A Puppy Comes Home (The First Few Days)

We ended up paying the man the $300 and bringing the puppy home that day. We actually had to stop by Marsh on the way back to pick up essential puppy supplies (food, bowls, collar, leash, toy) for him. We honestly did not know we'd be getting a dog that quickly so we were, admittedly, a little under-prepared. I didn't know much about the quality of dog foods so I bought him a bag of Purina Puppy Chow to get him started. I bought him the only type of bowls, leash, and collar that the store had on its shelves. They looked a little cheaply constructed, but the dog needed them so I didn't exactly have much of a choice.

When the puppy walked in our front door, he was extremely curious about absolutely everything. He wandered aimlessly around our living room sniffing and biting at virtually anything his one foot high head could reach. He seemed really happy to be there though, and my roommate and I had a lot of fun watching him. When it came time for bed, we didn't exactly know what we were going to do with him. We hadn't bought him a crate yet, but we obviously didn't feel comfortable letting him have free-roam of the house. I tried to let him on the floor in my bedroom but he kept getting himself into trouble and I was worried he would relieve himself on my carpet. I decided to try putting him in our laundry room because there didn't seem to be much that could pose a threat to him, plus it is one of the only rooms we have with a hard floor. I moved his food and water bowls in the room with him, but I felt so bad leaving him in there alone that I ended up sitting on the floor in the dark with him for what must have been about a half hour. After I thought he looked settled down and ready to sleep, I slowly exited the room and went to lay in my bed. The puppy was quiet at first which felt like a relief, but after about 10 minutes, he started yapping his head off. Everything I had read while researching how to raise a puppy (which was actually quite a bit) said that when you put a puppy in his cage or in a room for bed, you should never let them out just because they're whining. This supposedly teaches the puppy that he can always get what he wants just by barking a lot. I tried to simply ignore the puppy's yapping, but about five minutes later, my roommate (who hadn't read any of my puppy raising articles) went in the laundry room to check on him. Thank God he didn't know we were supposed to ignore the barking, because as soon as he opened the door, he saw that the puppy had gotten his head stuck while exploring behind the dryer. I felt really bad for the dog and I decided to move him to the empty bedroom even though it had carpeting. I sat with the puppy in there for about another half hour and as soon as I felt confident that there was nothing that he could hurt himself on, I left and went to bed. The puppy didn't make a peep, and he actually ended up liking it in there. We made that extra bedroom into the official puppy room and that's where we left him when he slept and when me and my roommate were both out. Everything seemed to be working until one day when I got back from work, opened the door to the puppy room, and saw that he ripped up a good portion of the carpet by the door. That's when it became apparent that this puppy needed a crate.