# Bringing puppy home - long car ride



## Rilelen (Jan 11, 2015)

I will be bringing Abigail home on Saturday, and can hardly contain my excitement! The breeder is about a four-hour drive from where I live, and I was wondering if anyone had advice for the car ride home? 

I'm bringing a small soft crate and I'll have a friend along for the ride who can help out. I'm also planning on making a few stops on the drive back for potty breaks. Are there any other supplies it would be good to bring or tips people have for a moderately long-ish drive with an 8-week old puppy?


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## goldlover68 (Jun 17, 2013)

I have made this drive many times...
Get a small cloth collar and light weight lead to use for potty breaks. Can be used at home also.
bottle with water from the breeder, have a small bowl to offer pup a drink.

Stop every 2 hours and let the pup walk around, dirt is best unless the dog has walked on grass or snow already. They will pee, provided the kennel they travel in gives them no room to move away from where they lay down, given room they will just move over in the kennel and pee.

Bring wet wipe, towels, clean up supplies in case of poop, pee, or vomiting from car sickness...

Good luck


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## Marcus (Aug 24, 2014)

I drove about 2 hours from Breeder to home, Ben threw up 6 times during that trip


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## kellyguy (Mar 5, 2014)

We had about a three hour ride home with Duffy on his gotcha day. We started out holding him in our lap for the first 20 minutes then put him in the kennel. He was an angel. We stopped about every 30 minutes to take a break, potty and have a drink. After the first hour he slept peacefully and we only stopped once an hour.
One thing to remember is that your puppy is not immunized yet so avoid places that would expose him to other possibly contagious animals such as the "pet area" of rest stops. We take a supply of plastic grocery bags and paper towels to clean up any messes he made and wash cloths to clean his paws to lesson the likelihood of licking contaminated soil, although that might have been unnecessary.


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

Contact you vet in regards to motion sickness or Benedryl based n the pups weight (provided by breeder). I was advised to only use if absolutely necessary such as excessive drooling, nausea, vomit. 

Get a crate and a harness. Your friend can ride in the back and accommodate your pup from one to another. I used my big cat crate for Belle and I had several towels to lay on the bottom. One towel in the crate and several in case of an accident. Had a trash bag to store the wet towels. Also had a bag with paper towels, wet wipe and a bottle of Miracle Spray for cleaning if necessary. 
Make sure the breeder does not feed the pup couple hours before you plan to leave. If you know what the breeder is feeding get some of that food and periodically hand feed one little kibble at a time.

ETA- when you let the puppy out, if it is at a rest area please make sure you go as far as possible from the parking area. You never know what other dogs peed and pooped there and what your pup may pick up.


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## Rilelen (Jan 11, 2015)

Thanks everyone, those are all great suggestions, and a great help! I travel with my cats (~18 hour drives) a few times a year, and definitely understand the need for cleaning supplies with pets on the road. : )

I'll be sure to update tomorrow and let everyone know how it went!


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## Rilelen (Jan 11, 2015)

Quick update: Abby did great in the car....slept most of the way home with no problem, not a single incident requiring clean-up. We did stop once (to switch drivers) and went ahead and took her out then....she promptly went potty in the snow and wagged her little tail so hard she fell over! Thanks everyone for their help - I think I love this little puffball already!


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## PatJ (Aug 6, 2014)

We just brought our new pup home on Sunday from the breeder who lived 230 miles from us. Our 13 year old granddaughter came along as the "puppy wrangler". She cuddled with the pup and they played in the back seat. I have an adorable picture of the two of them napping together. We brought water, bowl, collar and leash, clean up stuff and stopped every 90 minutes turning completely off the highway so passing cars didn't upset her. All went smoothly and she did her business each time. We arrived home about 7 pm and went to bed at 10pm after a couple of hours of zoomies around her new backyard. She slept all night in a crate next to our bed with only one interruption to go outside. We also took a blanket and a toy to rub on her Momma dog and put that in the crate to help her sleep. She whimpered only a few minutes before settling down. We were very lucky b/c we were exhausted.


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