immunity from mom's colostrum will have worn off by then. Your vet will vaccinate your puppy with Distemper at 10 or 11 weeks old and that will provide lifetime immunity. In the mean time don’t take the puppy to places where other puppies go (no pet stores or parks!) until after it is 16 weeks old. Exceptions are listed below under socialization. Your puppy can be vaccinated for Rabies after he is 4 months old.

Worming; Your puppy has been wormed recently and should be free of worms, but the stress of a new home may cause a new outbreak. You can routinely worm him 2 weeks after bringing him home or if you see any worms you can give him an over the counter wormer, or have a fecal test done at his next scheduled vaccination.

Grooming: It is best to trim your puppy’s nails every month. Teach your puppy to lay in your lap and rest while you brush his fur with a pin brush. He won’t need much brushing now, but it’s a good habit to get into once a week. It will get you ready for your 1 year old’s first spring when you’ll have to keep up with small mats getting in the coat and get them out before they get bigger. Your puppy is changing to it's adult coat at that time and it matts easily and may shed some. After that it is much easier to care for. Don’t leave those mats for the groomer to get out, or your dog will not enjoy going to the groomer. Test your brushing job with a fine tooth comb. The groomer is there to trim your dog’s rear, feet, in front of the eyes and the matts you can’t get out, or you can learn to do it yourself. Ask your groomer for a round face and short round ears for your doodle to look most like a teddy bear. Or you can go with a terrier look with eyebrows and a mustache. If you bathe your dog be sure to trim his rear and get the matts out first or they well “set” and be impossible to brush out. I recommend you get your dog clipped with a lamb clip in the spring, short on the legs for the summer if you have stickers, and a lamb clip again in the fall.

Coat: The doodles with the furriest faces are usually the dogs that don’t shed. The dogs that have sparser fur on their face but still a bearded look are usually low shedding. Feeding a raw meat diet helps the fur to be much healthier so it stays on the dog in the off seasons. They will still shed in the spring, but it should happen quickly instead of being spread throughout the year. Giving a warm bath and brushing will help the process be over with quicker.

Ears: Sometimes when puppies go through teething their ears can go different directions with the fluctuation of calcium. If the fold goes the wrong way on the side, you can put some fabric glue on the inside of the crease and press it into place. It will naturally come off after a while and the ear should stay in place.

Heartworms; Your puppy has been mostly inside and only outside mid day so can't have heartworms. You will want to start him on a monthly heartworm preventative when you bring him in to the Vet for his next vaccination.

Fleas; Your puppy shouldn’t have fleas when he leaves here. If you do find any fleas on your puppy, Advantage is a mild medication that works well. If you see itching and no fleas, Revolution works well for parasites you can’t see and also prevents heartworms.

Holding; When you or someone else is holding your puppy make sure he is supported well so he can’t jump or fall. It’s also best to not wear shoes when he’s running around the house in case he gets stepped on so it won’t hurt so much.

Teeth; Baby teeth may need to be pulled if they don’t fall out by themselves. This can be done when your puppy is being neutered after 6 months of age. Raw chicken wings are a good supplement and will clean his teeth when he eats the bones. Don’t feed any cooked bones. If you don't fred bones, you should brush your puppy's teeth. Only the ouasides of the teeth need to be brushed, and the sides of the mouth are where they need it the most.

Chewing: Your puppy will need to chew on things. Give him appropriate toys to chew on. If he's chewing on something undesired, you can spray it with a great product called Bitter Apple spray, and offer your puppy his chew toy instead. In his playpen get a toy with a loop so it can be attached to the fence with a carabiner above his bed so it doesn't get dirty.

Barking; If your puppy is barking too much, say "No" and stop playing with him for a while. If he still barks too much, an aluminum can with pennies in it can be shaken to startle him to stop.

Digging; If your puppy is digging holes outside, fill the hole up with his own feces. That will stop it quickly!

Socialization; It is important for your puppy to meet new people and experience new situations and sounds, especially within his first 3 months of life. Don’t let your puppy get too scared, but to be a little frightened of something new and find out it doesn't hurt him does great things for his temperament later. You shouldn't bring your puppy to places where other puppies have been until after 16 weeks of age. That includes parks, especially dog parks, pet stores, apartment complexes, etc. An exception would be an organized indoor socialization class where the area is disinfected and kept clean. It is a great place and time for your puppy to learn to get along well with other puppies and people. A UC Davis study found that there wasn't a greater risk of Parvo infection from these kinds of classes, and there is a great benefit from them.
Meeting other friendly adult dogs is fine, they're usually well vaccinated by then and not carrying any diseases.

Training; Your puppy should be signed up for a group obedience class as soon as he is old enough. Your puppy can have a regular collar with tags on it for identification, and a martingale collar for walking outside on a leash. It tightens when they pull so they can't slip it over their head. You can adjust it so it won't get too tight. Harnesses teach them to pull. Treats can be used if he's not learning without them. They're good when introducing him to new situations that are scary to him (swimming, nail trimming, stairs, doggie doors, etc.). Treats can be regular dry dog food if you want to feed him that anyway. You can make treats by cooking the boneless, skinless chicken meat, and chopping into small pieces. You can feed his whole meal as treats. Make him earn his food. You don't need to feed him in a bowl at all. Let him earn his meal during training. You can also put food in a Kong toy with peanut butter when you want him to be occupied for a while.

Sleep; Puppies need to sleep about half of their day time hours. If you have children make sure they're letting your puppy get enough sleep. When you want your puppy to sleep, he would appreciate a bottle with warm water in it, or a warming disk, to snuggle up with, since he is used to sleeping with his siblings. Get a soft toy with a loop to attach it to his cot so it will always be there when he sleeps on it. At night time if you want your puppy to sleep with you, you can put dog stairs next to your bed, with his litter tray at the bottom of the stairs. Or he can sleep in a crate next to your bed, or in his playpen.

Spaying and neutering; Can be done any time before your puppy is 8 months old.