Hi, I'm Dr. Steve Pelton

I graduated from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine in 2000, and I've owned Hearthstone Animal Clinic in Cypress, Texas, since 2007. I'm a general practice vet, so I meet puppies on their very first visit and then keep seeing them through the teenage months and on into the gray-muzzle years. After 25 years of first puppy visits, the question I hear most is still the same one: "Is this normal?" This site is where I answer it, for free, with tools you can tap and guides you can play with.

The puppy from the ditch

One of my own dogs found me by accident. A client spotted him in a roadside ditch on a cold, rainy night and brought him in, muddy and covered in fleas. He spent the night warm and dry at the clinic. The next morning he was sitting in his run looking up at me, calm as anything, like the two of us had already decided and I was just catching up. He went home with me that night.

I'd have bet he was a terrier mix. His DNA test said mostly poodle and chihuahua, with some Lab. So much for my expert eye. I tell that story because if you're up at midnight looking at a puppy you didn't quite plan on and wondering what you've gotten into, I've been there. That worry just means you care. And a puppy doesn't need a perfect start to turn out wonderful. Mine started in a ditch.

Where the advice comes from

Most of what's here comes straight from the published guidelines vets across the country use, from the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA), the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC), the American Heartworm Society and the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB), along with the Merck Veterinary Manual and the studies behind them. Guides list their sources at the bottom so you or your vet can look them up. Where good sources disagree, I show you both sides, and where it's my own take, I say so.

There are no brand names, no affiliate links, no ads and no sponsors. When I say "ask your vet which one," I mean it. Your vet knows your puppy, your area and what's going around this month, so their plan comes first.