Should you do Puppy Packs?

Are puppy packs necessary?

After 8 weeks of love and care, your puppies are ready to head off to their forever homes. This comes with a big question. Are puppy packs necessary and are they worth the effort? Sending puppies to their new homes with puppy packs can be a great way to ensure they and their new family have all the necessary supplies and information to complete a smooth transition to their new home. Puppy packs are a fantastic way to condense all the essential information about the puppy into one place and help settle the puppy in its new environment, but they can also be time-consuming and introduce additional expenses to the cost of raising a litter. Below, we’ll explore what puppy packs are, including what needs to go into them, and if there is any benefit from doing this extra step.

What is a Puppy Pack?

A puppy pack is a collection of all the essential documentation and items when sending a puppy to its new home. It should contain documents such as medical records (e.g., vaccination records, microchip records, DNA results, etc), as well as other comfort items like blankets and toys with familiar scents. There is a clear benefit in having all the essential documentation in one place, but having additional items such as a familiar teddy can help settle the pup by adding familiarity to an otherwise new environment. The concept of puppy packs is designed to minimise the stress and disturbance the puppy experiences as they move from the home they grew up in into the home they’ll be in forever. Your puppy pack can be as extensive or as basic as you want it to be. Or you might not see any obvious benefits from them. Let’s jump into both sides of the argument by exploring the pros and cons of puppy packs.

Pros of a Puppy Pack

Sending puppies to their new homes with a puppy pack gives them the best chance at success by providing essential tools that can help ease the transition. A puppy pack typically includes items such as the same food, toys, and blanket that they’ve grown up with, and other useful items including puppy nail scissors, a clicker, and any and all important paperwork. A lot of the items in a puppy pack are designed to help the puppy settle into their environment more quickly. Items such as the same food as they’ve been weaned on and good probiotic, helps the puppy avoid gastrointestinal disturbances during the stressful transition. Familiar smells on a toy and a blanket help to give a sense of security while adjusting to their new space. If it is something you have decided you want to do, planning ahead allows you to build these puppy packs relatively easily in those 8 weeks before each puppy head to its new family.

Cons of a Puppy Pack

Sending puppies to their new homes with a puppy pack can be an expensive and time-consuming endeavour. It’s important to make sure that the puppy is comfortable in its new environment, but additional items such as treats, accessories, and toys can add up both in cost and time. While it may be a good idea for some puppies, others may not need or use many of the items found in a puppy pack. After all, important documents can be sent to the new owners digitally, and they can be notified about the correct food and supplies needed ahead of time at their expense. Ultimately, your decision will be based on whether you have the time, resources, or desire to put together a puppy pack for each one of your pups.

What is in an ideal puppy pack?

Putting together an ideal puppy pack can be a daunting task. What documents should be included, what toys and food to send, etc.? An ideal puppy pack should include a few core items that, some items that are important but can be purchased by the new family independents, and then there are some things you might put in to frill it up.

Core Items

Medical Records (e.g., vaccination record, worming record and schedule, microchip information, DNA testing, etc.).
Personal Information (e.g., registration documentation, pedigree certificate, etc.).

Important Items

Blanket/quality toy with a familiar scent.
Food: At least 7 days worth.
Liquid or past probiotic.
Worming: Consistent brand.

Fun Items

New collar and lead.
Nail clippers.
Dog Clicker Trainer.
Silicone Toothbrush.
Photos of the puppy at different life stages.

Core Items

Core items are unique things that are personal to the puppy itself. While there is a range of personal information you can include, the most important will be their medical records and information regarding their registration. Here, you should have collated all of the pup’s health records, such as all vaccinations and deworming treatments given as well as their future schedule. If you would like to go more in-depth with the health record of the puppy, you can include information about their birth and weight gain up until the point they move to their new home or around 8 weeks. There are free downloads available for the “Litter Birth Record” and the “Litter Growth Record”, as well as blogs that detail how to use them.

Important Items

While these items may not be as crucial as the Core Items, we still strongly recommend including them. The transition period will be a stressful time for the puppy, these items are aimed at reducing as much stress and disruption as possible. A fantastic way to help settle the puppy in their new home with items that carry a familiar smell. We recommend having a blanket for each puppy that is used for bedding until the big day. This blanket will be a bit dirty, but it will smell like home until the little one is settled in their new home. Similarly, sending the pup off with a toy that they have had a couple of weeks to play with will help during this time. Ensure that this toy is a quality toy and is not likely to be torn up easily. These personal items will reduce the stress, but not entirely. During their adjustment period, it is not uncommon to have gastrointestinal upset. We can help reduce the chance of this by sending them off with a sample of the food they were weaned onto. This gives the new owners time to source their own food for the puppy, but of course, you can ensure that they know what food they need ahead of time. Lastly, you might choose to include worming medication for their next scheduled worming.

Fun Items

The number of fun items you could put in a puppy pack is endless. Most commonly these items would include a new collar and lead (potentially the same colour as their whelping ID collar colour), nail clippers, a dog clicker trainer, and a silicone toothbrush. These items are not technically necessary for a smooth transition but might be something nice to include for the new owners. If you are wanting to cut the cost of your puppy packs, this would be the place to look at.

Tips for planning your perfect puppy pack.

The perfect puppy pack looks different for different people, so there is no one-size-fits-all idea of what you want to have in it and what this means in terms of planning and execution. However, we can offer some general tips so you feel most in control of how your puppy packs come together.

Think ahead and have a plan: Planning your perfect puppy pack requires organisation and forward thinking. Be sure to start researching and accumulating items for the puppy pack early, so that everything is ready to go when it’s time to send the puppies off to their new home. Your plan should consider what items you are wanting to include and whether there is a time aspect to them (e.g., a blanket with a familiar smell). Other things such as the information you need to collate, can be collected slowly over the 8 weeks after the whelp, and stored in individual folders for each puppy.
Be critical about each item: While there are some Core Items, which we feel are non-negotiable to have in your puppy pack, there will be some that are more nice than necessary. If you are trying to be cautious about the additional costs of raising a litter, be critical about the necessities of the items you are including. Of the items you are including, you should focus on the quality of the items rather than the quantity.
Don’t stretch yourself thin: If this is the first or second litter you are raising, or you are simply a very busy person, don’t feel you have to do all the bells and whistles for your puppy packs. Just do what is within your ability to do at that time and stick to the essentials if needed.
Don’t feel it’s all on you: If you are worried about the additional cost of putting together a puppy pack, but you see the value in them, consider working out the cost of the puppy pack and including that cost in the purchase price of the puppy. If you really do want to ensure that the new owners will have everything necessary as well as a couple of nice little goodies, calculate how much that would cost and simply add that amount to the purchase price of the puppy. This way you help to cover the costs of each puppy’s puppy pack and simultaneously reduce any extra work for the new family.

Final Thoughts

Despite the number of pros and cons that come with sending a pup home with a puppy pack, at the end of the day it really depends on your personal preference and situation. If a puppy pack feels like an appropriate option for you and your pup, then use this article as your guide for putting one together. Think about what items would make your puppy’s transition easier and which ones will help them learn quickly. However, if a puppy pack isn’t your thing, then find an alternative solution like sending them off with digital copies of important documents and a cosy, familiar blanket. All in all, no matter how you choose to send off your puppy, you should be proud of each one of your happy, confident and well-rounded pups.