Right, puppy is chosen, date is set, countdown has begun (roughly 3 weeks). I am RIDICULOUSLY excited.

So I'm looking for last minute you're-about-to-get-a-puppy advice (for those concerned you can look back on my posts but I've gone about finding this specific puppy extremely slowly and sensibly so we're all good on that front).

Someone on another thread just mentioned freezing meals and making sure laundry and housework is done, that's gone on my list. I'm looking for similar type things, not necessarily obvious stuff like "fix the fence" or "buy it bowls and a bed", because we've thought of those things. But maybe there are things you found really useful (or totally useless), or things you always do or wish you'd done? It could be anything from some arrangement you used for housetraining to a dog whistle you used for recall to an approach to separation anxiety - anything you think is useful advice for a new puppy owner (we have owned dogs before but not raised a puppy ourselves before).

I know this is really vague but I want to leave it wide open because sometimes the most useful gems of information come quite randomly and not from asking obvious questions.

Huge thanks in advance.

Best advice is enyeoy your new baby it will be work but hole load of fun

My favourite tip is attaching a couple of cat bells to the puppy's collar. When you have switched off, and are having a read or watching TV, the little 'ting' tells you that the pup has woken up, and almost certainly needs a wee!

When you feed your pup give a couple of toots on the whistle so that your pup associates coming to you and getting food on the whistle sound. You'll be doing this up to four times a day, so it will quickly dawn on your pup that whistle means go to human, get food.

The breeders of my pup did this from the moment they started giving the puppies solids. The consequence is that Isla will turn and come to me on the whistle without even thinking about it, it's become an instinctive action.

Just thought of something else.

Wear tough jeans cos as sure as eggs are eggs, your pup will be jumping up and scrabbling with sharp little claws or grabbing them with sharp little teeth.

Like Jodi  I thought of clothes.  Make sure old T-shirts are ready.  I know it's breed relevant and your chosen breed won't be anywhere near as bad.  My first Bearded Collie pup slobbered me so much that it looked as if I had slug trails up my jeans once they had dried. I felt so glamorous!   

If you don't already use a home-delivery service for your groceries, you might find it useful to get set up and familiarised with your chosen supermarket's offering.  I found it invaluable for the first weeks.

Also useful was a torch, brolly and waterproof jacket (and shoes) by the back door for night time visits to the garden.

Advise neighbours re new puppy and possible new noises? We did and found our neighbours understanding in first few weeks.

This is great stuff people! The whistle tip and collar-bell tip especially (the shopping and clothing are fab also but I have a husband I will send to Tesco and with 3 kids I'm unfortunately already usually dressed like I've just survived a major disaster event ).

Keep em coming, this is brilliant!

Kitchen roll, for quick mop ups of the inevitable accidents.

With the kitchen roll I had a spray bottle made up with biological soap and water for wiping up.

I made a chart for house training which made it far easier to quickly spot the pattern of when your pup needs to go outside. It doesn't take away from being vigilant for the tell tale signs that the pup needs to go but it does help to make it more predictable and thus help to set your pup up to succeed .

Train a positive interrupter - Emily Larlham/Kikopup has a video on youtube for it.  My last puppy (Willow, farm collie) was the first one I did it with and it was an absolute godsend.  So easy, and so useful!  And 3 years on, it's still being useful - it's now morphed into a recall/'do what I'm asking you to do now please' cue (dependent on context).  Absolutely brilliant.

Tough jeans are good -- a suit of armour is probably better!

Put your favourite tv programmes on record, as they will almost certainly be interupted by toileting play (and mischief).  Then you can watch when pup is asleep.

Don't allow (encourage)  anything you don't want puppy to do when fully grown.  Always my biggest mistake :B. My older pup always sat on my shoulder on the settee - still does when I let him. Fortunately he's still only small at 8kg, but does get in the way of the TV :)

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was to take loads of photos. They change so quickly, specially when they are young, and it's lovely many years later to be able to look back on hundreds of photos from almost every month of their lives. :-)

Positive interruper advice is fantastic! Such a short video and such an awesome gem of a tip! Thank you!

Don't worry so much! Focus on the things the pup does well,talk to other dog owners-most of them will have had the same or worse problems.Forget about TV-you will only see fragments of any programmes you used to watch.Netflix is useful! But although it may feel like it'll be like that forever it isn't and when pup starts growing up you will instantly forget what all the fuss was about,enjoy him/her more and want another! And forget about puppy-proofing everything,he's 7 months old and we've still not managed it!