About New Dog Co
Calm, honest, sourced guides for the first year with a new dog or cat — in English and Spanish. Here's who we are, how we work, and why you can trust what you read. Leer en español →
What New Dog Co is
New Dog Co makes plain-language, printable guides and trackers for the hardest, most disorienting stretch of pet ownership: the first weeks and months with a new dog or cat. Vaccination schedules, feeding, house-training, decompression, litter-box setup, body language — it all arrives at once, usually at 2 a.m., pieced together from a dozen conflicting websites. We put the calm, sourced version in one place.
Everything is a digital download or a simple fillable PDF, sold on our Etsy shop. The guides on this site are free to read.
How we work: positive methods only
Every method we publish is reward-based and force-free. We do not recommend shock, prong, or choke collars, or any aversive "correction" — the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) is clear that those tools increase fear, anxiety, and aggression, with no advantage over reward-based training. That position runs through every guide.
We are also vet-first. Our content is educational, not a diagnosis — and on anything medical (a cat suddenly avoiding the litter box, a dog in pain, a sudden behavior change) we tell you to call your veterinarian before anything else, because sometimes that call is an emergency.
How we source everything
We are not a veterinary practice, and we don't ask you to take our word for anything. Instead, every claim traces back to a recognized authority, cited by name inside the guide and in each article's sources list. The bodies we lean on:
- AAHA — American Animal Hospital Association
- AVSAB — American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (humane, reward-based training)
- AVMA — American Veterinary Medical Association
- ASPCA — American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
- AAFP — American Association of Feline Practitioners (for the cat guides)
- International Cat Care (iCatCare) — feline welfare and behavior
- Fear Free — low-stress handling and care
Naming our sources is the whole point: it's how you can check us, and it's why we'd rather be transparent than sound authoritative. New Dog Co is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the organizations above; we cite their public guidance.
Who makes this
New Dog Co is made by M. Ruiz — a dog owner, not a veterinarian or a certified trainer. It started with a dog named Lobo, brought home before we were really ready, and the long first weeks of guessing and googling that followed. The guide we wished someone had handed us didn't exist, so we built it, and then kept building.
Because I don't carry a behavior credential, I don't rely on one. What I bring is the lived experience of getting it wrong and then doing the homework — and a strict rule that nothing goes in a guide unless a credentialed body backs it and I can cite it. If that ever changes (a completed certification, a professional review), it'll be named right here, honestly.
Questions or feedback
The fastest way to reach us is a message through the Etsy shop — I read and answer every one, whether it's a question about a specific guide, a correction, or a request for something we haven't made yet. If you spot anything in a guide that looks wrong, please tell me; accuracy matters more than looking polished.