Would you take a *young* puppy away on holiday?

[topbannana]

I posted recently here about losing our old dog and possible breeds to become our next money pit companion. After a lot of good advice and several heart to heart chats we have decided on a working cocker bitch.
Our remaining dog is a working cocker and he is moping dreadfully as an only dog.
The idea was to have a pup around the time of the summer holidays, thereby giving ourselves time to get into a routine, bond properly etc before we go back to school/ work. We have found ourselves a breeder reasonably locally who has a litter due at the right time but who also (hopefully) has a litter ready to leave in May.
Now we are in a quandry as, with hindsight, there is no real reason for us not to have one from the earlier litter. GingerDog is also very sad and not coping well as an only dog which has made us reconsider our original plans.
The only potential downfall is we are going on holiday at the end of May. All terribly glamorous I should add (we are house swopping with my parents in Suffolk [bgrin])
By this time the pup would be around 12 weeks old so is this realistically too young to take along? Our holidays are spent walking, exploring, on beaches, fields, woods etc, pub lunches all with the dog(s) in tow. Obviously the pup will not be able to walk too far but DS has already offered the use of his school bag for puppy carrying purposes [bgrin] We would already be using a cage for her so tearing up my parents house is not a worry. She would be with GingerDog, she would get a range of new experiences, she would be bonding with us so all round it seems to us hopelessly optimistic folk that, while it would be extra work, it would be do-able.
Any opinions, should we plan for this or is my mindless optimism running away with us again?!

I don't think it will be a relaxing holiday. Also are your parents OK with having a puppy that may not be house trained in their house? Also a lot of beaches are closed to dogs between May and September so beach walking may be out.

Will your puppy be up to date with all the vaccinations?
How long is the car journey?

I would yes. i see nothing wrong with starting as you intend to continue..

might not be very relaxing for you, but pups will love it!

Well, our Springer is 14 weeks today and is currently on 2 x (at least) 45 minutes off road walks/potters per day (often with other dogs so charging around some of the time), plus at least that charging round like a loon in the garden. He would do more, I know he would, he has wonderful muscle definition even now and a even better appetite!!

You are experienced with the breed, you know the limitations, the crate will be an enormous benefit, you will bond, DS can carry puppy if needed.

Others may be more cautious but if all the family are around to share the extra work, then why not

We got our puppy over Christmas and he wasn't really left for over three weeks. I was extremely nervous in this regard but actually, I feel he was so secure that someone was never really all that far away, he doesn't seem to mind being leftnow normality has returned.

Good luck, whatever you decide. I assume they have more than one breeding bitch then?

At 12 weeks, I would assume vaccinations will be up to date? Our puppy just sleeps in the car but you could plan a long stop off with a walk break?

ps - vet is fine with the exercise puppy is doing, given the breed and it's not on lead, on pavements ie he can dictate the pace.

God yes. It'd be fabulous for the puppy and socialisation.

Take a crate, kitchen roll, towels, a long line something to carry the pup in. It will need a lot of carrying because it just won't have the stamina to manage. It might force you to curtail the length of some of your excursions though. Get a holiday collar made and make sure the pup is chipped well before you go.

Also, as a note of caution, there is a very active dog theft gang around at the moment targeting working breed dogs so I would make sure I didn't leave my dogs unaccompanied in the car or outside a shop etc. They really are active - an acquaintance of mine had a very, very close shave yesterday.

bunbaker none of our holidays are relaxing, we have dogs, DS and occasionally my parents [bgrin] The car journey is 5 hours but we always break it up and I know we will need to do it more often with a pup on board Parents are slightly dotty fine about it, most of their downstairs is not carpeted and our dogs never go upstairs.
strongone its the fact that others would be cautious that makes me ask for an outsiders view. I am prone to optimism which sometimes backfires terribly [bhmm]

In any case, pup would be vaccinated, microchipped when docked and we are ultra vigilant about dog thieves. We have had a couple of shooting friends who have either lost dogs or come very close to it. Dogs have always been left in cars etc. when we had the rottweiler, now we would not consider it [bangry]