We brought our first golden retriever puppy home on a Thursday in October, and I’m pretty sure I spent the first three days wondering what we’d gotten ourselves into. The house wasn’t ready. I thought it was ready, but it absolutely wasn’t.
If you’re searching for golden retriever puppies for sale and getting close to actually bringing one home, let me save you some of the mistakes we made. Colorado adds some wrinkles you might not think about if you’re new to having dogs here. Altitude, weather that changes by the hour, wildlife in your backyard—it’s different than prepping for a puppy in, say, Florida.
The thing is, you can’t really prepare your home for a puppy and cover every scenario. They’ll find something to chew that you never considered. They’ll pee somewhere you thought was impossible. But getting the obvious stuff handled ahead of time means you’re not scrambling while you’re already exhausted.
Get Ready For Your Golden Retriever Puppy
Everything Becomes a Chew Toy
Golden retriever puppies chew. I knew this going in. Everyone told me. I still wasn’t prepared for the scope of it.
Ours ate a phone charger the first week. Not nibbled—destroyed it. Grabbed a throw pillow off the couch and had half the stuffing out before I got across the room. Found my daughter’s library book and chewed through three pages. The TV remote disappeared for two days and turned up behind the couch with teeth marks all over it.
Walk around your house and look at what’s within about two feet of the ground. Because that’s the danger zone. We had to move all our houseplants—not just the toxic ones, all of them. The puppy tried to eat the fiddle leaf fig in the living room, threw up on the rug, and I learned that lesson fast.
Cords are everywhere you don’t notice until you’re trying to protect them. Phone chargers, lamp cords, the cable box setup behind the TV. We got cord covers for some of it and just unplugged stuff we didn’t use constantly. Not pretty, but neither is an emergency vet visit because your puppy electrocuted itself.
Shoes went into closets with actual latching doors. The coat closet by the front door got a baby lock on it. Sounds excessive until your puppy destroys your good boots.
Check your fence if you have a yard. Walk the whole thing. Our property backs up to some open space, and there was a gap near the back corner I never noticed because our old dog never tried to escape. The puppy found it immediately. Would’ve been in the neighbor’s yard or worse if I hadn’t caught her. Colorado means wildlife—I’ve seen foxes, coyotes, even a black bear once. A loose puppy outside alone is not something you want to deal with.
You Need a Puppy Zone
The fantasy is that you’ll just watch the puppy constantly. Reality is you need to cook dinner, take a shower, answer work emails. Something.
We set up a crate and an exercise pen in the kitchen. Crate is where she sleeps and hangs out when we can’t supervise. The x-pen gives her more room to move around with some toys and water. I put a pee pad in there at first though she mostly ignored it.
Don’t put the puppy somewhere isolated. We tried the laundry room the first night because the crying was keeping everyone awake. That made everything worse. Puppies are social—they want to be near you even if they can’t be right on top of you.
Our kitchen has tile floors and they’re freezing in winter. I threw down some cheap rugs from Target because the puppy was cold and kept slipping. She still face-planted multiple times a day learning to walk properly, but at least she had some traction.
Shopping Before Pickup Day
I thought I’d just grab stuff as we needed it. That was dumb. You don’t want to leave a brand new puppy alone to run to the pet store. Bringing them with you when they’re crying and scared is worse.
Food first. The breeder gave us a small bag of what the litter had been eating. I should’ve bought more ahead of time. Instead I ran out on day four, switched foods too fast because I couldn’t find the same brand locally, and dealt with diarrhea for three days. Not worth it.
Bowls seem straightforward until your puppy tips over the water bowl six times before noon. Get something heavy or with a rubber base. We went through three different water bowls the first month. Stainless steel holds up better than plastic—the puppy chewed holes in the plastic ones.
Collar, leash, and an ID tag with your phone number. Even though puppies can’t really walk on a leash yet. If they somehow get out, you want them identifiable. We’re near some hiking trails and I’ve seen lost dogs around here. Better safe.
Toys matter more than I expected. Golden retriever puppies need to chew because they’re teething and their gums hurt. If you don’t give them appropriate stuff, they’ll find inappropriate stuff. We got soft toys, rubber toys, rope toys—variety helps. She still went after the couch corners but at least we had options to redirect her.
The crate we bought is sized for an adult golden, which is huge for a puppy. You need a divider to make it smaller at first. Too much space and they’ll pee in one corner and sleep in the other. We learned that one the hard way too.
Don’t buy a fancy dog bed yet. Just get cheap towels or blankets. Puppies pee on beds. They chew them. They pull out all the stuffing. Save your money for later.
Prepare Your Home for a Puppy Who Will Pee Everywhere
Housetraining takes time. Our puppy had accidents daily for probably two months. Some days were better than others, but it’s part of the deal.
Enzyme cleaner is the only thing that actually works. We tried regular floor cleaner at first and the puppy kept going back to the same spots. Dogs can still smell where they’ve peed even after you clean it if you don’t use the right product. Nature’s Miracle saved us.
Keep cleaning supplies handy. We had spray bottles and paper towels in three different rooms because you don’t have time to run around looking for stuff while pee soaks into carpet.
We rolled up the good rug in the living room and put it in storage. My wife was attached to it and didn’t want to risk damage. Smart move. The cheaper rug in the family room got peed on twice and the enzyme cleaner handled it fine, but I wouldn’t have wanted to test that on a $1,500 rug.
Colorado Weather Is Its Own Challenge
Altitude hit our puppy harder than I expected. We picked her up from a breeder in the Denver area and brought her to our place in the foothills. She was panting more than seemed normal and super tired those first few days. Extra water helped. We took it easy on activity.
October weather here is all over the place. It was 30 degrees one morning and 68 that afternoon. Puppies can’t regulate temperature well. Ours got cold fast, especially early in the morning for potty breaks. I bought a cheap puppy sweater and felt ridiculous putting it on her, but she needed it.
Summer’s going to be different. Pavement gets hot enough to burn paws. We’re planning morning and evening walks only once it really heats up. And always water with us.
It’s Chaos and That’s Normal
Our house was messier than it’s ever been those first few weeks. The schedule revolved entirely around the puppy. Sleep got interrupted every night. I found teeth marks on furniture, baseboards, even the coffee table legs.
But golden retriever puppies turn into golden retriever dogs, and they’re worth all of it. The crazy puppy phase doesn’t last forever. Ours is seven months now and things are so much calmer than they were at ten weeks.
The point of doing this prep work isn’t to make everything perfect. It’s to handle the predictable stuff so you have energy left for the unpredictable stuff. Because there will be plenty of that, and you’ll figure it out as you go.
Just get the basics ready before pickup day. You’ll be glad you did when you’re standing in your kitchen at 2 a.m. with a crying puppy and you actually know where the cleaning supplies are.