The First Dollar Has Been Dropped

The other day Husband and I went to PetSmart and bought all our initial puppy essentials. The best part? I have a friend who works there, so she gave us her employee discount and we saved $60! Thanks Mother of Rowdy! :) We spent a lot, but we also got a lot of really great stuff! I found most of it on their website, so I can show you all. Just click the picture to link back to the website. I'm told PetSmart has a ridiculously good return policy (not only do you not need a receipt, you can actually bring in something you bought at another store), so let me know if you've had bad experiences with any of these products. Other general opinions are also welcome. :)

First thing we got was a pen.

This is going to be the area for the puppy when I'm out longer than a couple of hours. It's big enough for a crate/bed, puppy pads, a bowl of water, and a toy. This will only be needed until the puppy is house trained, which will hopefully be very fast!

Next we got a doggy gate.

My husband figured this would be a nice thing to have in general. He thinks we're going to put it at the bottom of the stairs to keep the puppy from going upstairs, but he's wrong. We're not banishing our dog to only the lower level of our house. But it'll still be good for sectioning off areas of the house when we don't have puppy to have free range of the whole house.

For our next car I'd like to get a hatchback for our dog to ride in, but until then, we got this thing to protect the back seat of our sedan and keep the puppy there.

I like the it's easily removable and washable. Plus all those pockets are great. And there's a Velcro opening in the middle so you can still buckle a doggy harness in. We opened it up in the store to make sure. Also, this picture doesn't show it, but you can let one of the sides down, so a person can ride on one side.

Unfortunately, my husband's practicality won out over my girlishness in some cases. I wanted a cute collar and matching leash, but my husband insisted that nylon leashes are a pain to hold and said we needed leather. But at least he agreed to the collar I wanted.

Now we didn't buy a pink collar. PetSmart doesn't have the right color on their website, but it's the same one. The one I bought is blue. It's a gorgeous bright blue that I think will go nicely against his/her red fur. Imagine a male puppy named Bowser wearing a pink collar! Hehe.

Husband has allergies, so we need to take grooming very seriously to make sure he's as comfortable as possible. So we got the best.

From what I hear, the Furminator is the best grooming tool out there. It gets loose dog fur like nobody's business. It was pricey, but I had to make sure we got all the good stuff while we had the 15% off. Hopefully it'll be well worth it.

Also for grooming we got just a regular bristle brush as well.

It's supposed to help distribute natural oils and keep the top coat lookin' pretty.

For a food bowl I went with stainless steal.

Plastic and ceramic supposedly hold on to bacteria more because they're porous materials. And since Corgis are supposed to be grub fiends, I went with the non-tip style.

In terms of toys, we got quite a few. I wanted to get even more, but Husband was getting too anxious about our total cost skyrocketing. Hehe. Of course, we got a puppy Kong.

The rubber is a little softer than a regular Kong. We also got a puppy Kong Frisbee, a rope toy, and a couple of Christmas themed stuffed toys. They were 50% off and I doubt the dog will care if s/he's playing with a Santa in the middle of March. Hehe.

We also got a Chuckit.

I see people playing with these in parks all the time, and they look so fun! We got the big one that can hold regular tennis balls. For some reason people think that because Corgis have short legs, they can't run. They're herding dogs, or course they run!

We got something to keep puppy's teeth clean

It comes with a toothbrush, toothpaste, one of those brushes that goes over your finger for the gums, and some doggy breath mints (we only got the one with the breath mints because it was cheaper :p)

For playing with the puppy out of the house we got a bag for treats and a portable water bowl


Husband actually wanted the bag. I would have been fine with a baggy in my pocket. The portable water bowl is something that's always seemed like such a great idea. I got the pink one. ;)

And last, but not least (ok, maybe a little least), poop bags. Hehe.

This was another one Husband picked out. Now that I've looked closer at the packaging, it doesn't say the bags are biodegradable, like the bags on board brand are. So I may either return these if I'm back at PetSmart soon, or just not buy them the next time.

Phew! I think that's mostly what we picked up at PetSmart. Before you mention the obvious things I've left out (i.e. the crate, bed, and water bowl), there are some items that we kind of already have (or will have). Apparently after Husband's parent's dog, Mickey, was put down, they just couldn't bare to get rid of any of his stuff. So when they came to visit for Christmas, they brought all of his crap. We're getting rid of most of it, but some stuff we're keeping. We're going to keep his two huge ceramic bowls and use them as water bowls. And we're keeping his beds (begrudgingly on my part). I agreed to keep the beds because Husband insisted that our puppy would most likely tear up and destroy the beds pretty early on anyway. With my luck we'll get the one puppy who doesn't tear up his/her things. Hehe.

The crate and the food are coming from the breeder. She'll give us the crate to take the puppy in, which Husband thinks we'll be able to use for a couple of weeks. When the puppy gets bigger we'll get the bigger crate. I think he just got some sticker shock after all the stuff we bought. I may be able to talk him into the crate sooner. :)

So what do you think? Did I miss anything?!