Too young to walk a dog??

[Premier]

I have a question. My Milou is 2 months old. I was walking him outside and a lady stopped by and said that he's still too young to be walking outside. I know that he shouldn't be around other dogs till he's had all his shot but I didn't know that he couldn't be outside. Is this legit or was she just too overly cautious? Thanx.

 

[nedim]

I believe the main thing you have to watch out for at such a young age is Parvo. Not too sure of all the details though. I'm sure someone else will give you the info. you need.

 

[Fran27]

It's much much safer to only take a pup out after he has all his shots, which is at 4 months. Before that, if he gets in contact with any virus, he will get it.

You can take him out etc, but keep him in your arms and don't get close to any other dog.

 

[bubbatd]

I agree....keep him away from all areas other dogs may have been.

 

[SHADOW_THE_STAFF]

I read up on parvo, and dogs catch it from other dogs faeces, even after the faeces has been cleaned up the virus is still there. I didnt take shadow out until after she had all her shots, I let her out in my back yard as I knew there had been no dogs in my yard.
Some books advise you can take your puppy out but keep her/him in your arms, that way they get some early socialisation.

 

[Athe]

I would discuss this with your Vet, your pup would have recieved protection from the mother. Of course, if the mother was not vaccinated or exposed to Parvo then your pup will not have gotten any protective antibodies. You could talk to your Vet about the pro's and con's of starting a vaccine schedule and when and how to socialize. I start taking out my friends pup's at about 7 weeks. They need the socialization, the window of social opportunity usually ends at around 16 weeks of age. So, to get your pup exposed to as many new things during this time frame is very important for it's social learning. It's a two sided knife one one hand you need to socialize the pup, on the other hand you don't want to put the pup in harms way...the pup's I take out at an early age (I have been doing this for 20 years now ) have protective antibodies from thier mom and they breeder gives them thier first set of vaccines at about 6 weeks..perhaps too young, but, it works for her.
You should be having check ups done on your pup any way...so, discuss this with your Vet.

 

[Premier]

Yup will do. I have an appointment with my vet today so I'll discuss it further with her. Thank you everyone for your advice =)

 

[Ratboy]

Around here, another hazard is just that there are so many big dogs running loose, that any small dog is vulnerable if one of them wants to get rough. When my dogs were small, bout 15 pounds, one of the neighbor's dogs, a monster of a black Lab, suddenly appeared and started playing rough. My dogs like it really rough, and had a great time with him. But my other neighbor's Yorkie/Jack Russell got hurt by him a few weeks later. Not on purpose, just playing. My neighbor was screaming at the top of her lungs "Help, Ginger is getting killed!" She still insists to this day the Lab was "attacking". I think he could have swallowed Ginger in one gulp, if he really wanted to.

He wasn't, it just looked like he was and all that happened was Ginger got stepped on.