[Dawn]

Hi Deron! I say outside for potty training so the puppy gets used to it from the start. Have a blessed one!

[Deron]

Agreed, thank you!

[BillM]

I can only tell you what I would do. I would imagine you are concerned with exposing your pup while it still doesn’t have all of its shots. That is a concern, but for me, it needs a balance as the pup needs to get trained properly while being cautious/concerned about exposure.

First, I would crate train the pup. This is the easiest way, for me, to potty train. I would find an area outside that doesn’t have a lot of other dogs peeing or pooing in the same area. That would be the spot I would take the pup to. I am not a fan of pee pads. Robert has excellent vids on crate/potty training.

My crate training and potty training went text book…literally, no bad nights in the crate (he whined the first night when I had the crate in the living room, but I brought it into the bedroom and he was fine) and he’s never soiled his crate. I would say we had potty training at a high level of confidence week 1. He’s only soiled in the house twice (within the first 2 weeks home), both times, failure on my part to catch the signal he was giving that he had to go out…but he was giving signals early on. I just had to learn them.

Make sure, that during the next 8 weeks, you take advantage of this once in a pup’s lifetime opportunity to expose him/socialize him. I took my pup everywhere I could…to Sams Club, Lowes, Home Depot (I did not take him to pet stores). I’d put him in a shopping cart and ride him around. Also, I would take the pup to a busy park bench…where lots of people and cars pass by. Just let him observe. I didn’t allow people to pet my dog during this time. I just told them he is in training and this part of his training I want him to learn indifference to other people…AND OTHER DOGS (so no doggie greets either). Also, when a lawn service was going on nearby, I’d walk him down the sidewalk and let him watch the equipment work. The noise, the motion…all is good for the dog to learn to ignore. When the garbage trucks were in the neighborhood, I’d take him out to the curb as the drove around and stopped to pick up the trash. Same with the mail truck and the UPS/FedEx/Amazon trucks. To this day (17 weeks), the only two things that he gets amped over is the handheld, cordless vac and my cordless drill. For some reason, both of these get him barking. He hates the cordless vac!

You have a window of 8-16 weeks that I would recommend taking advantage of. If you don’t, you might look back and say you wish you had done differently during this time. Yes, it is also the time during which the pup is more exposed to environmental concerns, so you have to keep that in mind and just balance the two. But, exposure/socialization is so important at this stage.

Also, not sure what breed you have. If you have some type of working breed (I have a Mal), then while the above mentioned is important for almost any pup, I would especially make sure to get it out and about in the safest way possible.

Today, at 17 weeks, my lil dude is so confident. Almost nothing spooks him. He will just sit and watch people and other dogs…doesn’t shy away from them, doesn’t pull to get to them (or worse try to attack them). He’s not bothered by trucks, mowing equipment, etc.. .When we walk, and people pass, he ignores them (well, he looks at them but expends no other energy in their direction). Same with other dogs. He ignores them or will sit and watch them pass. I am so happy I didn’t let fear keep me from giving my pup the experience he got during this critical time in a pup’s life.

[Deron]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply, I hear every word you’re saying and it’s inspired me to go out with my puppy more. I think I fear the worst when bringing him out, such as other dogs being off leash and coming over to my puppy. I’m going to bring him to a place I know a lot of people will walk by and I will be calm with him and show him how to be calm. May I ask why you don’t allow people to pet him?

[BillM]

I can tell you why >I< do it, not that everyone needs to…

The typical person that wants to pet the pup is who? Usually, it’s females, of all ages. In fact, I haven’t had a dude yet ask to pet my pup (I’m sure it will happen, but most of the time they just want to talk about him). But, if they did, the same thing would hold true.

What happens is, they get the high-pitched, squeaky voice going, talking baby talk and all kinds of energy. To me, this is a wasted energy I DON’T want to project on my pup or have him to respond to. I don’t want him getting excited, I want him to be indifferent. I want him to ignore people. Not that, at some point, I won’t let people pet him, but I want him to look at people, other dogs, animals, cars, etc…without any response other than to observe them. It’s kind of the same as when I get home…or let him out of the crate. He gets no energy/attention at all. He gets let out (or I come in the door), I go about my business, and when I see he is uninterested, I engage him.

Also, I never know when someone is going to do something stupid, that may affect the way he trusts people. This is true ESPECIALLY with other dogs. We have a guy that walks his chihuahua around the neighborhood. He wants his dog to meet every dog that is out walking. I told him no thanks, at least not in this phase of the pup’s training. I’ve seen that dog be fine and then get all stupid chihuahua on another dog and I don’t want that negatively imprinting on my dog. Again, indifference is best in my book. I want him to ignore that dog, observe him at best. We will be walking and that dog be on the other side of the street or across the park, and my dog will stop, sit, and watch. That’s it! That’s all I want. No desire to run over to him and play or rough-house, or worse…chomp him up.

My lil dude is a very confident pup. Some of that is genetics, a lot of it is how he’s been trained.

Now, if I could just get him to take the same attitude with geckos, butterflies, and larger bugs that crawl in the ground, I’d have perfection.

[Deron]

Okay so I’ve just purchased a dog sling and I’m going to go on a lot of walks with him and let him observe and be chill about things. He’s not having his second vaccine for another 5 weeks so I was fully planning on not getting him outside for that amount of time, thank you for your replies as you may have just saved me a lot of trouble in the future.

[BillM]

PS, regarding the fear thing…I was so paranoid at first, I was letting it drive me nuts. I was going to wait until 12 weeks to get his second round, but got them at 11. I waited a week after and then I loosened up a bit. Still cautious, didn’t let him eat grass, dig in the ground, drink standing water (still don’t) but, I did let him venture out a bit more, just no dog parks. We have several community parks or green areas. They are kind of large. They aren’t fenced in like a dog park. I did start taking him in those, even though I knew other dogs are walked there. It isn’t like a lot of dogs (like a dog park) and they don’t all poop/pee in the same fenced in area. Also, around 12 weeks, he was getting too big for the shopping carts, so it was time to walk him vs. cart him. Still, no pet stores at this point (actually, I’m not a fan of taking my dogs into pet stores anyway, so I’ll probably never take him into a pet store).

I think you have to balance out the risks, not be careless, but weigh out the risk of catching disease vs. what kind of long term benefit will the socialization/exposure give it. There is a risk in just about everything. You can choke to death eating. So, my critical thinking came up with being super careful and not regretting being so scared that he didn’t get what he needed to be the confident lil dude that he is today. I have a rescue that I didn’t get a chance to work with at a young age. She has issues that I would never want to try and manage out of a dog again. That was some of my motivation for being a bit brave. But not carelessly brave!

[BillM]

PSS…here is my dog Blu at 10 weeks old.

[Deron]

What a hecking good boy