Grooming Supplies
Grooming dogs yourself can be a big undertaking but with lots of practice and the right tools can be done well and saves a lot of money long term. This is definitely not for everyone, but if you decide to groom your dog yourself, here are the tools I recommend. It is worth it to buy the better quality tools. It takes far less time with these tools.
Treats and Dental
Keeping our dogs teeth clean is important, just like our teeth. We want to pick health treats and use proper dental care for this. Here are some products that I recommend.
It is important to note that treats (even good ones) should never be used in excess. A dogs high quality kibble is always better than any treat. Our dogs are also very praise oriented and while a treat can be good for training sessions, it isn't always needed and praise works great as well. Health wise the worst thing for a dog is being overweight and the primary cause of being overweight is usually treats and table scraps.
While we highly recommend brushing your dogs teeth over dental chews, these are options for once your puppy is over 6 months old.
Puppy Play Yard
I have several of these and highly recommend them. They are sturdier than many of the other types I have seen on the market and I love the gate feature. I use these for when we are wanting to do things outside, but I cannot keep an eye on the puppy at all times, but still want them to be able to enjoy being outside with us.
If you are wanting a more foldable one for if you are travelling with a young puppy, these foldable ones will work too, just not as good for long term use, as they are not as sturdy.
Cleaning up after your puppy:
It is important to always have poop bags around when you go on walks and in your yard to clean up after our dogs. This minimizes the spread of parasites and also is just a nice thing to do!
Cleaning up after accidents:
When our puppies have accidents in the house it is important to clean up afterwards with a good deodorizer and disinfectant. This way they are less likely to keep pottying in that spot due to odor remaining there.
Stainless Steel Bowls
We highly recommend getting stainless steel bowls. They are easy to clean and safer than many of the plastic alternatives.
AmazonBasics Stainless Steel Dog Bowl - Set of Two
For a dog that eats to fast, these slow feed bowls are a nice alternative as well.
Neater Pet Brands Slow Feed Bowl
Crates
Food
TLC Pet Food is the food we recommend. It is a very well balanced, high quality kibble, that is reasonably priced. There are so many foods out there that are either tied to heart conditions or are extremely expensive and not as well balanced as TLC. We highly recommend this food!
For more information on TLC Pet food or to order it Click Here.
What you need to have before your puppy comes home
Wire Crates:
Picking out what size crate is always hard. But we have some recommendations to go by that help. We always recommend going one size bigger with your crate than what the company recommends. This is because these companies size the crates to allow the dog to turn around and lay down, but no extra room at all. We instead want you to buy a crate that has a divider and is oversized because the divider makes it so you will only allow the puppy to have a space where they can turn around and lay down, but you can adjust the size as the puppy grows. But, once the puppy is fully potty trained, there is still a period of time where they still need to be in their crates for their own safety when their family is not at home. We don't want a puppy getting into something they shouldn't and hurt themselves. I prefer at this stage for the puppy to have extra space though to spread out if needed.
Wire crates are also very easy to clean and disinfect. Plus have very good ventilation.
For our Petite Puppies we would recommend the 30" Crate:
MidWest iCrate Folding Metal Dog Crate
For our Mini puppies we would recommend the 36" crate:
MidWest iCrate Folding Metal Dog Crate
For our Medium Puppies we would recommend the 42" Crate:
MidWest iCrate Folding Metal Dog Crate
For our Standard Puppies we would recommend the 48" Crate:
MidWest iCrate Folding Metal Dog Crate
Travel Crates:
Travel Crates are great to use on trips, as they are more vehicle friendly and don't scratch your vehicle. They also fold down nicely (Wire crates fold down too, but not as flexible and vehicle friendly)
For our Petite Puppies:
Sof-Krate Indoor/Outdoor Pet Home
For our Mini and Medium Puppies:
Sof-Krate Indoor/Outdoor Pet Home
Designer Crates:
Are you short on room in your house and want to have your crates be dual purpose? These are a great way to have an end table and crate in one. I don't recommend these (unless you get one with a divider), until they are fully potty trained, but great for people without a lot of space in their house.
Feandrea Wooden Dog Crate Furniture
Ear and Nail Care
Keeping our dogs ears clean and healthy is important for their overall health. It is important to pluck the hair out of your dogs ears on a regular basis so there is air movement to the ears. You can also use ear cleaners to maintain a healthy ear. The number one cause for ear infections is moisture sitting in the ears. All dogs with floppy ears are prone to ear infections. As well, keeping their nails trimmed is important. We trim their nails weekly as puppies to get them used to the feeling of having their nails trimmed, so it is easier for their new families when they go to their new homes. You will not need to trim them that often, but when you do trim them, it is important to use the right tools.
You can use hemostats for ear hair removal if you are careful and take your time. If you are not comfortable, I would recommend using your fingers, while it takes longer, it works well too.
We recommend this style of nail clipper as it makes it easier to trim and not cut them too short like some other styles.
We also recommend ear cleaner from NuVet Labs, so when you order your Vitamins you can order ear cleaner at the same time.
Toys
There are lots of toys that we recommend. Here are a variety of them. We are firm believers in buying sturdier toys that will last longer, as they are safer for dogs and less likely to get destroyed, which will actually save you money long term.
Kongs are great for something I would trust to put into the puppies crate when you have to leave during the day. You can add pet safe treats to it to make you leaving them in their crate a positive experience. Although, I don't recommend doing this is excess, just a small amount as they are getting used to their crate.
There are also a variety of other Kong toys I would recommend.
I get questions all the time about what products we recommend and what families need to purchase for their puppies, so we decided to compile a list for all our puppy families all in one place.
Training Tools
Bell training is a useful tool to teach your puppy to let you know when they need to go potty. Bell Training.
Bells
There are lots of training collars out there and many of them are good. Overall, this one we like for a variety of reasons. It has many settings including sound, vibrate and shock with many different intensities. We like the vibrate option the best because our dogs tend to be very sensitive to vibrate and shock is just simply not necessary. We put it on the lowest vibrate setting and work our way up if needed. These collars should be used as a safety thing when training boundaries, etc., but are not meant to be used for everything. It is important to teach your puppy recall and boundaries without a training collar too.
Traveling with Dogs
Travelling with dogs can be made a lot easier with these accessories that don't take up as much room.
Welcome to Kent Family Farms
Products We Recommend
Harnesses, Collars and Leashes
There are a variety of harnesses, collars and leashes that are good and is more of a personal preference so I will only put one on here for reference. It is important to note that I send home a harness and leash with all of our puppies. The reason for this is that many of our puppies go to families with children and children can often pull too hard on the leash. A puppy can easily be hurt by that kind of pulling on their neck. A harness is a safer option for this reason. That being said obviously we want to teach children to respect the puppy and not pull on them like this, but we understand that accidents can happen, so we would rather see a harness on a puppy.
I will put links to training harnesses and leashes I recommend too. It is very important for puppies to understand at a young age that they should not pull on leash, so teaching them young is the best strategy, but sometimes families will need the help of a training harness. I like this one because it just gives a gentle tightness when they pull and releases when they don't, which they figure out very quickly what they should and shouldn't be doing. The same goes for teaching recall to our puppies. If we teach them early then this is an easy skill to learn. I like the long training leashes for this.
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Vitamins
NuVet Vitamins are the vitamins we recommend. They are human grade and regulated. All our dogs are on them! We highly recommend this vitamin! The best part is the dogs love them as treats too and their cost is not any different than a high quality treat, just better for them!
For more information on NuVet Vitamins or to order: We recommend NuVet for all dogs once per day:
NuJoint we recommend for breeds that are bigger or for older dogs:
NuVet also has an excellent line of shampoos and conditioning spray that we recommend:
Brushes and Combs
Buying the right brushes for your dog and using them regularly will help with keeping matting down. You want to make sure that you get a comb that is going to get down to the skin so that your dog not only looks great on the outside, but you are getting all the matts that you can't see close to the skin. I always use a comb on a regular basis and if I want my dog to have the fluffy look then I will use the slicker brush to help with that. The slicker brush however will not get the matts at the skin, so always use a comb as well. Dematting combs can be used if needed too, just be gentle when using them.
Beds
Crate Beds:
These crate beds will fit the above crates and are a great thing to use in the crates. They will fit under the crate divider, so you can buy it full size, then use the blanket that we send home with the puppies on the side of the crate that is divided (over top of the crate bed).
For 36 inch Crate:
Midwest Homes for Pets Maxx Bed
For 42 inch Crate:
Midwest Homes for Pets Maxx Bed
Regular Dog Beds:
My dogs love their orthopedic beds
Serta Orthopedic Quilted Pillowtop Dog Bed
Kuranda Dog Beds are by far my favourite for durability and the dogs love them, especially in the summer when it is warmer. They can be used indoor or just having one in your yard outside for when you are in the backyard with your dog. They come in a variety of colours and sizes.
Here is an example of one:
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