Your Puppy's First Week Home: Checklist, Vet Visit & Vaccine Schedule

Your puppy's first week has three jobs: set up a calm, predictable space; get a vet exam within the first 2–3 days while Florida's 14-day buyer-guarantee clock is running; and start the routines — potty, sleep, food, gentle socialization — that make everything easier later. Here is the whole week, in order, with the legal deadlines most checklists skip.

Why do the first 72 hours matter so much in Florida?

Because your strongest consumer protections are on a timer. Under Section 828.29, Florida Statutes, a licensed veterinarian of your choosing has 14 days from the sale to certify that a puppy was unfit due to illness, disease, or internal or external parasites (fleas and ticks excluded), and 1 year for congenital or hereditary disorders. A vet visit in the first 2–3 days uses almost none of that window and documents a clean baseline — or catches a problem while every remedy is still available.

The deadlines are specific, so here they are in one place:

If a problem is certified in time, the choice of remedy is yours, not the seller's: a full refund including sales tax plus documented vet costs, an exchange plus vet costs, or keeping the puppy with vet-cost reimbursement up to the purchase price. The FDACS plain-language summary is a good companion to the statute itself, and our Florida pet lemon law guide walks through the whole process. None of this is legal advice — for an edge case, read the statute or ask a lawyer.

What should be ready before your puppy walks in?

A puppy needs less gear and more structure than the pet aisle suggests. Have these ready on day one:

• A crate sized so the puppy can stand and turn around, set up somewhere the family actually lives — not a laundry room.
• The same food the puppy has been eating. Ask the seller for the brand and feeding schedule; sudden switches cause stomach upset in an already stressful week.
• Bowls, collar with an ID tag, leash, and a harness for a puppy that has never felt one.
• An enzyme cleaner for accidents (there will be accidents) and washable bedding.
• A few chew toys of different textures, and a puppy-safe chew for teething.
• A gated zone or playpen so "supervised" does not have to mean "watched every second."
• The paperwork folder: health certificate, vaccine and deworming records, guarantee, insurance documents — you will need it at the vet in 48 hours.

Skip for now: retractable leashes, adult-dog treats, and any training gadget promising shortcuts. Week one is about safety and rhythm.

What happens at the first vet visit?

Bring the puppy, a stool sample if your vet requests one, and every document from the seller — in Florida that means the Official Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (OCVI), plus dated vaccination and deworming records. The vet will do a nose-to-tail exam: heart and lungs, eyes and ears, mouth and bite, skin and coat, joints and gait, weight, hydration, and usually a fecal check for parasites.

Two outcomes, both good. A clean exam gives you a documented baseline inside the statutory window. A finding — an ear infection, a parasite load, a heart murmur worth monitoring — starts the notice clock, so tell the seller within 2 business days and get the certification moving. A reputable store wants that call; it is the entire point of the guarantee.

This visit is also where the vaccine calendar gets built, which brings us to the schedule.

What is the puppy vaccination schedule?

Core protection is a series, not a shot. Per the AAHA-AVMA canine preventive healthcare guidelines, puppies receive a combination vaccine against distemper, adenovirus, and parvovirus in repeated doses through at least 16 weeks of age, because maternal antibodies fade at unpredictable times and the last dose is the one that has to land. Your vet sets the exact dates; the typical shape looks like this:

The single most useful thing you can do is hand over the existing records so nothing is duplicated and nothing is missed. A Florida-sold puppy arrives with documented doses; the series continues from there.

What about fleas, ticks, and worms?

Note the carve-out in the law: fleas and ticks are excluded from Florida's statutory guarantee, which tells you the legislature considers them an ordinary, ongoing owner responsibility — and in Florida's climate they are a twelve-month problem. Ask your vet to start heartworm prevention and a flea-and-tick preventive at the first visit, and keep the deworming schedule from the seller's records going. Intestinal parasites, by contrast, are covered within the 14-day window, which is one more reason the early fecal check earns its cost.

Can my puppy socialize before the vaccine series is done?

Yes — carefully. The prime socialization weeks largely overlap the vaccine series, so waiting for the final booster to introduce the world costs real developmental ground. The workable middle: invite calm, vaccinated dogs you know to your home, carry the puppy on outings instead of walking public ground, run gentle handling and sound exposure at home, and let the puppy meet a variety of people. Avoid dog parks, pet-store floors, and anywhere with unknown dog traffic until your vet clears you. When in doubt, ask at the first visit; vets give this trade-off nuanced, local answers.

What does a good first week actually look like?

Boring, on purpose. Feed at the same times, in the same place, with the food the puppy already knows; if you plan to change diets, transition gradually over the following weeks. Potty trips go on a timer — after waking, after eating, after play — with quiet praise in the same spot outside. Nights in the crate near your room beat isolation; expect some crying the first nights and resist 2 a.m. play sessions. Keep visitors light in the first days: a puppy that just left its litter needs to learn one household before it entertains a parade.

Watch for the red flags — repeated vomiting or diarrhea, not eating or drinking, unusual stillness, coughing, labored breathing — and call your vet the same day if they appear. Puppies are small; things move fast in both directions.

What comes home with a Petlovin' puppy?

Everything this article says to bring to the vet, in one packet at handover: the OCVI from a licensed vet, dated vaccination and deworming records, your written statutory rights, our written health guarantee, and the included pet health insurance policy information — coverage is activated when your puppy goes home, with a free-look period to review the terms. Details live on our health protection page, and how delivery day works is documented too, down to the confirmation that you received every document.

Bringing home a kitten instead, or as well? The feline version of this week — quiet-room setup, FVRCP series, FeLV/FIV testing — follows Cornell Feline Health Center guidance, and our team will walk you through the kitten variant of this checklist.