Preparing

We'll be picking Oliver up this weekend on our way back from the Fontana Dam 5K and 10K Races in the mountains on Saturday morning.  This was going to be my first venture back into racing, but I'll be doing well if I can hobble down the course (tore off a toenail while river tubing this last weekend when my foot slipped and got wedged in the rocks).  We'll be heading there Friday and camping along the river at the base of the dam where the race starts the next morning.  I'm looking forward to camping again - it means fall is right around the corner!!

But enough about running - Back to Mr. O!  We'll likely be picking him up en route home from the races so that means that everything has to be set up for him before we go.  This weekend I put together his puppy crate that my mom has loaned us.  It should hold him for a few weeks and having a smaller crate will make crate training/housebreaking easier.  We stopped at Ikea two weeks ago to grab some items for the house and picked up two white fleece blankets (total cost < $7).  They are big enough to cut each into two pieces that are double folded to use as crate blankets while housebreaking and the white color will make it easier to spot any accidents.  I placed one inside his crate with a stuffed toy and stacked all the extra blankets on top, ready for a quick switch-a-roo.  His crate is in the kitchen right between the back door and the laundry room - quick access for a dash outside to potty and quick access to the laundry room/cleaning supplies for accidents!

We also ventured out to the pet store Sunday because I felt like we did not have enough toys yet.  Our previous inventory consisted of 2 tennis balls, a rope toy and a stuffed toy - one of each of the major toy categories.  He now has plenty of each that we can rotate through them every couple of days, making him feel even more spoiled!  

Tomorrow the shipments from Amazon come.  I have the free 1 year Amazon Prime membership which has been great - I made a "wish list" a few weeks ago and put items for Oliver into it (food containers, toys, housebreaking cleanup supplies, chew toys, etc).  Our breeder feeds them exactly what we wanted to feed him anyway - an all natural dry food with no fillers - Diamond Naturals Large Breed Puppy food.  It's not available in the big box stores and the closest location is a tractor supply store about 20 min from our house.  But...Amazon has it and it ships free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime - suh-weet!  

Another big shipment that'd due to arrive today are our Adirondack chairs (and table and pillows)!!  I'm super excited to have these and they are coming just in time for Mr. O.  They are a graduation gift from my awesome in-laws - we wanted some outdoor furniture for the lower deck.  We loooove sitting out on the upper deck and relaxing (I'm head over heels for our backyard) and now we can do the same on the lower deck while we play fetch with Oliver.  Or I can sit there and relax while Chris chases Oliver around and around and around....I anticipate spending a LOT more time out back now and these will be so perfect!!  I'll post pictures of all of the new items as they arrive.

I think we have all the major and minor "New Puppy" supplies and then some, but there is one thing I'm not sure about - Flea & Tick prevention with puppies.  We have Oliver schedule to visit Dr. T about a week after we get him, but for some reason I am paranoid about him getting a flea problem in that week before we go to the vet.  Is this a normal worry?  At the pet store yesterday we read the back of all the boxes and about 95% say to only use them on puppies older than 12 weeks.  Only the really expensive ones are good for 8-12 weeks old puppies and come in 3-6 month supplies.  Oliver will be around 8-10 lbs when we get him and will outgrow the small package (8-15 pounds) by the 3rd treatment for sure.  This is all very confusing and I'm hoping someone out there can help me decipher this flea/tick question!  Thoughts?