Essential Puppy Supplies

January 8, 2026

We have helped thousands of puppies comfortably settle into their new homes, and one of the first things we do to help this transition is to create a list of essential puppy supplies. It may surprise you how many items your puppy needs, including food, training supplies, a kennel, and toys. And the supply list will only grow as they get older. In this blog, we have compiled a puppy supply checklist based on recommendations from our trainers. Let’s start with our preferred puppy treats.

Puppy treats

Treats are essential for training, after all, what is a better reward for a puppy than food? It helps them stay engaged and listen to your commands. For example, we use treats as a lure when teaching a puppy to autosit, which helps teach your puppy how to politely ask for attention. It can be cute when your little German Shepherd puppy jumps up for attention, but not as cute if your 90lb German Shepherd is still jumping.

Part of the discovery when getting a new puppy is learning their treat preferences. And just like toddlers, they may want to eat anything or have very particular tastes. It’s important to find out what your puppy loves, because highly valued treats are going to keep your puppy focused in training. We recommend getting a treat pouch so you always have easy access to treats. To help, we have compiled an Amazon shopping list of some of our favorite puppy treats, which includes:

Freeze-Dried Treats

Pupford freeze-dried training treats

Primal freeze-dried toppers (fish, beef, and chicken)

Orijen freeze-dried dog treats

Jerky / Chewy Treats

Blue Buffalo Nudges (grillers, jerky cuts, and chicken)
Blue Buffalo True Chews (jerky cuts)
Top Chews chicken and apple
Tyson Top Chews chicken jerky
Steward beef liver dog treats

Oven Baked Treats

Grandma Lucy’s oven baked pumpkin treats
Buddy training bites

Peanut Butter

Skippy creamy peanut butter

We haven’t suggested any particular dog foods because you should ask your breeder what food your puppy has been on, and consult with your veterinarian to find out more about their feeding needs. You don’t want to upset their sensitive stomach by unnecessarily changing their diet. Now, let’s talk about what supplies your dog’s needs for drinking and eating.

Food and Water bowls

Stainless steel food and water bowls are useful because they are tough, easy to clean, and can also make for a good splashing bowl for any puppy trying to cool down from the Houston heat.

For those puppies who treat mealtime like a race, we suggest using a slow-feeder. This will help teach your puppy to slow down when eating their meal, which can help with any stomach issues.

Your veterinarian may suggest a raised feeding bowl for puppies with GI or stomach flip concerns, which are more common in large and/or deep-chested dogs.

Now that we have discussed our recommended food and water bowls, let’s discuss crates and playpens.

Crates and playpens

It’s important to crate train your puppy early as it can help with separation anxiety, potty training, and gives them a safe and secure place to rest. We recommend wire crates with a divider and plastic crates.

Puppies love to explore, but tend to get up to mischief when left alone. To help keep them in a confined space where they are supervised, we recommend setting up a playpen. This gives them more freedom to move around, but they are still unable to leave your line of sight. We don’t recommend leaving your puppy in a playpen unsupervised. When you aren’t able to watch them, you should place them back in the crate.

Baby gates are useful in keeping your puppy in certain places in the house. For example, you can set up a baby gate to keep them off the stairs or inside the kitchen area.

Now that we’ve covered crates, playpens, and baby gates, let’s move on to every day training supplies.

Training supplies

We have created a list of training supplies for every day use. These items include:

A flat leash gives you more control than a retractable leash. You can have your puppy drag a leash around the house while you are working on house breaking and puppy manners. If your puppy has a habit of chewing through their leashes, you can use a chain leash instead.
An easy walk harness will help stop your puppy pulling on the leash.
A gentle leader is an alternative to a harness, and can be used with puppies who need some extra help during their walks.
A martingale collar is useful for training and helps prevent your puppy from slipping out of their collar.
A long line is useful for teaching commands such as recall and following exercises.
We recommend an orthopedic dog bed with raised sides, or a raised dog bed.

Now that we have covered essential training supplies, let’s discuss chew toys for physical and mental stimulation.

Chew toys for physical and mental stimulation

Puppies can get bored easily, and they may decide to alleviate this boredom by chewing. Your blankets, shoes, the corner of your table, may all be preyed upon by your bored puppy. Chew toys are not only great for stimulation, but also useful to help sooth puppies who are teething. We recommend rotating 8 to 12 chew toys that will keep your dog interested on the chew toys and not your socks. Chew toys that we recommend include:

For advice on how to help manage puppy’s from chewing up your household items and furniture, we have published a blog on “how to reduce destructive puppy chewing”.

We are here to help

Do you need help with puppy training? You can schedule a free consultation with our Pet Behavior Team to discuss your training goals. Beyond the Dog Houston offers one-on-one personalized training programs at your home and local Houston neighborhood. We also offer board and train retreats and virtual consultations with our co-founder and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Dr. Echterling-Savage.