Congratulations on bringing home your new puppy!
We know that bringing home a new puppy is one of the most exciting and stressful times. This puppy portal is designed to help you through some of the major milestones in our process and working with your new furry family member!
If you’ve been invited to this page - here’s the process you followed up until this point
Meet & Greet: You, your family, and your dog came to meet the puppy onsite at either our VT or NH location. You were given as much background about the puppy as we have and learned about their medical status. Incase you forgot, heres a summary of what we discussed:
Background: All puppies we help are from Mississippi. Puppies were either found as strays, or were being sold \ given away. The rescue we work with down in MS offers free spay and neuter of any pets (who have homes) that they encounter. Often times, when puppies are being given away (at Walmart for example. sigh.), the rescue asks to take the mother with them. They offer to spay and return the mom to the owner.
Medical status: Before even leaving MS all puppies are spayed\neutered, microchipped, have a negative fecal, are examined by a licensed veterinarian, and vaccinated for the following vaccines based on their age (rabies, distemper, and parvo). Upon entering into either VT or NH, puppies are quarantined for 48 hours and are dewormed \ treated for parasites again. As long as puppies health is normal and there are no signs of issues, we proceed with obtaining the state required health certificate. Puppies fecals are retested, they are reexamined, the vet checks their spay\neuter incision, and validates their vaccines. Dog’s receive any necessary medical care. Once dog’s have their state health certificate, we proceed with posting puppies as adoptable. This is where you come in (you see their petfinder, apply on our website, and come for a meet!)
2 week sleepover: When you visited we talked you through our 2 week sleepover process. In short, the 2 week sleepover is a trial period to evaluate if the dog fits into your pack and matches your life style. This process protects you and your pack and will help you decide if your making a decision that truly is ideal for you. Another benefit is to continue to assess the puppies health. Puppies are JUST like children and hidden medical issues often come up with stress (such as, worms, parasites, ear infections, or issues with the spay incision.). When the puppy goes into your home, he or she IS HEALTHY and has been cleared by two licensed vets. However, its very common that things come up. We are happy to troubleshoot things with you and will cover the expenses of any medical care needed through the 2 week sleepover as long as you work with us to get the pup to our vet. If you choose to bring the pup to your vet, you are responsible for the costs. Before starting the sleepover please fill out this liability waiver.
Paying the refundable fee: We require you to pay for your puppy when you take them home with you. If the 2 week sleepover doesn’t work out, we refund the fee. To pay the fee :
Pay through Venmo : Venmo - @secondchancenh
Pay through PayPal: PayPal - 2ndchanceranchrescue@gmail.com or click this link to go to our paypal site.
*NOTE: we will only accept paypal transactions that use the above email or through the above link AND are processed as friends and family to save us 3% in fees.
Bringing your puppy home:
Give them time: remember .. your puppy has been through a LOT of change in the past weeks. Give them time to settle in. Don’t start trying to teach them new stuff and don’t overwhelm them with too many trips to stores or meeting too many new people. Ideally they have a few days to settle in and bond with you before anything exciting happens!
Think like a puppy .. puppy proof! We recommend you remove anything on the floor that would be harmful for the puppy to consume such as plants. Limit the puppies access around your home.
Leash walk: keep a long lead on your puppy at all times. Never chase the puppy if they run. Instead, use a crinkly food or treat bag and call them back in a high pitched voice. Reward them for coming to you.
Feeding and sleeping: All of our puppies eat a mix of Purina Pro Choice Puppy and Blue Buffalo Puppy. Your puppy is used to eating in their crate. They go out to potty right after they eat. This helps with potty training. Your puppy sleeps in their crate. Again, this helps with potty training, keeps your puppy safe, and gives them boundaries. If you have existing pets in the home, sleeping in the crate and separating for meals will reduce the tension between dogs.
Things to watch for
Whats normal: nerves, not eating as much, some accidents, some stress, some diarrhea. Sometimes diarrhea and\or blood in diarrhea can be from stress or diet change. If it persists and you haven’t changed their food, that is not normal.
Whats NOT normal: excess vomiting for more than a day, 2 or more days of diarrhea, blood in diarrhea, blood in urine, lethargic and not interested in playing. Call us immediately (and we will coordinate rushing your puppy to the ER) if the puppy is lethargic and not acting like themselves. They could have an underlining medical issue OR have eaten something that is obstructing their stomach.
Steps to finalize adoption
At any point during the 2 week sleepover you can bring your puppy and their loaner crate and provided supplies back to The Ranch for a full refund.
After a minimum of 1 week you can reach out to us and let us know you’re ready to finalize adoption. By the two week point we need a decision about finalizing adoption.
Once your ready to finalize, please fill out this adoption contract
Once we receive the adoption contract and verify that you have paid the fee and returned any borrowed supplies such as the loaner crate, we will update the dog’s microchip to your information and release medical vet records to you. You will receive an email from petstablished with instructions on how to download your puppies records.
Please take the rabies vaccination certificate to your town hall to register the dog. Note: if you did not receive a rabies tag, no worries. Rabies tags are only used if your dog gets loose and is found by an ACO. The ACO uses the tag shape to identify if the dog is up to date on rabies and is safe to handle. Otherwise the tag has no meaning.
There is nothing you need to do with the microchip registration. We take care of that. The micochip is embedded in your dogs back (it is smaller than a grain of rice!). The microchip is only used if the dog gets loose. An ACO will scan your dog and see the number, look up the number, and then call you.
After adoption - most important things you need to do
Continue to keep an eye on your pups health. We recommend deworming your puppy again (even though they have had two negative fecals by the time they are adopted). Check out this inexpensive puppy dewormer on amazon.
Start socializing your pup slowly. Its a balance between not overwhelming them after transitioning into your home AND starting to do the work they need to turn out to be the best versions of them self. We believe in both nature and nurture. The puppy does have innate qualities from their breed but, environment and upbringing play such a huge role in the outcome of your puppy. Socializing your puppy early on and consistently will build your puppies skills and give them a stronger foundation going into their teenage\adult years.
Bring your puppy everywhere but also leave your puppy home. Seperation anxiety can be a human created behavior! It’s great to get your pup to be social and bring them into the public to build confidence, but they can not and should not always be with you. They must learn to be alone and to be comfortable with alone down time.
Proactive vet care: send your vet the copies of the vet records we email\hand out to you\provide through petstablished. Your vet will create a reminder for your puppy to come in for their annual from a year of their adoption.
Register your puppy with your town with the provided rabies certificate