Most owners show up to their first session with too much gear:
- the wrong harness
- a retractable lead
- three half-finished bags of treats
- a treat pouch they can't open with one hand
- toys their dog doesn't play with
Everything was bought hopefully. Most of it gets used once.
My list is short on purpose.
The bar
An item makes the recommended list only if all three of these are true.
It does a job in PACE.
- PLAY needs the right toys for the dog you have.
- CALM needs a chew that lasts and a crate that fits.
- ANCHOR needs a lead and a harness that don't fight the dog's body.
- EXPLORE needs equipment that lets your dog be a dog, within reason.
I'm not interested in items that could work. I'm interested in items that do work, for a real dog, in a defined mode.
It works without ten variants. A treat pouch is a treat pouch. A flat collar is a flat collar. If a tool needs a brand-specific accessory pack to do its job, I don't include it to begin with.
I have to actually use it. Murphy uses every item on the CALM list. Every harness, lead, and training tool I recommend has come out of my session bag with a real dog in front of it. Nothing is on the page because the company sent me a freebie.
What's on the list
The list is organised by PACE mode, because that's how I think about equipment.
PLAY is a flirt pole, a tug, and a treat pouch you can open with one hand. Different dogs need different things in PLAY, so I list a few options. The kind of tug that suits a strong-prey-drive dog is not the kind that suits a chaser.
CALM is a crate sized to your dog, a blanket (not a bed), a long-lasting natural chew, and a Kong. The chew goes in for decompression. The Kong takes wet food and a freezer.
Training equipment is a long lead for EXPLORE mode, a harness with both front and back clip points, and a small set of tools I only ever introduce in person. The "as directed" group exists because some tools require correct fit, correct timing, and an introduction the dog tolerates. Wrong fit or wrong context turns them from helpful into harmful.
Then a slow feeder for the gobblers, a no-spill bowl for the dribblers, and a silent flat ID tag because anything dangling off the collar can catch on furniture, fences, or another dog's teeth.
What's not on the list
Beds inside the crate. Dogs settle better making their own bed out of a blanket. A pre-shaped bed takes that away.
Multi-pack variety toys. Most of them get ignored. Find the one or two toys your dog actually wants, buy those, skip the rest.
Anything sold as a "puppy starter pack." It's a marketing bundle, not a setup that suits any specific puppy.
The full list
Everything I do recommend, with the reason it earned a place, is on the recommended equipment page. Some of those links are affiliate links. I only link to gear I'd recommend regardless of commission.
If you're a current client, hold off on big purchases until I've seen your dog. The right kit depends on what your dog actually needs, and that's not a guess we want to make at a hardware store.