The most important thing to have ready before your pup arrives is a cage or crate. There is no need to buy an expensive bed or special blankets. A cardboard box is fine (disposable & free) and any old blankets or towels. It can be helpful to sleep with a towel in your bed for a week and put that in the cage as a comfort blanket.

When you go to collect your puppy, unless you have a very short drive, take a box lined with newspaper and maybe a really old towel or rags, as he could well be sick in the car. I desperately wanted to carry Manny home on my knee but my husband persuaded me to put him in the box on the seat beside me instead. Thank goodness, he did – it was hard to believe that such a small body could produce so much vomit!

When you get home, take him out to the garden or wherever it is that you want him to wee. Don't give him too long – 3 minutes is long enough. Then bring him in and show him his food bowls and water and bed.

Don't be surprised if he is very sleepy for the first 2 or 3 days. It is his way of dealing with the stress of a new home.

After a couple of days he will wake up and you won't know what's hit you! You may well find that he is a bundle of needle sharp teeth and fur. You may not be able to pick him up or touch him without being chewed. This is nothing to do with his character, doesn't mean that he is a snappy, nasty puppy or anything like that. It is something that he has to work through for a while. One of the hardest things to do is to adopt a "hands off" approach. If he comes for a cuddle and you want to pick him up then do so but if he wants to use you as a chew toy just put him down and distract him with a toy.

This is a brilliant article about teaching your dog what is and isn't appropriate with teeth.

It helps to remember that handling can be very stimulating and your puppy can easily get worked up into a chewing frenzy by too much cuddling and play. I'm not talking about the times when he sits on your lap and falls asleep. There's nothing nicer than a sleepy dog on your knee.

He will soon begin teething and everything will be a potential teething toy so make sure he has plenty of appropriate toys – Kongs, stuffed and frozen, tea towels (less fluffy the better) knotted and wetted then frozen. Hide chews. They are good too.

Toilet training your puppy

To be honest I don't know whether I got it right with Manny because of what I did or whether he was just a really good dog. He has been so easy to train. Unlike Ojo the Patterdale who is still not reliable. This is what I did with Manny:

First thing in the morning – out to the garden for 3 mins. Basically I ignored him until he looked as though he was choosing a spot to pee or poo in and then I said "Busy Manny, Busy" When he went I praised him and we either went into the big garden for a play if I had the time or we went back indoors.

If he didn't perform, we went out again after 15 mins – same routine – ignore him until he started to look like he might go. If no joy we went in and came out again after 10 mins, and every 10 mins after that until we achieved success.

I did that every time he woke up from a sleep, every time he finished eating, every time he and Ojo came to the end of a game and made sure that he was never in the house for more than an hour without a toilet break. It was boring and tedious but it worked. I only had to do it for about a fortnight, which wasn't too bad considering I was cleaning up after Ojo for a couple of years.

You really need to keep him under supervision all the time. Don't let him out of your sight so he really does not have the chance to mess in the wrong place. Don't give him too much freedom. He shouldn't be loose in a room without a responsible person supervising him, for his safety (TV wires are so tempting) and for your peace of mind – no unexpected puzzles on the Persian rug!

Bedtime

It's up to you where you want your puppy to sleep. The only thing is to be consistent. If you decide the cage is going to be in the kitchen put him to bed there are leave him. Do not be swayed by the crying or yelping. Use ear plugs if necessary. He will get the message. Alternatively, if you are happy to have him in your room that is fine as well and does not mean he will grow up thinking he is equal to you both.

Either way you might find it better to have a blanket over the crate to make it dark and den like.

Food

Before you collect him, you might want to find out what he is fed on so that you can continue with the same food and avoid upset tummies. Many breeders will give you a bag of dried food so that he can continue with exactly the same food for a while so that the stress of a new home isn't made worse by an upset tummy because of the new food as well. You can change over to your chosen food easily enough – by slowly reducing the old food and increasing the new until it is only the new food. Personally, I'm not convinced by these new dried foods – my dogs lived to a ripe old age on tinned food and mixer so I stick with that with Manny.

Training

One thing we were told in puppy class was "always set your dog up to succeed." Don't ask him to do something that you haven't taught him. We were told to watch what the dog was doing. When it did the action we wanted e.g. sit, then name it and reward it. We were taught to teach sit with the dog on a lead hold a treat over his head and his bottom naturally goes down as his head goes up. When it hits the floor "Sit! Good boy" and reward. After a few times you can start to ask for a sit – only ask once – then reward when he does it and remind him of what he's just done. Good boy! Good sit! When you are pretty confident that he will do it when he sees the treat in your hand swap the treat to your other hand. Hold up the empty hand and say sit. When he does reward from the other hand.

You can do that with just about any trick or behaviour that he does that you want to encourage.

Socialisation

Really important. You want to make sure that he is relaxed in as many situations as possible. You can't take him out for a walk until he's had his injections and the vet gives the all clear (a week or so after the second injection). But you can carry him to car boot sales and markets and things like that – just let him meet as many people as possible but no dogs!

I can't think of any thing else at the moment. If there's anything that doesn't make sense, I've probably had a brain freeze moment! Anything else you want to know just shout! You've got my email address.