A puppy’s first week home sets the tone for years, and the instinct most people have — show them the whole house, invite everyone round to meet them — is the one worth resisting. A smaller world to start with produces a more confident dog later.

Start with one room

Set up base camp: a bed or crate they can retreat into, water, and a couple of chews, somewhere the family passes through but nobody fusses over them. Let the puppy learn that space properly before the rest of the house opens up, a room at a time. A puppy who has taken themselves off to bed should be left entirely alone.

Sleep is the thing people underestimate

A young puppy needs a great deal of it, and an overtired puppy looks exactly like a badly behaved one — biting hands, racing about, unable to settle. If the afternoon is going wrong, the answer is usually a nap rather than more play.

Build trust on their terms

Sit on the floor and let the puppy come to you rather than lifting them about. Spend a minute a day handling paws, ears and mouth gently and pairing it with something good, and vet visits and nail trims stop being a fight for the next decade.

Expect broken nights

A bed close enough that they can hear you, a predictable routine, and a last trip outside before bed shorten that period considerably. And book the first vet visit in that first week — it is the moment to sort out vaccinations, worming and what they should be eating, before habits set.

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