Everwynn Guides / Life With Pets

15 Things to Record During Your Dog's First Year Home

The first year moves faster than any of the ones after it. These are the specific, easy-to-forget details worth writing down before they turn into ‘I wish I’d remembered that.’

A keeping-list, not a to-do list

15 Things to Record During Your Dog's First Year Home

A note from Everwynn

We hear from a lot of people well into year three or four who say some version of the same thing: I wish I'd written that down. Not the big milestones, those tend to stick on their own. It's the small, specific stuff that fades first: what scared them, what they smelled like on day one, the name they almost had. This list exists so you don't have to rely on memory for it.

— Chiara, Everwynn

The first year disappears faster than you think

Ask anyone with an older dog what they remember about the first few months and most people go quiet for a second. They remember the big things, the day they brought the dog home, maybe the first vet visit, and then a blur. The actual details, the ones that make a memory feel real years later, get lost somewhere in the ordinary business of just living with a new animal.

This isn't a to-do list. Nothing on it needs to happen this week. It's fifteen small, specific things worth writing down, in a notes app, on the inside of a cabinet door, wherever you'll actually find it again, so that in five years you have more than a vague sense that the first year happened.

Want it on paper?There's a free Keeping List with all fifteen on one page.

Jump to the free download ↓

1

The Day You Met
Where you were, what you were doing, and the very first thing you noticed about them, not the story you tell now, but what actually happened. Include the date if you can. Whatever they answered to before your name for them stuck, if anything, belongs here too.
2

Their First Night
Not the plan for their first night, what actually happened. Who slept where, who cried (dog or human), what finally worked. This is the story everyone asks for later, and it's the one that gets exaggerated the most once nobody wrote down the real version.
3

What Scared Them Most, and What Helped
Every dog arrives with something that unsettles them, a sound, a doorway, being left alone. Write down what it was and what actually helped, even if it took weeks to figure out. It's useful for a future sitter, and it says something true about who they were becoming.
4

The First Vet Visit, in Full
Weight, any notes the vet made, whatever silly thing they did in the waiting room. The number itself won't mean much later, but the story around it usually does.
5

Who They Met Early On, and How It Went
The neighbor's cat, your parents, the other dog at the park. Some of these introductions become funny in hindsight regardless of how they went at the time, record the ones that were a disaster along with the ones that went smoothly.

6

The First Time They Slept Through the Night
It matters more than it sounds like it should, and it's one of those milestones nobody remembers the actual date of unless they wrote it down.
7

The Object They Loved Obsessively
The one toy, blanket, or random household item that became inexplicably essential. Note what happened to it eventually, lost, retired, or still going, gray and one-eared, in the corner of a room.
8

The First Trick or Command That Actually Landed
Not the one you tried to teach first, the one that actually worked, and roughly how long it took. Most people remember teaching ‘sit’ and forget entirely what came before it took.
9

The Moment You Knew They Trusted You
There's usually a specific moment, a hard stare that softened, the first time they fell asleep in your lap, a fear they let you help with. It rarely happens on a predictable schedule, so it's easy to let it pass without marking it.
10

What Their Sounds Meant, Before You Learned to Translate
The different barks, the specific whine, the noise that meant ‘someone's at the door’ versus ‘I am extremely bored.’ You'll have this translated fluently within a year and forget you ever didn't.

11

An Ordinary Day, Photographed
Not a special occasion, just an actual Tuesday. The everyday version of them, mid-nap or mid-chaos, is the photo people end up treasuring most, more than any posed one.
12

The First Time They Got Sick or Hurt
What happened, what you did, and what you'd do differently. Half useful record, half relief that you got through it.
13

How Your Routine Actually Changed
The walk that got added to your morning, the earlier alarm, the restaurant you now ask about outdoor seating at. Small shifts that feel invisible while they're happening and obvious in hindsight.
14

The Name They Almost Had
If there was a runner-up name, or a nickname that stuck harder than the official one, write it down. It's a small detail that gets forgotten within a year or two, and it's always a good story.
15

What You'd Tell Someone Bringing a Dog Home for the First Time
Write it in your own words, from where you're standing now, not the general advice everyone gives, but the one thing you specifically wish someone had told you.