We are picking up our new puppy this weekend. What grooming items should I buy? Also, what sort of grooming schedule should a new pup follow? He is about 9 weeks old.

I'm probably not a good one for recommendations here. I belong to the KISS school of grooming.
All I use is one of these (Ed says this is the best grooming tool he's seen in 45 yrs), 2 or 3 baths a year and a good diet. And, of course, a good vacuum for the house.

Mike

some sort of shedding blade(i LOVE my furminator), or rake.

nail clippers, and something to clean the ears.

you're done!!!

My groomer list for a GSD is as follows:

Furminator
a coat rake or steelcomb that will go to the skin.
Zoom groom for baths.

:-) congrats on the new puppy

As an aside, be careul cleaning ears on a perfectly healthy dog. There is no good reason, IMO, to introduce moisture into a healthy ear. If you mean something to WIPE out the ears, then ok, but please don't squirt things into ears that are just fine on their own. KISS applies here, too, as long as the dog does not have ear issues.

And: old towels for muddy feet!

Thanks for all the replies. That's interesting to note Jenni, I had always heard that ear cleaning should be done once a week or so, with the special solutions and some cotton balls.

It's so hard knowing what to do lol.

As Jennis said, a properly fed GSD (and most breeds, for that matter) with no health issues shouldn't need it's ears cleaned.

Gunky, dirty ears are a sign that something is wrong, either environmental or food allergies, typically (and in that order).

I do remember reading somewhere about not introducing moisture in a good ear- something to the effect of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of a thing.

For reference, I don't clean my dogs' ears, except for my Pekingese occasionally. I have never touched Widget's ears in 9 years. Caleb had a problem once from getting debris in it from swimming in a pond and diving underwater for rocks, but never another reason to clean them. Once I got the damn weeds and dirt out, he was fine. Dogs w/floppy ears may be more prone to problems, but I still think it's 90% diet.

Ditto on the Furminator, best grooming tool ever! Also get a 2nd brush, maybe a rake, that you can use daily. I don't like to use the Furminator on my GSD and cats daily because it can be known to irritate their skin. I use it about once every 5-6 days. You can pick these up with decent discounts at Amazon.com.

Get a cheapy METAL flea comb in case you ever need to check for fleas, I think I got mine for around $2.

My 6 mo old GSD hates having her nails clipped, so I bought a PediPaws nail trimmer from Target for $20. I read a lot of bad reviews on this, but it works fairly well to trim down my pup's nails and she takes it a lot better than clipping. Needs two C batteries which was annoying to have to go and buy.

I use cotton balls and doggie ear cleaner from the pet store for cleaning her ears. If you do a search on here, there are lots of threads on different ear cleaning solutions, even homemade recipes.

We also have a doggie toothbrush and doggie toothpaste from the pet store for brushing her teeth.

As for dog shampoo, we have some designer dog shampoo that we got from the breeder, but I plan on buying something with oatmeal in it once we run out. You can also do a search for shampoo and conditioner on here and there are lots of threads that have good suggestions.

Lastly, we go through lots of good doggie treats to reward our pup for being a good girl when we do all her grooming and cleaning!

PS - I was surprised by how little my GSD pup shed at first when we brought her home. She didn't start shedding heavily til about 6 months for us. It also finally starting getting hot here in California, so that could be the cause of it too, but her puppy fur didn't shed that much around the house. :-)