collecting puppy, long journey

[thewalrus]

Hello,

Looking for more advice as we're researching getting a dog later this year.

My DSis' family have a dog that we love, from a breeder that she speaks very highly of (and comes highly recommended otherwise). Breeder is planning a litter which would be ideally timed for us. Problem is they are almost at the other end of the country - about a 6 hour drive away.

I know people travel to find a breeder they're happy with, but is that just too far? I'm imagining that type of car journey with a new puppy would be pretty stressful and difficult all round. Anyone done it/not done it/have any advice/thoughts?

Thank you!

It's doable with regular stops.

I think it sounds worth it. It will be a marathon but it's not like you have to repeat it

We did about 5 hours for ours. It was fine. Pup was slightly car sick but was OK cuddled in the back with the dc. Stopped a few times to let him pee. It was worth it to get a breeder we were happy with.

We did a long trip and the only problem was not having time to settle properly in his crate before bed - we would rather have introduced slowly over several hours. I'd try to pick up early in the morning having stayed the night.

Thanks, everyone, those are the kind of responses I was hoping for! Realise it would not be the easiest day of our lives, but thinking it might be worth it! Spoken to the breeder as well - she reckons people have done similar/longer journeys and puppy would sleep for much of the journey.

Sorry if I'm being an idiot but IIRC from having dogs you can't let a puppy walk on the ground outside until it's had it's jabs so how would you stop for a wee?

We stayed the night locally and picked the pup up the following morning. It was fine. We stopped at places that had little traffic and took him well away from where people were likely to take their dogs to minimise any chance of infection. (although he had had one jab ). I think he slept most of the way home.

Thank you - lots to think about. Breeder's advice about stopping for a wee sounds very similar to what you did, haggis, so I think that would be OK. Starting to think this might really happen for us...