Hi and welcome and congratulations on your new puppy!! There are probably lots of things that come up in the first stages of puppyhood and there‘re always people of here with bags of advice to offer.
My advice for actually bringing your puppy home is to ensure as peaceful and calm environment as possible. At eight weeks your pup is going to be pretty overwhelmed by everything and has to be used to being parted from Mum and siblings. Something which carries Mum‘s smell, a toy or blanket can be quite useful and give him/her a feeling of security.
When I bought my dog home, I asked everyone to stay away for the few two or three days, it is an exciting time and everyone‘s desperate to see the new arrival but its more important that the dog has a chance to explore his/ her surroundings and routine quietly and without stress. Introduce him/her to one room at a time over a few days, even weeks, it can be very overwhelming to be plonked into a house full of strange smells and sounds when its possibly only been used to a small room or kennel. You‘ll obviously want to play but keep playtimes very short and not too boisterous, they need loads and loads of sleep and in my opinion, a lot of the problems that arise are caused by overtiredness and over excitment which inevitably causes stress for the pup. Try to see all you do from the pup‘s point of view and training will be much easier.
Second piece of advice is to start as you mean to go on. Set the rules before you start and stick to them, allowing a pup to get away with something now will make it all the harder trying to stop it later (but good luck with that,
, most of my rules have gone by the wayside during the last 7 years!! , they‘re very persuasive!
)
Last but not least, hide your socks and put all good clothes and shoes into storage until teething is over, maintain a sense of humour and know that most things are „just a passing phase“
. Keep logged on here and ask all you like, there‘s no better place for support and advice and also sympathy when necessary.
Enjoy your pup and treasure every moment, tomorrow is the first day of a long and wonderful experience!
Jayne and Humphrey