New Puppy Checklist: Everything You Need Before They Arrive

A good new puppy checklist saves you from those first frantic days where everyone in the house is asking "wait, did we book the vet?" or "who is feeding her tonight?". Below is the full checklist, split into what to do before your puppy arrives, the first week, and the ongoing care that keeps them healthy for years. It works just as well as a new kitten checklist, with the same vet visit, microchip and insurance steps. At the end, I will show you how to turn the whole thing into shared, assigned tasks so the work does not all land on one person.

Bringing home a puppy is a household project, not a solo one. The shopping, the vet appointments, the worming reminders and the "whose turn is it" rota are all things a whole household needs to see in one place. That is exactly where OneHaus comes in, but first, here is the list you actually came for.

What do you need before your puppy arrives?

Sort these before pickup day. A pet-proofed home and the right gear make the first few nights far calmer for everyone, including the puppy.

Choose a vet and save their number, address and out-of-hours line.
Food and water bowls, plus a small starter bag of the food the breeder or shelter has been using (switch foods gradually).
A bed or crate sized for an adult dog, with a divider if you are crate training.
Collar, harness and lead, plus an ID tag with your phone number.
Poop bags, a brush suited to the coat type, and puppy-safe toothpaste.
Toys for chewing and play, including something to soothe teething.
Puppy pads or an outdoor toilet plan for house training.
A stair gate or two to fence off rooms while they learn the rules.
Pet-proof the home: move cables, houseplants, cleaning products and small swallowable objects out of reach.
Agree the house rules as a household (furniture or not, who walks when, feeding amounts) so the puppy gets consistent signals.

A new kitten checklist is almost identical here. Swap the lead and poop bags for a litter tray, litter and a scratching post, and keep everything else.

What to do in your puppy's first week

The first week is about settling in and getting the official admin done. Do not let the fun of a new puppy push the paperwork to "later", because microchipping and insurance are time-sensitive.

Book the first vet checkup so your vet can do a full health check and set up a care plan.
Confirm microchip registration is in your name and your contact details are current. A chip only helps if the database points to you.
Set up pet insurance early, before any condition can be called pre-existing. Compare lifetime versus annual cover.
Start a vaccination plan with your vet (more on timing below).
Begin house training and a feeding routine, and keep the schedule consistent across everyone in the home.
Register with local licensing if your region requires it, and add the renewal date somewhere you will not lose it.
Take a clear photo and note distinguishing marks, in case they ever go missing.

This is also the moment to start a simple record for your pet: vet details, microchip number, insurance policy and renewal dates. Keeping that in one shared place (rather than in one person's head or inbox) is the difference between calm and chaos later. OneHaus stores this against the pet itself in your home inventory, so anyone in the household can find it.

What is the puppy vaccination schedule?

This is the question most new owners search for, and it is the one where you should be careful with internet advice. Vaccination and worming timing varies by species, breed, region and the individual animal, so the only correct schedule is the one your vet recommends for your puppy.

Rather than memorising dates, the safe approach is:

Ask your vet for a written schedule at the first checkup, covering the initial course and the timing of any boosters.
Confirm what each vaccine covers and which are core versus optional for where you live.
Note when your puppy can safely socialise with other animals and go out in public, as this often depends on completing part of the course.
Set reminders for boosters and the annual health check so none of them slip.
Keep flea, tick and worming treatments on your vet's recommended cycle, which is often monthly or quarterly depending on the product and your area.

The takeaway: do not treat any blog (including this one) as your medical source. Follow the schedule your vet gives you, then make sure the reminders actually reach whoever is responsible on the day.

What ongoing care does a dog need?

Once the early admin is done, pet care becomes a rhythm of recurring jobs. These are the ones worth putting on repeat so they never get forgotten:

Annual health check with your vet.
Flea, tick and worming treatments on your vet's schedule.
Booster vaccinations when due.
Renew pet insurance before it lapses, and re-check the cover each year.
Renew any local pet license on time.
Grooming suited to the coat, and regular nail and teeth checks.
Daily walks and play, shared fairly so one person is not always on duty.
Reorder food, flea treatment and other supplies before you run out.

This is the part generic listicles always miss. A checklist tells you what to do once. Real pet care is a set of recurring jobs that need an owner and a reminder, month after month, for years.

How OneHaus turns this checklist into shared tasks

Here is the OneHaus angle, and the reason a checklist in an app beats a checklist on paper. With Task Packs, the New Pet pack drops this entire list into your household in seconds, already split into the right shapes:

The welcome checklist (vet, gear, pet-proofing) becomes real shared tasks you can tick off together.
The recurring care (worming, boosters, annual check, insurance renewal) becomes recurring reminders, so they come back automatically on the cadence your vet set.
Calendar events like the first vet visit land on the shared household calendar everyone can see.
Every item links to the pet in your home inventory, so the microchip number, insurance policy and vet details live alongside the tasks.

Because OneHaus is a shared brain for the whole household, you can assign items to specific people. The teenager handles evening walks, one parent owns the vet appointments, another tracks insurance renewal. Everyone sees the same list, gets their own reminders, and nobody assumes someone else booked the checkup. If you use the AI assistant, you can simply ask it to set up the New Pet pack and assign the walks, and it builds the tasks for you.

Activating a pack takes seconds. Open Plan, choose the New Pet Task Pack, pick your pet, and decide who owns what. You can edit any item before it goes live, so the pack is a head start, not a straitjacket. The full walkthrough is in the Task Packs docs.

If you want the wider picture on sharing chores fairly, our household chore management guide and cleaning rota guide use the same shared, assigned approach. Pet care is just one more thing a household can stop carrying in a single person's head.

Ready to bring your puppy home to a calm, organised household? Get OneHaus and set up the New Pet pack before pickup day.

Frequently asked questions

What should be on a new puppy checklist?

Before arrival: a vet, food and bowls, a bed or crate, collar, harness, lead and ID tag, toys, poop bags, and a pet-proofed home. In the first week: the first vet checkup, microchip registration in your name, and pet insurance. Then set up recurring care like worming, boosters and an annual health check.

When should a puppy get vaccinated?

Vaccination timing varies by region, breed and the individual puppy, so follow the schedule your vet recommends. Ask for a written plan at the first checkup covering the initial course, boosters, and when your puppy can safely socialise and go out in public.

Is a new kitten checklist different from a puppy checklist?

Mostly the same. You still need a vet, food, a bed, insurance, microchip registration and a vaccination plan from your vet. Swap the lead and poop bags for a litter tray, litter and a scratching post.

How do I share puppy care across the household?

Use a shared task list so everyone sees the same jobs and reminders. With the OneHaus New Pet Task Pack, you can assign walks, vet visits and supply reorders to specific people and set recurring care on repeat, all linked to your pet.

When should I set up pet insurance?

As early as possible, ideally in the first week, before any health issue can be treated as a pre-existing condition. Compare lifetime cover against annual policies and add the renewal date to your shared calendar so it never lapses.