GROOMING
For a doodle or a corgi puppy, a good slicker brush is a must. We recommend the Chris Christensen Slickers. They have long curved polished pins that get all the way to the base of the hair, and are much better than slickers found in most pet stores. Chris Christensen slickers will save you time when grooming your dog. We also recommend getting a basic steel comb. Our favourite dog shampoo is the Earthbath ultra gentle puppy shampoo. It is wild cherry scented and it makes your puppy smell amazing. We also like the Chris Christensen Ice on Ice shampoo for whitening the hair on white dogs, and the Chris Christensen detangler sprays are helpful too! As a fluffy corgi or doodle owner it's a good idea to also have some grooming scissors on hand. The most important scissors are a round tip strait and a thinning shear. For nail trimmers, we send our puppies with cat nail trimmers to use on their tiny puppy nails, but for adult dogs you can purchase a nail grinder, guillotine nail trimmer, or a scissor style nail trimmer. We personally like a high quality thin scissor style nail trimmer the most.
FOOD AND TREATS
We start our puppies on TLC puppy food. We trust this brand and hope you continue to feed this brand, but if you are looking for an alternative food brand, we also recommend Inukshuk professional dog food. TLC also sells dog biscuits that contain glucosamine and chondroitin to help with dog/puppy joint health. We feed our dogs TLC biscuits with their daily meals. As for treats, our favourite is dehydrated beef, chicken, lamb, etc. They only have one ingredient, and our dogs love them! Another good treat idea is dehydrated pumpkin. We also like Wellness bites because they are very easy to break into small pieces for training treats.
TOYS
For dog toys, we love many different styles. From plushy toys to hard chew toys. We like Zippy Paws toys because they make plushy toys with very little stuffing or no stuffing in them at all. For dogs, the main thing is to avoid toys, like rope, that can fray into small pieces that your dog might ingest. Dogs aren't the smartest sometimes, and might try to eat their toys, so watching your dog with their toys, and removing them if they are damaged is key. For hard chewy bones, vet's say if you can hit the bone against your knee and it doesn't hurt, it's soft enough for your dog's teeth. Chew toys that are too hard could cause a dog to break a tooth. For dogs that need something to mentally stimulate them, we like puzzle toys and food stuffing toys. We highly recommend West Paw's Toppl toy, it's a toy that you stuff with wet food and put it in your freezer for your dog to enjoy as a cold treat.
SUPPLIES
One of the basic supplies we recommend every dog owner has is a slow feeder. It slows down dog's eating to help prevent bloat, which can be deadly. We also like stainless steel water dishes, as they are non-porous and easy to clean.
For leashes we recommend using a basic lead, and not an extendable leash. Extendable leashed can teach bad behaviours when leash training, and could potentially cause injury to the dog or owner. Recall leashes can be a good tool when trying to teach your puppy recall.
Getting a treat pouch to hold treats while training your puppy is a good idea.
Lastly, having some sort of way to contain your puppy in a vehicle is essential, whether it's a dog seat belt connected to a harness or a travel crate.