You have an adorable new puppy or just adopted a sweetheart of a dog from a shelter or rescue group. You can’t wait to spoil him or her rotten, right?

Loving on a new pup is mandatory, sure, but it’s also important to provide him with a structured environment from day one. Setting clear expectations is key to successfully integrating any dog into your family. Here are nine tips to set him up for success.

It’s important for dogs to get daily exercise. In fact, many of us get dogs to help ensure that we get more exercise. But life gets in the way, and sometimes walking the dog falls low on the priority list.

Sometimes you just want to be part of the pack. And the fact that Ramona is a toddler and her brothers Zeus and Blue are dogs makes no difference.

The pups are happy to include her and are always gentle and relaxed around her.

This is Steve — a sweet goose who loves his family more than anything.

Steve and his sister Lulu were adopted by the Shymko family nine years ago and immediately made themselves at home. “We started off with just putting them in with the chickens, thinking they were just going to be birds in the back,” Carla Shymko, Steve’s mom, told The Dodo. “But the more time we spent with them the more we realized they had really fun personalities — especially Steve.”

Food is love. Every Italian grandma — heck, every grandma — knows that. So we love to see our dogs and cats enjoy their food.

But it’s possible and, unfortunately common, for owners to overdo it when it comes to providing food and for pets to overdo things on the eating end. All too often I see pets practically waddle into the exam room, while their proud owners tell me how well they’re doing. It’s hard to break it to them that their pudgy Poodle or Persian needs to lose some weight.