Mary, Your guidance to buyers bringing home your puppies reminded me of a recent road trip. I picked up a puppy 6 hours away from my home and was travelling alone. Before we left the breeder's home, I did a little decorating of my Outback...
I had brought two small-mid sized crates with me, both were the hard plastic, Pet-Taxi type of things that come in two halves. I left one crate intact in the 'way-back' of the car...just in case. On the passenger side of the front, I put the bottom half of a crate in the footwell, well lined with a layer of towels and a layer of newspaper. I draped a large bathroom rug from the head rest down the seat back, over the seat, and tucked in under the 'bed' in the footwell. When I carried the pup to the car, I knew it was only the third time he'd been on 'that' side of the gate. The third time he'd been in a car (to the vets for dewclaw removal at 2 days and for shots at 6 weeks being the prior car rides.). And most importantly, the first time he'd been away from his littermates. Thinking about how new all this was for him made my approach very different than it was when I brought my first puppy home 10-1/2 years ago. Then, my response to a cry or shiver would have been to sooth the puppy with 'it's ok', kind of chatter. Now I realize that that tone of voice goes along with the pup's fear...it tells him, 'you're right, there is something to be afraid of here'. Not the message I want to project... Neither do I want to say "hey bud, this is the way it is...cry it out and get it over with"....again, thinking about things from the puppy's perspective removes this option...at least for me. So, when I got into the car this time...I found myself very 'connected' with the puppy...thinking about this 'event' from his perspective. For a minute, he sat in my lap and shook. I realized he was afraid at this sudden 'departure' from everything he knew and that the sound and feel of the car would only heighten his fear...so took my time and held off starting the car. Instead, we just sat quietly in the driveway, me in the diver seat, pup in my lap...keeping one hand firmly on him, conveying a sense of security. This lasted for all of a minute...at most. When I felt him relax, I started the car and off we went. Giving him those first few minutes to get comfortable with this new stuff, rather than just piling it on, had built his trust in me...that if I was ok with things, then he didn't have anything to fear. I drove for the first few miles with him laying quietly in my lap with one hand firmly across his body and talking to him casually about heading off to meet his new family, what a handsome boy he was, etc. After the first 10 or 15 minutes on the road, he was totally comfortable so I put him on the passenger seat with a gigantic fleece 'bone' positioned to keep him from squigging between the seat and the door. I showed him the squeeky toy the breeder sent home with us and I propped up a gumabone I'd brought along, wedged between the crate bottom in the footwell and the seat...looking for all the world like a puppy lollipop! When he wanted to knap, he instinctively crawled down into the 'bed/den' in the footwell. Whenever he started waking up, I knew he'd have to pee so I'd get off at the next rest area or exit and take him out. Once back in the car, he'd spend his time sitting up on the passenger seat looking out the windows (VERY cute!), he'd lay down with his toy, and he'd move his head across the console to me when he wanted attention, (and try to chew on the car phone cord). Then he'd climb back down into the footwell bed for a nap. And so it went all the way home... the puppy was stressed for only a minute or two, was given time and reason to understand that this was different but not something to be afraid of, there was no clean up for me :-D, and I had a waggy tailed pup when we arrived at our destination 7 hours after leaving. -Sherri Venditti
