walking on busy roads

[Polly Fila]

Hello everyone. We've got a red staffordshire bull terrier bitch, she's 9 weeks old, and we live in central Barcelona.

She's up to date with her vaccinations, and we've just started talking her on mellow jaunts to a nearby park, all the time on the leash. At the moment, I'm making sure that the times we take her out are 'quiet times', and she's brilliant with people and other dogs.

On the walking tip, to begin with, she just lay down when we attemped to get her to cross the road...thresholds...woooo...but now she's fine, so I'm wondering if it would be ok for her to accompany us on a very busy road, at a very busy time, rush hour, in fact.

Eventually, we want to take her on the metro, to the beach, and around the city centre, and into the countryside et al. I'm aware that her body's still developing, and we should limit the distance (but how much is too much?), yet I'd like to know when we can introduce her to the real bustle of this city?

Great site, btw. Thanks.

[catcher T]

at 9 weeks she is way to young to go any long distance,,and to young to be in a busy city,,to many diseases that can be picked up from peoples shoes,,to much walking for such a little one is not good,,they get to tired and dehydrate to fast,,burn to many calories,,causing their blood sugar to drop

[Polly Fila]

So far, we've taken her to a park, 2 streets away, in the mornings. We began last saturday. In total, we're out for half an hour, with lots of sitting on benches, talking to people, watching pigeons and meeting other dogs.

I was actually thinking of doubling her outdoor time...once at 10am, then again at 3pm.

I'm aware of the fear imprint stage, but Barcelona is a dog-lover's place...almost everyone has them, and most are well-socialised and cared for. The area I live is quite residential, but nevertheless, central, and busy.

Perhaps the inner city centre, where there are 'traveller dogs' off the leash should be left out entirely, until shes fully trained (never say never-we eat out a lot...terrace lunches in bijou restaurants...dogs welcome if they behave) but I'd still like to take her on the metro, to get out of the city...after 6 months?

[Evanescence]

My vet told me to wait until after the second set of DHLPP shot and Rabies vaccine (usually about 12 weeks) to take my pups out an introduce them to dogs I knew and was confident were healthy, and to wait until after the third set of shots (usually about 16 weeks) to take him to dog parks and other places where strange dogs whose owners may not be as good a doggie parent as you are and who may not vaccinate their dogs, may go.

If I were you, I might wait until after 16 weeks to take your pup to all those fun places for her just to play it safe.

Hope this helps!

Lisa

[portraitz]

We lived in an urban neighborhood until a year and a half ago. Our dogs were walked 3 times a day, a block each time.

I think walking 2x a day is better than walking twice as long once. If he seems to lag...carry him home. That's what we did, at least. Before you know it...no walk will be long enough, lol.

[puppyprincess]

Make sure to talk to your vet about diseases in your area. I would not even take my dog in my own front yard till she had all her puppy vaccines, for fear of diseases from strays.

[DiggityDogs]

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