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Puppy as a gift? Waste Happy blog title card
Dog Health · 9 min read

Thinking of Giving a Puppy for Christmas? Read This First

By Waste Happy ·

Filed under: Dog Health · Puppies

The short version

A movie puppy makes it look easy. What the research says about pets as gifts, what the ASPCA and AKC advise, the real first month of puppy work, and the holiday hazards to plan for.

A Dog's Perfect Christmas lands on Netflix on November 4, 2026. Dennis Quaid plays a grieving grandfather, Mary Steenburgen co-stars, and the story comes from W. Bruce Cameron's 2020 novel. According to What's on Netflix, the trailer opens with a young basset hound popping out of a Christmas present, and a corgi puppy named Ruby helps pull a struggling family back together.

On screen, a puppy under the tree is pure magic. In real life, it comes with a potty break before your first cup of coffee, every morning, for months. So before you put a bow on anyone, here is what the research, the ASPCA and the American Kennel Club actually say.

The short answer

Only for someone who already wants a dog, has time for one and, ideally, helped choose it. A 2013 ASPCA survey found most people given a pet said it did not lessen their love for it. Still, the AKC says to involve the recipient and suggests waiting until after the holidays. Wrap the supplies instead.

Are gift pets loved less? What one survey found

The fear is a surprise puppy back at the shelter by February. To test it, researchers at the ASPCA ran a July 2013 phone survey of 1,006 US adults. Of those, 222 had been given a dog or cat as a present in roughly the previous 10 years. Their answers, published in the journal Animals:

  • Love. Asked whether getting the pet as a gift changed their love or attachment, 126 of 218 said it went up and 86 said it made no difference. Only a handful said it went down.
  • Staying power. Of 215 who answered, 169 (79%) still had the pet. Another 25 pets had died, and 21, about 1 in 10, had gone to another home.
  • Surprises. More than half said the pet was a surprise and they were fine with that. Only 17 were surprised and wished they had been involved. Surprise or not, the researchers found no significant difference in love or in whether the pet was still home.

Now the fine print. The authors call it a small, cross-sectional sample from a survey not built only for this question, and "love or attachment" was each person's own sense of it, not a validated scale. Dogs and cats were counted together, from any occasion, not just Christmas. And with only gift recipients in the analysis, it cannot compare gift pets with pets people chose themselves. For that, the authors point to earlier shelter studies, which found gift pets were given up less often than pets from shelters, friends or pet shops.

Our read: the research says a gift pet is not doomed. It does not say a surprise puppy is a good idea for someone who never asked for one.

What the ASPCA and the AKC advise

The ASPCA does not say never. Its position statement sets some conditions:

  • They have wanted a pet for a while. The ASPCA's phrase is "a sustained interest," plus the ability to look after the animal well.
  • If it's a surprise, know their life. You need to know their schedule well enough to be sure they have the time and the means.
  • For kids under 12, the parents have to be on board too. They need to be ready, and glad, to take on the care.
  • They need time to help the pet settle in, which the ASPCA calls especially important over the holidays and other busy times.

The American Kennel Club is blunter: "It's never a good idea to give a dog or puppy as a gift if the recipient hasn't been actively involved in choosing them." It warns that the person may struggle to bond, or the breed may not suit their life. An AKC spokesperson put the timing question simply back in 2013: "it's much safer and wiser to bring a puppy into your life after the holidays have ended."

So what goes under the tree? The AKC's ideas, roughly:

  • The gear. Wrap what the puppy will need. The AKC's list includes a bed, a crate, bowls, a collar, a leash, toys and, yes, poop bags and a bag holder.
  • The promise. For kids, a letter announcing that a puppy is on the way.
  • The search, together. The AKC says most responsible breeders and rescues want to meet the whole family, kids included, and good breeders may have a waiting list.
  • A class. A voucher for a puppy kindergarten or beginner training class.

The first month, honestly

The early weeks with a young puppy, per AKC, VCA and ASPCA guidance (your vet will adjust the details):

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The job What it looks like
Potty trips The AKC says a very young puppy could need to go out a dozen times or more a day, depending on age. That may mean every one to two hours while they are awake.
Meals Most growing puppies get three to four meals a day, with a trip outside 5 to 30 minutes after each one, per the AKC's potty training timeline.
Nights A last trip out before bed, and a crate close enough that you hear the whine. The AKC's chief veterinarian says a 6-month-old is usually reliable most of the time, if training starts early.
Vet visits VCA says distemper, hepatitis and parvo usually come in one combined shot, given three times about 3 to 4 weeks apart, starting at 6 to 8 weeks and finishing at or after 16 weeks. Deworming gets repeated, too. For an 8-week-old who arrives on Christmas, our math puts the last round in late February at the earliest.
Money The ASPCA's 2021 estimates for a dog: about $1,030 in one-time costs (spay or neuter, first vaccines, crate, training and more) and about $1,391 a year in ongoing costs. Its list does not include the puppy itself.

If that looks like a lot, plenty of families agree. In a 2025 study in PLOS One, researchers from the Royal Veterinary College and EviVet surveyed UK families with children aged 8 to 17 who had bought a puppy between 2019 and 2021, mostly during the pandemic. Just over a third of the adults (37.3%) said at least one part of training or managing their puppy had been worse than expected soon after it arrived. The item most often rated worse than expected was the puppy nipping or biting a child during play. Families were recalling events from years earlier, so treat it as a snapshot, not a forecast.

All those potty trips also add up to a lot of poop. Our puppy poop schedule walks through what to expect, and when a change is worth a vet call. VCA notes that intestinal worms are common in puppies, so here is what worms in dog poop look like.

Why Christmas week is a hard week to start

The AKC says holiday festivities and visitors make it hard for a puppy to settle in. Specifically:

  • The routine disappears. Potty training runs on doing the same things at the same times. Travel, late dinners and a full house are the opposite.
  • Doors get left open. The AKC has warned that visitors who do not own dogs can leave doors open, and a new puppy does not know the yard yet. Put an ID tag on day one, and ask your vet about a microchip.
  • Guests bring bags. The ASPCA suggests asking houseguests to keep their medications in a closed cabinet, not a suitcase on the floor.
  • The decorations are at puppy height. The ASPCA flags wires (a chewed one can deliver a potentially lethal shock), batteries, breakable ornaments, tinsel, uncovered tree water, holly, mistletoe, poinsettias and unattended candles.
  • The food is everywhere. The ASPCA suggests sticking with your pet's usual diet. Fatty, sweet and spicy foods are risky, and so are turkey or chicken bones. Chocolate is its own problem: here is how much is too much, and which holiday foods are safe.

If a puppy is coming home anyway

If the whole family said yes and the puppy is chosen, great. Set up before the puppy arrives, not after. Our bet: of everything on the AKC's supply list, the bags get used first and most often.

Our new dog owner checklist covers what to have ready, and here is what works for small dogs and puppies.

Whether you wrap a puppy or a promise, take the quiz to see how many bags a new dog actually goes through in a month, or grab a box to tuck in next to the leash.

This article is general information, not veterinary advice. Your vet sets your puppy's vaccine and deworming schedule. If your puppy chews a wire or eats a decoration, a holiday plant or food you are unsure about, call your vet or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435 right away.

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