My new rescue girl

con1888

She is coming on Friday !!!
Need to get all I need tomorrow.

Bed, food (she eats mix of tinned and dry), bowls etc !!
Balls ?

What else?

Can anyone recommend a bed?

Needs to be from Pets at home as no time to order online or go elsewhere.

gettingready

Oh.. what a georgeous girl you have coming

Congratulations....

Sorry, not able to advice re pets at home as do not shop there (zooplus addict) but for a quick solution - Zara has 2 beds in the flat but her favourite was a single duvet from Argos (cheap one) in a cover, folded in half.....

Bowls Pundland to start with.

Balls? Asda sells great dog balls, very good ones, sets of 3, rubber , the size of tennis balls.

Do not change the brand of food she is on now, she may get upset tummy and you do nto want that - hopefully they will bring some food with her so you can chane it gradually (if you want to) by mioxing her usual one with the new one to start with.

Collar/lead? Poo bags?

Wellyboots6

Maybe just buy one or two toys to begin with until you see what she prefers playing with.

My pooch loves old socks rolled in to a ball, he throws them about and tugs with them so costs me no money to make

He also likes old teddy bears I get from charity shops to cuddle.

He wont touch any hard plastic toys, he prefers soft fabric or rope toys, or tennis balls.

Bed-wise I got him a couple of meters of vet-bed to begin with until I knew if he was a chewer. He now has it underneath his other bed to pad it out. He sleeps on an old duvet cut in half with an old duvet cover (Bart Simpson!) cut in half and stitched to fit the duvet.

Get a tin of hotdog sausages in too to chop up and use as treats.

Mine uses a water bowl with an inward sloping lip on it as he really does dribble and slosh when he drinks, stops the kitchen getting flooded!

Save old bread bags etc to use as poo bags.

Might be worth seeing if her current owners would send one of her old towels or something with her so she has something familiar smelling to sleep with to begin with.

Sorry that doesn't help much with the new-pooch-excitement-shopping! My pup has to live on a budget if I do, its only fair!!

krlyr

Second the Poundland suggestion, I don't shop at PAH (don't support petshops that sell live animals) but when I've browsed, lots of stuff seems very overpriced, even compared to my small local petshop (which costs more than online shops). Some of the Poundland toys have stood up better to Kiki's strong jaws than more expensive branded toys.
Agree with sticking to the food she's on, if you do want to switch then research brands carefully - there's been quite few threads on here about dog food if you search.
I've found duvet-style beds to be my two's preference, recently snagged myself a bargain off Zooplus so second the suggestion of browsing there. They do a loyalty points system so if you spend enough you get freebies - just got some handy scissors (saves using the regular kitchen scissors for cutting up the liver treats I make the dogs!) and a giant tennis ball on a rope with some of my points. I get their natural treats there too - cows ears, pizzle, etc., lasts a lot longer than commercial chews.
Poo bags I get from our cheap "sells everything" shop in town, but cheap sandwich bags do the trick if you don't mind the fact they're seethrough! I know some people buy cheap nappy bags and use them too.
One thing I don't skimp on is collars, I go for Ancol as I know the brand is decent, their old collars lasted years and I only replaced them as they were looking a bit grotty, still structurally sound. Stuck with Ancol again but got some posh padded ones - only about £4 online.

gettingready

Poo bags = £1 for 200 of them in a pounshop

Zara has this type of a collar:



It is NOT used as a choke collar (although called half choke collar) - I like it as the silver chain looks nice hanging on the bottom of her neck, it is always loose.

It goes over her head, does not have "clip" so no chance of her pulling and breaking it (friend's mastiff brode a collar liek that and run off), can wash it, does not rust (the metal chain part), she has spare at home but the one she is wearing.. she has from a puppy (!!!!), costed about £5.

Extendable l;ead - Flexi. You will nedd the size to match the dog, tape type one. Till you are sure about her recall... Or a training lead. Long one.

krlyr

I would really recommend a longline over a Flexi, I know it's personal preference but have heard many stories about Flexis snapping or the lock failing to work at a vital moment - at least you can see the length of a longline and any tears or snags that might create weak spots (and if you buy one designed for horses you know it's got to be very strong!) and you can reel it in quickly (and get a strong grasp of it to make sure the dog doesn't get any more slack then you intended). Take a little bit of getting used to the knack of it but also has a few benefits like being able to drop it and let the dog trail it around when transitioning between recall on-lead and recall when loose.

con1888

Yeah pets at home does seem really expensive compared to others but because of the short notice I am restricted to there or Asda so need to get most initial items from pets at home, will get food from Asda though after that I will order online.

I am stocked with nappy bags, was visiting my mum today and she gave me some (grandad is bedbound and incontinent so they have loads) so got enough to last me.

Was originally getting her Sunday which would have given me time to order online but they phoned to see if I wanted Friday and I had to say yes, it gives me the whole weekend to help her settle in aswell.

duvet style bed sounds good, how do you guys make the cover for it, do you just put a cover on it then fold or fold then 'make' a cover to go over it ?

I was thinking of getting her a halti lead? These seem recommended but what do you guys think? I ordered her an ID tag from Ebay which she will wear but I will also get her chipped.

toys wise will buy a few small things and wait and see what she likes, my old dog liked cheap soft toys, the type you got with a McDonalds happy meal were her favourite!! She also liked tennis balls.

Pigs ears ahhh, been a while since I have bought one of them, will get her some, old dog loved them.

We also used to get her a huge marrow bone from the butchers, are these unsafe though? Old dog never had a problem but alarm bells are ringing in my head.

Sally_A

Only 2 sleeps until Friday Con1888!!.

Let us know how it goes.

Re bedding, I scrounged a couple of unwanted single duvets - folded them into quarter - bought fleece material - did a quick sewing job like a big pillowcase with a flap at the end to make it neat (my sewing skills are zero), just the right size for our lab/collie crosses.

con1888

I like that collar gettingready, had a quick glance at them but thought they were chokers, glad you have told me they aren't. We used a choker on our old dog but won't be using one on her. Old dog didn't pull atall and we didn't use it the 'choke' way.

con1888

Sally_A wrote: »

Only 2 sleeps until Friday Con1888!!.

Let us know how it goes.

Re bedding, I scrounged a couple of unwanted single duvets - folded them into quarter - bought fleece material - did a quick sewing job like a big pillowcase with a flap at the end to make it neat (my sewing skills are zero), just the right size for our lab/collie crosses.

I don't know how to sew mum did get me a lovely sewing box at Christmas though so could give it a go, done it a few times in home economics at school.