Hi, We are getting our pup tomorrow and so excited, but I just wondered how we manage loo trips when out and about socialising?
Good luck with everything tomorrow, hope all goes smoothly and that you take lots of photos for your collection as well as for our delight. Regarding your question, I suppose it depends on what socialising you intend to do. I didn't do long stays out as that's quite tiring so I don't remember having any loo trips. Others may have done more than me. All I did was take my puppy out for short walks, in my arms, only for about 10 mins but maybe three times a day. I also did just sitting her in her car crate a few mins, two or three times a day. Otherwise, I was happy for a few people to visit but not loads. When she had all of her jabs we were out doing very short walks every day, popping to the local shops and watching people go by etc. If you are concerned about loo stops on the way home tomorrow then you have to weigh up the risks yourself. Chepi managed 5 hours without a pit stop because she slept but my breeder said absolutely do not put her on the ground. My plan 'B' was to take lots of newspaper, put plastic on the ground and then newspaper on top but I didn't need to. Excited for you!!
If it were me I wouldn't be worrying about taking your puppy out for a week or so bit allowing puppy to settle in to their new family first and leave other socialisation until at least the first vaccination has been done. On trips out encourage puppy to pee first and keep the trips short and keep puppy in your arms or lap. Make sure you always have wipes, kitchen towel etc. with you, a bit like being out with a baby . There's some good suggestions from Jane about getting out with puppy, not forgetting places like the train station, buses, also police/ambulance/fire brigade sirens. My main advice is to relax and enjoy - they're small for such a short period of time. Let us all know how tomorrow goes
Socialisation is so important, there was no way I was going to miss out on Murphy seeing the world for fear of him needing a wee. So I just took out puppy training pads with me. If we went and sat outside a cafe or something, for him to meet people and see traffic etc - I just kept him on my knee, then put a training pad on the floor for him to have a wee on... 9/10 times he'd hold his wee in anyway but on occasion would have a wee on his pad. hope that helps!
I'd give the pup the first day to settle in and then the very next day I'd start getting out and about to new situations (with a supply of high value treats). The early days are very important for socialisation - too important to waste Just do as murphthesmurf did and take a stash of puppy pads.
Charlie didn't really need to go to the loo during socialisation trips - indeed, his first car trip home was 3 hours and he didn't pee, and he did a 5 hour trip to Cornwall at 10 weeks and he didn't pee. We stopped on the motorway, picked a spot that seemed the least likely to be visited by other dogs, covered about 10 sq m of car park with puppy pads and he still didn't go! We just put our foot down and got to where we were going in the end. Stopping just made the journey longer... So...it turned out not to be a big deal, really. It was ages until he had a pee outside the garden.
Great idea for the puppy pads. We have only been on very short journeys.. walking just outside of house with him in arms. We've done a couple of short car journeys but no wee's needed
Thanks so much for all the replies!! I didn't even think about puppy pads, that's such a great idea. Socialisation is so important I was worried we wouldn't be able to get everything in with her obviously needing the loo, so that's brilliant!
How exciting for you, I used to carry Mabel about in my gillet and hope for the best. There was only once when she whined for the last five minutes of our "walk". When we arrived home she went straight into the garden and did a wee. In fact thinking about it Mabel was about 16 weeks before she would go to the toilet anywhere other than the garden. good luck for tomorrow x
