Allowing pup into garden before second vaccinations?

[Candlestickchic]

We’re getting a puppy in the summer and so I have been chatting to friends and family about how the early days will be. I had assumed pup would be able to toilet and explore in our garden before their second vaccinations. Also maybe meet a family member’s vaccinated dog in their garden. However my friend said she was advised by her vet not to allow the puppy into the garden until fully vaccinated, and therefore toileting was on puppy pads by the back door for the first few weeks. Apparently her brother was advised the same, so not just her vet. Related to foxes I think?

Obviously once I’ve chosen a vet nearer the time I will ask them, but can anyone advise if the advice nowadays is not to allow them into their own garden until vaccinated? Thanks

Forget puppy pads, train your dog to go in the garden. There’s really no problem with it.

Not advice I’ve come across from vets for our previous dog or our current puppy. Have a look at plants toxic to dogs, though, as they will need moving or cordoning off if you have any (all our lovely daffodils and tulips had to be put in a secured part of the garden).
The only warning we’ve had is to avoid standing water until the Leptospirosis bit of the vaccinations has had time to kick in.
We’ve also had play dates with other puppies and fully vaccinated dogs in their gardens.

Not advice we had - let our puppy into the garden from the start.

Ours was in the garden before the first vaccinations!

I've never heard of that either. Ive always been told they're allowed in the garden after first vaccinations, then on proper walks and on the park after the second.

Thanks both, yes it does seem unfortunate to have to encourage use of puppy pads only to then want to remove them after a few weeks!

My garden is rather, ahem, limited in nice plants and flowers but I will check that out, thanks for the advice!

Not advice we’ve ever had. Neither of our dogs have used puppy pads. The older one would tear them into a million pieces and the younger one we just put outside straight away.

Using the garden before their second vaccination is also good for getting them used to being on a lead.

Ok this is reassuring, I was slightly aghast when she said she had been told that, phew

Enjoy your new puppy op, bet you can't wait to get him or her

Never used puppy pads. Wouldn't just let a puppy out in garden though, always supervised as they tend to eat everything in sight.

Technically the foxes issue is correct, but I would and did 100% take my dog in the garden.

Unless you routinely find foxes or fox poo all over your garden it’s advice that you can pretty much ignore . Even if I did have a fox problem I would put a puppy on a harness and lead and take them in a small disinfected area outside the back door I would not resort to puppy pads .

Exactly weeing in the house is not something I want to encourage. I don't care if the breeder has newspaper or puppy pad trained them.

@Floralnomad

Unless you routinely find foxes or fox poo all over your garden it’s advice that you can pretty much ignore . Even if I did have a fox problem I would put a puppy on a harness and lead and take them in a small disinfected area outside the back door I would not resort to puppy pads .

This, above, was exactly what my vet said when I asked the same question, although that was nearly 10 years ago, so don't know if advice will have changed.

The breeder I got her from started putting the puppies out into a bit of her fenced off garden by her back door as soon as they were old enough and no harm came to them.

And don't forget that puppy can be taken out and carried around before the second jabs, obviously not for weeing but for socialisation.

You can let puppies out into the garden, just not in areas where lots of people and other dogs walk. Mine was in the garden before she had her vaccinations at her breeders home, all the puppies were.

Our vet gave us the same advice. That as well as foxes, if you live in a suburban area you cannot be sure rats haven't passed through and they could contract Wiels disease which would be fatal. Probably unlikely but why risk it for a couple of weeks.
We used puppy pads for the first weeks and he had no problem whatsoever adjusting to going outside after his vaccinations

We were given advice not to let our pup in the garden as we have lots of foxes, they were regular daily visitors so the vet said they advised not to let him out unless we could disinfect and cordon off a specific area. We weren't willing to take the risk.

We used puppy pads and he was great, also it helped with the nights as we just took him downstairs to the back door, put him on the pad and he would easily go back to bed as he was still warm and sleepy, by the time he had his 2nd jab he was sleeping through the night.

We didn't have a brilliant time getting him outside as stupidly just assumed as he picked it up so quickly on the pad we could just pop him outside, once we went back to basics of putting him out after food, sleep, play etc he was fine but we had a few weeks of regression because we didn't do it properly. He now uses a bell to tell us when he needs to go outside.

We found fox poo in the garden every day so it definitely was an issue for us, they would have wee'd also I guess. It's all very well disinfecting an area but how often realisitically can you do it, certainly not before a 4am wee.

I am sure the risk is small though, it's hard when you are first time owners and a vet recommends something to you to then go against it. In a garden that does not regularly have foxes in really shouldn't be an issue.
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Yes think they do say this , we didn't though when I got ours 5 years ago
We just fenced off an area than we planned to use long time as toilet area that had stones in so could wash down.
We didn't have foxes in garden though .
And the breeder had a little fenced off area by her back door so he had been out
But prob best fo follow vet advice as he will know what is best for your area and situation, if you use puppy pads pretty sure people just move pad out when time and then dog associates, just we used them with our dog years ago and then he would wee on anything square incl neighbours door mat

Honestly, in other European countries there isn't even this concept of waiting until after vaccinations as they tell you they have some level of immunity from the mother and its more important to socialise the puppy.

So gardens are really OK, and you want to hit the house training straight away!

Your garden is fine, so long as it is not accessed by other people's dogs.

What is the difference between it being accessed by other dogs rather than foxes? Foxes still carry the same diseases, possibly worse.

Re the pads though we only ever had 1 pad and put it at the back door, never anywhere else in the house so he got used to always going over to the back door to wee. He would even run from another room in the house to go and use the pad. Some people use them at night so they don't have to get up with their pup but we never did as we wanted him to get used to telling us if he needed to go

That’s madness!
The breeder will have been letting them into the garden since before the first vaccinations.

We are in a very heavily dog populated area of London, and our vet said that in 20+ years of working around here, she hadn’t actually come across any cases of dogs with parvo, lepto or distemper so it was fine for the puppies to be out in the park before 2nd jabs but to avoid bodies of standing water because of lepto

Even with all the millions of lockdown puppies our before 2nd jabs, there still haven’t been any cases of ill pups so the risk of them catching anything before 2nd jabs in parks must be minuscule, let alone in a garden