A human baby usually comes in to his/her own home already with things in place, such as a crib in a nursery room, car accessories to make the trip from the hospital safe, etc. I can’t imagine waiting to set up a crib after the baby comes home, and having to do it with crying baby sound in the background. We tried to make our first few days and nights as easy as possible, set ourselves and the dog up for success as best as we could, and reserve capacity for training.

• Crate. We bought one that’s for the dog’s adult size, but with a divider for her growth. Set it up to a size that you think might be just enough for the puppy to lay down, stand up, and turn around. This would be good for potty training.
• A way to potty when you have no yard. Ours is a personal-size potty lawn in the patio. Puppies don’t hold their bladder for too long. If your dog is an adult dog that is potty trained, you don’t need this at all. Regarding disposable potty pads, we don’t do it because we think it makes our dog thinks it’s ok to potty indoor, but if this is for you, you’d need the potty pads, and I recommend a potty pad tray / holder.
• Food. We asked our breeder (or analogously, the shelter one adopts a rescue from) which product our puppy’s been eating. We continue feeding her the exact same food because from personal experience, I found that abrupt change to a dog’s diet causes digestion issue, like diarrhea, and even sometimes vomiting. Trust me, it’d cause so much more stress than needed, especially during the first few days. If we’d like her to eventually eat something else, we’d transition to the new food slowly. This can be done by having 25% new food and 75% old food for 2-3 days, then 50%-50% for 2-3 days, and then finally 100% new food.
• Toys. Tug toys are easy tools to tire a dog. Since we were preparing for a puppy, we definitely have chew toys. We also have one that squeaks as a way to quickly get our puppy’s attention.
• Treats. Some small bites for training (softer ones for puppies), and some for the dog to gnaw (and for us to have a breather). We got ourselves Yak Chews, Pork Pizzles, and we froze some baby carrots and apples. Frozen treats apparently soothe the puppy’s gum.

Optional

The following are not a must-have before picking up the dog, but can be really helpful in the first few days of owning the dog.

• Pen. We like these because they can be configured as a self-contained area, or a fence to section off the kitchen from the rest of the house. With pens we are more confident on the safety of our puppy despite not completely puppy-proofing our space. The kitchen is a place where there are no cords on the ground, no furniture to be chewed on, no carpet to stain during accidents, and no place for our puppy to hide for too long. You can probably find a room that works like that, too, in your living space.
• Harness. This one is more important for puppies or small dogs. Sometimes a collar can be harsh on their neck. We got a small one. Also, some training can start as soon as the dog is home with a harness at home.
• Leash / lead. We picked a 6 ft long one, to help with managing the puppy at home. Since our puppy is small, we picked one with 3/8″ width.
• Crate cover. Think black out curtain for dogs. This goes well with the crate with divider above. Crate training is hard and we just wanted to do everything we could for our puppy’s first night home. We think this helps her calm down.
• Pet monitor.