hi all- I am so happy to have found this forum! What a wealth of information and a great resource to have as we will soon be getting a new yellow lab in a couple of weeks. My husband and I have had 2 Labradors in the past, one lived 15 yr and the other 11. They were truly our "babies". It has been since 2010 since we've had a dog so we are beyond excited to add her to our family ( not to mention our 5 year old little boy ) I have read Pippa's puppy book and am so thankful for the resource. I do have lots of questions and would love any tips/helpful advice anyone can offer. I'm specifically looking for advice of socialization (how to navigate potty breaks when out and about before fully vaccinated). Having a well socialized pup is a top goal for us and we really want to expose her to a lot of sites and sounds during that window. Also, any useful first few weeks home tips would be great too. Thanks!
Hello, and a warm welcome to the forum. You don't really want to be carrying a puppy round for a long time during socialisation, so there really is no need to stop for a wee or a poo. I have recently finished doing this with my new pup (her vaccinations aren't finished yet, but she is now too heavy to carry for long) and never carried her for more than 30 minutes. I walked up and down my road outside my house quite often - it's a moderately busy suburban road, with lots of delivery vans and some houses being refurbished so we went to meet the builders etc. I walked down to the vet's with her, sat on a bench in the park, carried her round pets at home and so on. None of these outings took more than 30 minutes and I just made sure she'd had a poo and wee before we set off. Tiny puppies are easily overwhelmed, so it's not the case that more is better, just short outings are fine. With my first pup, I did take him out for longer (we went to puppy class which was a bit of a drive away) and if we got stuck I'd just choose the safest place for him to have a wee that I could find. Churchyards were good, or places where there are unlikely to have been other dogs. I tried getting him to wee on puppy pads in a motorway service station once, which so didn't work!
perfect, all sounds great! Thanks so much for the feedback. We'll stick to travel around the neighborhood to start and then branch out as the weeks go by and as she receives her vaccines. I agree about the puppy pads! That was not something I thought I'd want to do.
Hi there and welcome ....enjoy preparing for your puppy,you've waited a while so you must be very excited x
Welcome, this forum has been s bit of a life saver for me, particularly in the craziness if the early pup days!
