-Do you have a feeding schedule we should be sticking to?

You should feed your puppy 60g of meat mix+rice 4 times a day. Puppies need more food than adult dogs. Use the label on the food bag for amount by age.

-Dog food: What food should we buy in advance? Any wet/canned food?

Due to stress, the puppy may not eat his food for a fist time. This is normal. The stress will subside, the puppy will get hungry, and they will eat. You need to offer the puppy food, let it be available for the puppy for about 15 minutes, then put the remaining food in the refrigerator until the next feeding. We feed puppies 4 times a day. You can switch to 3 times a day closer to the 4-6 month of puppy age, it is really individually. Look at the food packages for the serving size and the number of feedings. Different manufacturers have different recommendations. Puppies and adult dogs in our kennel eat raw food made at home. To do this, we have a commercial meat grinder, which grinds the chicken meat together with bones. If you need our recipe, I will gladly share it. We understand that not everyone has the opportunity to feed raw food to dogs. To transition a puppy from raw food to any other food, you need to have wet food in cans or another raw food. We provide food with the puppy for 3 days, 4 meals a day. This is frozen raw food. Keep it in the freezer and take it out as needed. Warm to room temperature before feeding. The puppy is under stress due to a change of home, we advise you to use this stress and start changing food from the first day. Mix 50% raw food with 50% new food, do this for a couple of days. Then 30% raw food and 70% new food for a couple of days. Then 10% raw food and 90% new food. This way the raw food that we have provided you will be enough to completely transition the puppy to a new food. Usually, puppies like wet food and the transition is not difficult. DO NOT feed a puppy 100% dry food from the start. If you plan to feed your dog with dry food in the future, then after the puppy has completely switched to wet food, start slowly adding dry food to wet food, a couple pieces at a time. But for good health until the age of 1 year, continue to combine wet and dry food. Clean water must always be available for the puppy to drink when they want.

-Milk: Is the puppy accustomed to milk?

No more milk. Only if the puppy has constipation, you can give it 1/2 cup of goat milk.

-Potty training: Is the pup used to wee pads and should we continue?

Yes, the puppy is pad trained. If you want them pee and poop outside, start with the pad located close to their bed, then slowly move the pad outside.

-Commands: Will the pup know any of the standard commands that we should continue to use?

The puppies knows NO with a strong inflection and the index finger wag. Really good for this age.

-I am being advised that we need to take some sort of towel/blanket with her mom's smell so that she does not feel too lonely.

A blanket with nest smell and a couple toys will be provided.

-How and where should the puppy sleep for the first few weeks so that puppy does not whine and develop separation anxiety? I do not want to give the puppy an idea that puppy will be sleeping with us. We want to do crate training from early on, but not sure if this will stress the puppy too much at this age.

You need to decide once and be very consistent on this subject. The puppy is a baby. Puppy will go to the toilet at night time. Therefore, you need to provide puppy with a fenced area, or large crate, where there will be enough space for a bed and a pad. If the crate is too small, you will need to take her to the toilet area in the middle of the night.

The puppy will cry for a couple nights, be prepared. Give the puppy a bottle (Coca-Cola or so, 2 liters) with warm water wrapped in a fluffy blanket or towel. Give puppy a stuffed toy (check eyes and nose for possibility to gnaw off), or even a wrapped ticking alarm clock. Special heart beating soft toy is very helpful. If puppy is in a cage, you can put it near your bed and put your hand on top of it. The puppy has NEVER been alone before. Now puppy is at a new place with new people. Baby is SCARED. Love and patience will help you.

-Vaccine schedule: Can you please let us know what vaccines the pup will have by the pick up time?

You will get puppy’s medical record with vaccinations done and dates for upcoming vaccinations. Take this record to your vet.

-Transportation in the car: What do you recommend we use when commuting for an adult dog in the car? And of course, for transporting the puppy for a 1hr+ drive so that pup is not bouncing around the seat?

Use a small carrier for the puppy or a transport cage/crate for an adult dog. Fix that cage in the car so that it does not slide.

-AKC registration: Please share the steps for how to register her and what is the benefit for registering her. And I forgot to ask: are the parents AKC registered?

My dogs are registered with the Continental Kennel Club. You will get a certificate or a puppy slip to register your puppy with the CKC. You can also register your pup in AKC also but CKC needs to be first. There are no benefits that I know of for registering your dog.

-Neuter/spay: When is the best age to neuter/spay the puppy?

6-8 month

-Microchip: Will puppy have one? If not, what is the best age to get pup micro-chipped? Is it recommended?

Our puppies do not come with a microchip. The best age to get micro-chipped is at 6-8 months. We do recommend getting micro-chipped because it provides at least some chance that the dog will come back if pup runs away.

-If the puppy has a sensitive stomach / wet stool incident: What should we try right away?

Beagles are generally a very healthy breed. The puppies do not have any digestive problems when you pick them up from us. They are eating well and pooping well too. If your puppy gets diarrhea, use pumpkin food for babies, or cooked and finely crushed chicken with rice. We feed our dogs raw homemade food. If you are interested, we can talk about this and I can give you my recipe.

-How often should we bathe the puppy? And what about the adult dog?

It is up to you. Just be very careful with the ears. Usually, puppies like water. Try to make bathing fun for the puppy.

-How often do you recommend brushing puppy’s teeth?

Baby teeth do not need brushing, but you can train your puppy to be used to the procedure if you start early. After the teeth change, brush them every day, before night time.

-Do you have a recommendation which collar/harness to buy? Any opinion on collar vs harness for beagles? And if both are needed, at what age should we switch from harness to collar or vice versa?

My experience – harnesses are better. Collars with all tags are for wearing all the time, and harnesses are for walking outside. The puppy is already used to wearing a collar. When you start to walk outside with the puppy, use a harness.
New treats must be checked fist. Give the puppy a small piece and wait a day to see how puppy’s digestive system will work with a new product. Only if everything is good give the puppy a hole treat and again wait for a day.

Beagles love to eat.Therefore, you should control their feeding. Obesity is very unhealthy and causes additional stress on the heart. Fruits, vegetables and berries will help you and your beagle. Use them as snacks and as part of regular meals. Young puppies should start to try veggies and fruits closer to the 5-6-month age. You should start with soft veggies and fruits. Each dog is unique. I can’t give you recommendations on what exactly will be good or bad for your beagle. This recommendation is general. Give your dog a small piece of the new food, do not mix different foods, and observe for a couple of days how the digestive system copes with the new food. It is forbidden to give eggplants, green tomatoes, potatoes, mushrooms, onions, citrus fruits, grapes, raisins, chocolate, sweets and nuts. Fresh veggies must be ripe- tomatoes, carrot, bell pepper, lettuce, any cabbage, zucchini, green beans, cucumber. Almost all fruits and berries are great to give your beagle – blueberry, strawberry, apples, pears, pitted plums, pitted apricots and cherry, etc. Hard veggies must be cooked and peeled – winter squashes, pumpkin, sweet potato, beet roots, etc. Around the age of 12 months you can give your dog frozen food, straight from the Iceland bag. Frozen and fresh veggies, fruits and berries are very good for the digestive tract and keep teeth healthy. Do not give a little puppy raw or dry bone to gnaw. Bones are unhealthy even for adult dogs. Bones can clog the stomach, disrupt bowel function and lead to serious digestive health problems.