Do You send home "care packets" with new owners

[moose203]

What all do you send home with your puppy? A list of Do's and dont's ? any sort of written instructions small bag of feed? that sort of thing. just looking to put together a nice puppy care package. I am looking for ideas.

New owners know I will always be available for support. just looking for stuff that they can refer to with out having to pick up the phone for every little problem not that i don't want to help but i think a lot of things could be answered with out calling. is this a good idea?

Jason

[lynette]

I have puppy paks with do's and don'ts, feeding schedules and diet sheets, applications for relevant canine controlling bodies , Lab club membership forms and a little book called, Labs in Cap, which has allsorts of Queensland Lab info in it. I also had enough puppy toys for each puppy so when they went home they took their little toy, and I'm always available for new owners.

[YardleyLabs]

I start with the ProPlan kits from Purina which include a fairly decent booklet on puppy care, file folders, and a coupon for food. I add:

• Written sales contract and health guarantee
• Bill of sale
• 5 generation pedigree for the litter, photos of both parents, and details of each parent's titles and health clearances
• 5 x 7 photos of their pup at 5-6 weeks, a group portrait of all pups in the litter, and a portrait of the mom
• Veterinarian's written health certificate indicating dates and findings of examinations, record of de-worming and shots, including labels for the vaccinations used
• AVID brochure explaining the AVID micro-chip injected in their pup along with a tag with the tag number
• Collar, leash, and stuffed toy for their pup that has been played with by the pup's mom.
• Small bag of ProPlan Large Breed Puppy food
• AKC registration papers

I schedule 30-60 minutes to talk with each owner about basic puppy care, give them recommendations of training books and DVDs, go over feeding instructions and discuss nutritional needs for their pup, talk about the importance of seeing their own vet soon and then spreading out shots and protecting the pup until its immunities have been developed, etc.

[JoAnn Stancer]

Thanks Jeff, I was going to write that all out because I put the same stuff in my kit (I have a litter of chessies going home in 4 weeks) and now I don't have to type it all out. I think the photo's of the dam and sire are a nice addition. When I bought my male I didn't have any photo's of his parents and now I wish I had.

I also typed up a page on websites of intrest: hunt/field clubs in the area, retriever forums to join, ukc, akc and other important websites to have handy.

I printed out magnets with my kennel name and info on it so they can post it on their ref to have handy if they ever need to get incontact with me.

I took photo's of the pup as they were growing and plan on putting them all on a cd for the owners as well as took video's of the pups.

When people were thinking about putting down deposits on the pups but were coming from out of state I put togeather a video of my bitch in training and at hunt tests so they could see what she was like.

I made up a medical sheet that states what tests need to be done when and if they needed to be repeated. EX: PRA test, OFA, CERF,

If you would like a copy of the medical sheets I made up just e-mail me and I can get them to you so you have a general idea and can make up one of your own.

j_stancer@yahoo.com

[Last Frontier Labs]

Yes, they get puppy packets. I find one of the most important things I tell them is to keep the pup away from public places until they get more of their vaccinations. It seems alot of folks want to run the puppies right over to PetCo or Petsmart to buy them stuff. I tell them that those places are havens for doggy germs and they'd be doing their pup a favor going to shop without it. I also explain all of the health certs. of the parents (send copies of those along with pics).
I also plug the retriever classes put on by local clubs and encourage them to join those clubs.
From experience, I have found you also have to be very specific about how many vaccinations the pup has left to get.

[windycanyon]

I do a puppy packet w/ pretty much the same info as others, in a clear report binder. I have a special sheet that goes to the vet the first time w/ all the microchip, worming and shots info-- incl the label off the vaccine. I also have a suggested vaccine protocol worked up. Within a week or so of puppy leaving, I will put together an email to the whole group, so anyone who wants to share stories or get together for puppy play dates or future training can (btw, that has been a great timesaver for me!). Our regional lab club also put together a list of vets and trainers in the area, so anyone totally new to the puppy thing gets that too.