Lesson 5: Traveling and Vet Visits

Being away from home is can be a major challenge for pups during house training. Whether it’s a quick trip to a friend’s house, a weekend at a hotel, or taking your puppy to the veterinarian's or training class, traveling can be stressful when your puppy is not housetrained. Puppies don't naturally generalize learning so even if your pup is making good progress at home, it is likely to backslide away from home. To reduce any possible worry and accidents, you should follow the old Girl Scout motto, “Be Prepared.”

Successful Trips With Your Puppy

You are going to expose your puppy to as many new experiences as possible and ideally before your pup is housetrained. The more positive experiences your pup has, the more confident it will be when out and about. However, while you are in new places and with other people, you are often distracted and not paying close attention to your puppy. To be sure your pup is successful, keep in mind that you must focus on your pup. If you aren't going to be able to, consider leaving your pup at home.

Other changes you should be prepared for are that your pup may:

• not be able to hold its urine and feces as long as it does at home
• be too excited to think about pottying, so you may need to remind it or even take it out more frequently
• be intimidated by its new surroundings so might not be able to let you know it needs to go out
• submissively urinate when greeting other people, dogs, and/or puppies. We discuss submissive urination here.
• forget to tell you that it needs to go out even if it is doing this at home

Pottying Your Pup on the Road. Before your pup has completed its parvovirus and distemper vaccinations and has a positive titer, be careful where you let it potty. In particular, parvovirus can be spread through the feces of infected dogs so keep your pup in clean places. We recommend stopping at business or industrial parks, banks, or other businesses where there aren't many dogs. Places to avoid are rest areas, gas stations, hotels, and near pet stores and vet's offices. If your pup isn't very good on leash, just put up its expen on some clean grass and put it in there to potty.

Indoors Away From Home. You'll likely have your pup at various indoor spaces during its puppyhood. This includes the vet's office, training class, friends' homes, and hotels. Give yourself plenty of time for these visits so you can ensure your pup has pottied before going in. Once inside, either close supervision and confinement are as essential in these new places as they are at home. If you have your puppy indoors, be sure you have a watchful eye on it at all times. If you cannot carefully watch your pup, you can:

• put it in an ex-pen or crate while you need to focus your attention elsewhere
• tether it to you by putting it on leash and holding or tying the leash to you
• ask a responsible person to watch the puppy
• be outdoors with the puppy

Remember to diligently look for the signs your pup has given you at home, which likely include:

• circling
• sniffing
• whining
• barking
• suddenly breaking off from play
• disappearing into another room
• suddenly getting distracted

When you see any sign that your pup has to potty, go through the Five Steps.

1. Ask "Do you want to go outside?"
2. Immediately put it leash on and take it out to potty. Since the location is new, everything will be exciting to your puppy so it may take some time for it to focus. Be sure you stay in one area until your pup has pottied.
3. Once it has done its business, give it a treat and praise.
4. Only then take your pup to experience all the sights, sounds, and smells of the new location.

Make and Take A Travel Pack

Create a travel pack and take it with you wherever you take your puppy. We just keep one in the car so we always have it handy. Here is a sample packing list:

1. Your pup's collar and leash
2. Exercise pen and/or crate
3. Treats
4. Poop bags
5. Roll of paper towel
6. Small bottle of enzymatic cleaner

Remember when you are traveling that you need to be extra vigilant watching your puppy and bring your travel pack!

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