Laura Scheuer Dog Rescue

Did you decide do adopt a dog from a shelter? That’s amazing! Shelterdogs need people that care for them and adopt them! I can imagine that you feel super excited now and that you already start making your shopping list! I want to help you with this while sharing my experience and knowledge!

Let’s start with the 8 items you should have at home before your new best friend arrives and my favorite brands! I will explain each item on the list! So let’s start!

Harness

The right harness is a must when it comes to adopting a dog from a shelter! When the dog arrives in his new home, he most of the times is extremely stressed and feels unsafe and uncomfortable. The dog doesn’t understand what just happened to him and doesn’t know that he finally arrived home! Therefore most dogs want to run away and to hide somewhere when they arrive. If this happens, chances to get the dog back alive are very low, as the dog doesn’t know the place or his new family. It is very important to make sure that the dog has no possibility to escape on the first days! Some harnesses are absolutely not safe and it is easy for a dog to pull himself out of it!
Here some examples of harnesses that you shouldn’t buy:

What we want is a harness that is difficult to be pulled over the dogs head! The most secure harnesses are security harnesses, because they have an additional tummy strap that will make it almost impossible for your dog to free itself from it. Click on the image below to get the link for this harness.

If you don’t want to spend money on a harness that you are not going to use for a long time, this harness is a good option. After the additional security strap is not needed anymore you can just take it of and use the harness as a normal harness!

In case none of these harnesses are what you want to buy and if your organization allows you to use normal harnesses, these are my suggestions:

Click on the images to get the link of these two harnesses. They are easy to clean, comfortable to wear for the dog and they are adjustable to your dog’s size.

Crate

I know, for many people crates seem to be a horrible thing! Many people see it as a punishment for the dog when in fact a crate can be extremely useful in dog education! For the dog, the crate is not a place of punishment! If you introduce the crate in the right way, he will see it as a safe place where he can relax and sleep and for you it will be huge relief to know that your dog is in a safe place, when you have to leave him out of sight in the beginning.
Here are my suggestions for crates:

These crates are a great low budget option if you only want to use the crate in the beginning to get the dog used to being alone at home or to potty train the dog. It might not be the most beautiful crate, neither the most stable, but it fulfills it’s use and when it’s not needed it can easily be folded and put aside!

This crate is also a great low budget option! This crate is especially useful when it comes to traveling with the dog! If your dog is traveling a lot with you to your friends and family or even if you like to go on vacation with your dog it is extremely useful to have a crate that you can fold to a small and easy to be transported item! Also the design of these crates are much nicer and maybe you won’t mind having this crate in your living room. But keep in mind that this crate is absolutely not strong and can easily be destroyed by a dog that doesn’t feel comfortable inside and that wants to escape. Therefore this crate has to be introduced in the right way, so that the dog feels fully comfortable in this crate and will not try to break his way through!

For the car I would suggest you to buy a crate that fits best in your car and that is approved to fulfill its job in case of an accident!

Long leash

Having had many fosterdogs already, I believe that a long leash is an absolute must have if you adopt a dog! You don’t know your new family member at the beginning. The most dangerous thing to do is to let him run off leash in the beginning! Even a good closed yard will not keep a dog from running away if the dog is under extreme stress and panicking! I would never let a dog run off leash in the yard on the first day! But as many shelterdogs don’t know how to walk on a leash, it happens very often that they feel stressed when they are bounded to a stranger which makes them unable to pee or poop in this situation. With a long leash you can give your dog the feeling of freedom but still having control over him so that he won’t run away. Also the long leash is very useful to teach your dog the recall and for the first steps of letting him run off leash.

I highly recommend to use biothane material for the long leash! It is very easy to clean, doesn’t get full of water when it’s raining, sticks and leaves don’t get caught in it so easily and they are pretty light and still low budget.

Food

There are a lot of different food brands on the market and sometimes we can feel a little overwhelmed when we see the variety on the market! Therefore I chose 2 good food brands that I can recommend!

Low budget but still good quality is the food from Bosch!

Wolfsblut is not low budget anymore but for sure one of the best quality food brands out there!

Rinti is a very good quality food without being extremely expensive! So it’s the perfect in between food!

Water bowl

When it comes to water bowls you also have a high variety of bowls on the market and in the end it is all about your own taste, but in case of your dog being a “floor wetter” (a dog that is putting water all over the floor while drinking) I made good experience with this water bowl.

What’s also great about this bowl is that you can let it in the car while driving without the water sipping out of it!

Toys

Like I said before, I had a lot of fosterdogs. I clearly could see that some toys are loved by almost every dog, while other toys are disliked by most of them! To not buy the wrong toy, here’s my suggestion of toys that you should buy to start with.

Dogs love these fluffy teddybears that they can easily throw around and play with!
Toys are especially useful to teach the dog how they can get rid of their energy without destroying your furniture or decoration. Another extremely helpful tool to keep dogs from destroying your furniture is to give them something hard to chew on! I highly recommend one of these two items. It depends from dog to dog which one of these they prefer and some dogs don’t even chew on any of them. But a dog with a strong desire to chew on things (especially puppies) will appreciate having something to fulfill their needs without disobeying!

Dogbed and leash

When it comes to dogbeds an leashes it is impossible for me to make a suggestion! It’s all about your own preferences an the preferences of your dog. The only thing that most dogs prefer are dogbeds with sides which allow them to cuddle! But it’s up to you which dogbed you prefer!